500 Gush Shalom and Ta’ayush activists joined 2000 inhabitants of Abu Dis in a dramaticprotest rally in honor of Arun Gandhi, the grandson of the great Mahatma.
In the searing heat, they marched through the streets of Abu-Dis to the wall which cuts thetown off from Jerusalem. The Palestinian Prime Minister Ahmed Kurei (Abu Ala), himself aresident of Abu-Dis, Dr. Arun Gandhi, Uri Avnery, Hulud Badawi as well as religious and civicleaders advocated non-violence in the struggle against the occupation and the wall. Theyalso expressed their solidarity with the Palestinian prisoners who are on a hunger strike.Gandhi said that the wall reminds him of South Africa during the apartheid regime. It will beremembered that Mahatma Gandhi started out as a fighter against racism in his native SouthAfrica.
The rally reached its climax when one of the protesters climbed to the top of the 8-meters highconcrete wall in a breathtaking act of courage. He threw down a rope and half a dozenPalestinian youth joined him on the top. One of them stood there like a human statue, the flag ofPalestine in his outstretched hand. Unintentionally, the daring act was a perfectillustration of the Gandhi method: breaking the law of the occupation regime openly butnon-violently.
After the speeches Abu-Ala and Gandhi together wielded a hammer and hit the wallsymbolically. They were followed by the religious dignitaries and then by Israeli andPalestinian peace activists. “We have proved that it is possible to go over the wall,” oneprotester remarked. “With a bigger hammer, it is also possible to open a hole in it. This is not asecurity wall, it is a wall of oppression and annexation.”
Uri Avnery’s speech at the Abu-Dis demonstration