Israeli and Iranian Peace Activists Hold Meeting

By Haaretz May 4, 2012

Following the success of the love initiative between Israelis and Iranians on Facebook, it’s time for a face to face meeting. Israelis and Iranians attending a number of meetings in Berlin the last few weeks, due to produce a first joint demonstration on Saturday.

The purpose of this demonstration is to protest against the voices calling for war, the sanctions imposed on Iran, and in support for a nuclear demilitarization of the Middle East.

The organizers are eight Iranians and 13 Israelis, amongst them left-wing activists Itay Naor and Dana Rothschild. The meetings were not photographed because of concerns for the welfare of the families of the Iranian activists. For this reason, they also use aliases on Facebook.

One of the organizers, 35-year-old scientist Gal Schkolnik, says she was very surprised they did not have any disagreements. “It’s amazing. We simply agree over everything. We had some information gaps of each other’s politics and history.”

The protesters of first Israeli-Iranian rally will assemble in Kreuzberg in Berlin, then making their way to Neukolln, there they will read a joint statement they wrote at the meetings. The statement can be found in the group’s website in German, English, Hebrew and Persian. The demonstration’s route was chosen for its diverse population, including Israelis, Palestinian and Iranians.

“The reactions are great,” says Schkolnik, an active participant in Israeli-Palestinian anti-occupation demonstrations. Schkolnik even sent a message to Iran’s spiritual leader Ayatollah Khamenei using the Iranian branch of France Radio.

For more, go to Haaretz.com

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