ISRAEL: THOUSANDS OF ISRAELIS GATHER IN TEL AVIV TO PROTEST AGIANST THE GOVERNMENT'S HARD LINE POLICIES

Record ID: 399931

  • Title: ISRAEL: THOUSANDS OF ISRAELIS GATHER IN TEL AVIV TO PROTEST AGIANST THE GOVERNMENT'S HARD LINE POLICIES
  • Date: 13th September 1997
  • Summary: TEL-AVIV, ISRAEL (SEPT 13, 1997) (RTV - ACCESS ALL) 1. PAN ISRAELI PROTESTER AT RALLY 0.08 2. SV SHIMON PERES SPEAKING TO CROWD 0.19 3. PROTESTERS CARRYING BANNERS SAYING "WE MISS THE PEACE" 0.30 4. SV SHIMON PERES SPEAKING TO THE CROWD SAYING "THE PEACE ACCORD WAS NOT A BIG MISTAKE, NETANYAHU"S GOVERNMENT WAS THE B
  • Embargoed: 28th September 1997 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: TEL AVIV, ISRAEL
  • City:
  • Country: Israel
  • Reuters ID: LVA2TJ28PIZC77YUIFEWRVK5QVG5
  • Story Text: INTRO: Thousands of Israelis rallied against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Saturday, the fourth anniversary of the landmark Israel-PLO peace accord, saying his policies were leading to war.

    The Tel Aviv demonstration capped a week of protests by both the Israeli Left and Right, and the Palestinians,coinciding with U.S.

    Secretary of State Madeleine Albright's debut visit to the region to salvage peacemaking.

    The Tel Aviv protesters insisted the interim peace deal reached in Oslo was not dead. They called on Netanyahu to resign.

    Organisers handed out stickers that read: "What have you done today to topple the government".

    Organisers put the number of demonstrators at around 40,000 but journalists and photographers estimated the number at closer to 10,000.

    Former Israeli Prime Minister Shimon Peres told the crowd that Oslo was not dead.

    He said "Oslo was no mistake" for the Israeli people, claiming it is the Netanyahu's government which is the big mistake.

    Peres, as foreign minister, signed Israel's framework peace accord with an aide to Palestinian President Yasser Arafat at the White House in Washington on September, 13, 1993. The agreement was hammered out in secret negotiations in the Norwegian capital.

    Peres succeeded his assassinated Labour party colleague Yitzhak Rabin as prime minister but was ousted by Netanyahu in May 1996 elections. Rabin was shot dead by a right-wing Jew as he left a Tel Aviv peace rally on November 4, 1995.

    Opposition Labour party leader Ehud Barak paid tribute to Peres and Rabin for the part they played in the "struggle for peace".


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