Filipino Militants Demand Israeli Army Pull-out

By BULATLAT.COM

Members of a multisectoral alliance and other cause-oriented groups picketed the Israeli Embassy at high noon April 9 in Makati City to denounce the Sharon government’s genocidal attacks on the Palestinian people and to demand the immediate withdrawal of all Israeli forces from Palestinian territories.

To press their demand, the protesters led by Teddy Casiño, secretary-general of Bagong Alyansang Makabayan (Bayan – New Patriotic Alliance) and other mass leaders, handed over a letter of protest to the Israeli ambassador to Manila, Irit Ben Abba.

The rallyists drove home their point by carrying placards that read, “Israel, Out of Palestine!,” “Israel, stop the killings!” and “Israel, Alis na sa Palestine!” Three rallyists wearing masks of

U.S. President George W. Bush, Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and British Prime Minister Tony Blair played with a dove, which symbolized peace and justice for Palestine, in a mock presentation of the three leaders’ “policy of contempt and duplicity.”

In their letter of protest to the Israeli envoy, Casiño and the other protest leaders said that Israel’s illegal intrusion and takeover of Palestinian territories have only led to the escalation of the 50-year Palestine-Israel conflict.

Unless Sharon’s invasion army pulls out, they said, the escalating war would drag other Arab peoples into the conflict to support the besieged Palestinians.

“In the immediate, there may be a dramatic increase in casualties among civilians and mass repatriation of migrant Filipinos from Israel,” they said.

The rallyists also condemned the shelling and bombardment of refugee camps and the excessive use force -- including assassinations and torture -- in suppressing Palestinian demonstrators.

“We support the U.N. Security Council resolutions demanding a ceasefire and ordering Israel to withdraw from Ramallah and other Palestinian cities,” the letter went further. “We respect the Palestinian people’s right to self-determination and Palestine’s right to exist as a state. It is Bayan’s position that the Palestinian people are merely asserting their inalienable right to their homeland and a life free from endless bloody intrusions and occupation by Israeli troops. Peace will only come about with the birth of a sovereign Palestinian state free from Israeli and American harassment and aggression.” Bulatlat.com

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