April 5, 2002 Mass Rally And March FRIDAY, APRIL 5, AT 5 P.M. – TIMES SQUARE
Stop the U.S./Israel War Against the Palestinian People! A.N.S.W.E.R. Statement on Bush's War Rhetoric
“In a display of supreme arrogance, Bush continued his demands that the Palestinian Authority (PA) ‘stop inciting violence,’ at a time when all the major cities and towns of the West Bank are suffering under unprecedented harsh forms of occupation,” said Larry Holmes, co-director of the International Action Center, a member of A.N.S.W.E.R., which stands for Act Now to Stop War and End Racism.
“The Palestinian people, including elected Palestinian Authority President Yasir Arafat, are enduring abominable and inhuman conditions imposed by a 100,000-strong Israeli occupation army. The number of killed and wounded is not known. The occupying army has added to the death toll by preventing ambulances from doing their work.”
“The Israeli military has deliberately destroyed water mains and sewage lines, electric power and phone systems, and shut down virtually all trade. A 24-hour curfew has been imposed and much of the West Bank declared a closed military area, further limiting information about the dire situation facing the civilian population,” said Becker. “In his speech yesterday, President Bush justified the Israeli occupation and blamed the Palestinians, saying that PA President Arafat had ‘betrayed the hopes of the people he’s supposed to lead. Given his failure, the Israeli government feels it must strike at terrorist networks that are killing its citizens.’”
“Bush’s one-sided and patronizing speech has triggered angry responses from all over the Middle East and beyond. The president’s decision to dispatch Secretary of State Powell has little to do with finding a truly just solution and much to do with trying to calm that anger,” Holmes stated. “It is really an attempt to extend a lifeline to the pro-U.S. regimes in Egypt, Jordan and Saudi Arabia, which are under growing pressure from their own peoples. It is also an attempt to rescue Sharon and his government, which despite its unrestrained brutality are falling deeper into crisis every day.”
“Bush’s repeatedly expressed sympathy for one side in the conflict, Israel, and the massive funding and supplying of the same side, makes it abundantly clear why the U.S. can not be regarded as any kind of ‘honest broker’ in the conflict,” Holmes said.
Tonight’s mass rally and march at 5 p.m., at 42 Street and Broadway, will launch the A.N.S.W.E.R. Coalition’s national Palestine solidarity campaign, the high point of which will be the convergence at the White House of tens of thousands on Saturday, April 20, to oppose the U.S./Israel war on Palestinians.
Friday’s Times Square rally — endorsed by a wide spectrum of organizations, including Arab and Muslim groups, anti-globalization activists, students, and civil rights organizations (see below for endorsers) — will culminate a week in which hundreds of thousands demonstrating overseas in support of Palestine have been joined in the U.S. by rallies in Los Angeles, Boston, San Francisco, Philadelphia and at mosques and campuses.
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Contacts: Tony Murphy, Sara Flounders, Larry Holmes (212) 633-6646
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