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Human Chain Connects Gaza to Jerusalem
By Emmett Barry, Novetra Jerusalem News Correspondent
July 26, 2004
Jerusalem, Israel (Novetra News) -- Over 125,000 people formed a human chain that stretched more than 55 miles from the Gaza Strip to the Western Wall in Jerusalem on Sunday, to protest Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's disengagement plan.
The rally was organized by members of Sharon's own Likud party who oppose their leader's decision to withdraw from Gaza. Likud Ministers, Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom, Uzi Landau, and Natan Sharansky assembled the gathering with another 15 Likud Knesset members attending the event.
Along with the chain, Shalom hosted a gathering of 1,000 Likud members under the banner "No to a secular-left government", in an effort to discourage Sharon from creating a new coalition with the left-wing Labor party.
As Sharon continues to lead a minority government with no-confidence motions being voted on every week, including four today, he continues to court the Labor party toward creating a new coalition . A new government with Labor would likely include the replacement of Silvan Shalom by Labor head, Shimon Peres.
In his speech, Shalom told the audience that Labor cannot be trusted, having already brought down two-Likud led governments of which it was part.
With nearly half of the Likud MK's in attendance, Sharon cannot ignore last night's event, since he needs their support in order to form a new coalition government. Yet despite their opposition Sharon continues to press forward with his disengagement plan.
Sharon announced in December that he planned to withdraw from the Gaza Strip and four West Bank settlements by the end of September 2005. The plan drew such fierce opposition from hard-liners that he fired two of his own cabinet ministers who were critical . With the collapse of his government looming, Sharon continues to search for a coalition partner in order to stablize his government or face early elections.
Last night's event was heralded as a success by organization leaders. The chain began in Gaza with Yitzhak Shamir and was completed by his granddaughter, placing her hand on the Western Wall. Shamir is a long time resident of Gaza, having first lived there in the 1940's, before the evacuation of Jewish settlements which followed Egypt's capture of the Gaza Strip during the first Arab-Israeli war in 1948.
The event was concluded with Jews praying, dancing and singing at Judaism's holiest shrine, the Western Wall.
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