Sheikh Salah: Lieberman, we'll walk on you
During march in Nazareth to protest killing of 18 Palestinians by IDF artillery in Beit Hanoun, Sheikh Raed Salah says: 'We had thousands of Lieberman, and they disappeared. They are buried'
Some 2,000 Arab Israelis held a march in Nazareth on Friday to protest the killing of 19 Palestinians by Israeli army artillery fire on Beit Hanoun in the northern Gaza Strip on Wednesday.
The head of the Islamic Movement Northern Branch, Sheikh Raed Salah, said that "Beit Hanoun will be Lieberman's cemetery."
Some of the protesters shouted, "Allah Akbar," meaning God is great.
Protesters march in Nazareth (Photo: Avihou Shapira)
The death toll in the incident rose to 19 on Friday, after a 39-year-old died of serious wounds he sustained in the attack at the Ichilov Medical Center in Tel Aviv. He body has been returned to the Gaza Strip.
"There were here, in our land, many Liebermans. Thousands. But today we are walking on them and that will also be his fate. We will walk on him, and so will our children," Salah said.
Protesters shouted slogans condemning Israel and the United States, and called for Palestinian unity.
Sheikh Salah, who was the sharpest of all speakers, criticized the government saying, "We shouldn't expect peace from this government, which is the government of Kahane Chai."
He called on the Nobel Committee to strip Vice Premier Shimon Peres of his Nobel Peace Prize.
"I want to teach the government a chapter in the understanding of what is happening and history: understand once and for all, that this is our land. History teaches that no occupier has ever stayed on this land, all left. Your occupation too will pass, and we are staying in our land.
"The second lesson I want to give Lieberman. We had thousands of Liebermans, and they all disappeared. They are buried under the earth. I guarantee you that we, and our children, will walk on you. Beit Hanoun will become you cemetery."
Salah's deputy, Sheikh Kamal Khatib, asked the protesters to lower the flags of various Arab Israeli parliament factions and to hoist the Palestinian flag as a sign of unity with the Palestinians.
'We don't need apologies'
Ahmad Sleiman, a member of the community party in Nazareth, said the march was a gesture of solidarity with the pain of the Palestinian people. "We carry a message for the government that there is no solution but peace. There will be calm when peace reigns over the whole region," he said.
Arab Monitoring Committee Chairman Shaouki Khatib, called for the deployment of an international force in the Gaza Strip to protect the Palestinians from the Israelis. He also said that those responsible for the killings should be punished.
"(Prime Minister Ehud) Olmert needs not to apologize. We don't need his apology. When a man fired shells at homes, he knows what the result will be," he said.
"The public no longer trusts the Israeli government which works in the shadow of the known fascist. We trust our unity, and only through it we will manage to deal with the madness of this country," he said.
Hadash MK Mohammad Barakeh said the Israeli government resembles a dragon who cries over its victims. "This government is massacring people and apologies afterwards," he said.
He said that during meeting in Gaza with President Mahmoud Abbas and Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh, the latter promised him that Hamas is committed to forming a national unity government.
MK Talab El-Sana of the United Arab List-Ta'al faction called on the Palestinians to form a unity government. "He who speaks about terror should come to Beit Hanoun to see what really terror is," he said.
Children at the protest dressed up as lions and tigers and carried signs reading: "Killing women and children won't cover the occupation army's defeat against heroic men."
Roee Nahmias contributed to this report
