Georgian Israelis to demonstrate against Russia
Israelis of Georgian origin to organize human chain on Tel Aviv shoreline, across from foreign embassies, spreading clear message: ‘We mustn’t stutter in the face of the Russians’
Their goal is to express solidarity with their other homeland which was hit by the Caucasus war and to call upon the West to not abandon their friends in Tbilisi.
One of the organizers, David Davarashvili, said that “Russia never worried about Israel and always assisted its enemies; Israel does not need to fear expressing a clear and resolved stance against it.”
According to him, “This is not the time to be timid. We mustn’t stutter in the face of the Russians. The entire world, including Israel needs to stand up and say, enough.”
The demonstration’s organizers, who are active in the Georgian community in Israel, hope that thousands of people will join the protest. According to Davarshvili, Israeli Georgians will arrive from all parts of the country.
“People from Haifa, Ashdod, Ashkelon, Gush Dan and Jerusalem will arrive. We also turned to student unions who promised to participate and express solidarity with the Georgian nation on this day of mourning for those who died in the war.
"Many Russians in Israel also support us, they clearly remember the Russian regime’s behavior during the age of Communism and know that this is the same thing,” he said.
'Israeli response was stammered'
Davarshvili, 32, a computer teacher by profession, moved to Israel at the age of 17 from Georgia. He still has family members in the capital of Tbilisi and has been in contact with them in the past few days during the battles in the country.“The last few days were very difficult, Georgia is my second homeland and when I saw what is happening there it hurt me deeply. I received a lot of warmth and love from that country in my life.”
He was disappointed to hear Israel’s feeble stance on the war in the Caucasus. “I heard Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni sending a moderate and stammered response instead of a decisive stance against what the Russians are doing.
“It is clear to me that there are other aspects affecting Israel, like the Iranian issue but Israel needs to know that it can’t count on the Russians.”
War-stricken Georgia (Photo: AFP)
In his estimation, “Russia was never concerned about Israel; it never cared about it, just interests. Every missile that fell on Israel was Russian-made and all our enemies’ ammunition is Russian.
“We and the entire western world need to be unified and active and express a clear stance against Russian aggression because Georgia is just the beginning. Russia couldn’t care less about the entire world including Georgia, Israel and the West,” he said.
Irkali Yakobashvili, 26, who also organized the human chain and is active in the Georgian community in Israel, participated in demonstrations across the Russian embassy in Israel over the past few days.
He hopes that the masses will arrive on Thursday, “in order to show that Georgia is not alone, that we are with them and that the whole world understands that we must stand together in the face of Russian dominance. For them, this is just the beginning.”
Yakobashvili has many family members living in Georgia who chose to stay in the war-stricken country despite the difficult situation.
“The last few days were very painful and worrisome. My grandmother and uncles decided to stay in Tbilisi because this is their pride, this is there home. We, the Georgians, always stand beside one another and we will do so on Thursday as well in the demonstration across from the embassies.”
The human chain will begin on Thursday at 7 pm on Allenby Street and spread across the foreign embassies, including the US embassy, the president of the European Union, France’s embassy and that of Russia.
