Evelyn Hecht-Galinski

We have to put an end to acts of ethnic cleansing. We are going to protest, stand up and march on 30th March – Land Day, the day that symbolizes the land grab and expulsion, in all of historic Palestine. All over the world we are going to protest, stand up and march - all people, no matter what their religion or political affiliation - in order to arrive in Jerusalem with a sense of responsibility and peace and demand a stop to the Judaization of this city.

To date the Jewish state has been able to keep the Palestinians in exile - or suppressed and deprived of their rights under the Israeli apartheid regime and the apartheid wall that separates their towns and villages - and to deny them a decent existence.

The "Land Day" commemorates the Nakba, when millions of people were made refugees in 1948, people who still are forced to live in the Diaspora . Nineteen years later, in 1967, Israel illegally annexed East Jerusalem (in violation of resolution 63/30 of the UN General Assembly, the Security Council’s resolution No. 478 and Section 3 of the Geneva International Conventions) and the West Bank. Since then, the Judaization of Jerusalem makes progress every day.

The Israeli Government is aiming for an impossible population ratio in Jerusalem : 30% Palestinians to 70% Israelis. Israel’s official planners assume that the Palestinian population of East Jerusalem will require an additional 13,000 housing units in 2020. But don’t forget that from the western part of the town, 60,000 Palestinians were also displaced. Many of these refugees still live in refugee camps under wretched conditions.
There exists a special law for Palestinians in Jerusalem, called the “Absentee Property Law” which confiscates their land illegally. Well known in Germany is the case of Firas Maraghy, which is still unresolved, despite hunger strikes and the intervention of high-ranking German politicians. The NRhZ and I have reported about this case several times.

Against this arbitrariness of the Jewish state against the Palestinians, we will set a sign on 30th March with the Jerusalem march as well as with vigils and demonstrations throughout Germany and Europe.

We won’t know until 1st March if we, the participants from Germany, will march from Cairo, Amman or Beirut towards Jerusalem. I will let you know.

Please, support us with your sign, participation and donation, any kind of contribution is welcome.

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Password: Global Marsch to Jerusalem

The call by members of the raciist ruling right-wing Likud Party, led by Moshe Feiglin, the opponent of Netanyahu, to storm the Al Aqsa Mosque, shows, how important this march and the symbol of Jerusalem as an inter-religious and independent city is. Their slogan: "On the ruins of the mosque, our destroyed temple is to be re-erected." Graffiti and destruction of mosques and churches in Jerusalem are already on the agenda.

Therefore, we are addressing our politicians and rulers, churches and trade unions: think also of the right of the Palestinians to exist on the 30th March. Support the BDS-Boycott - Divestment, Sanctions and the boycott of Israeli products campaign. Until Israel complies with international law and recognizes the legitimate rights of the Palestinians.
At the Stuttgart meeting on 11th February, to prepare the global march to Jerusalem, I gave the following speech:

Dear Friends,

Let me begin with the words of Roger Tucker, whom I hold in high regard:
" ...it is imperative to dissolve the Jewish state of Israel. Such a state, which has no basis other than a fascistic narrative constructed out of paranoia and mythology, has no legitimacy in our world. It embodies all of the characteristics that humanity has resoundingly rejected in the last century - settler colonialism, racism, ethnic cleansing, apartheid and genocide. The dehumanization and destruction of a people, along with the dispossession of their land and property, is utterly intolerable. The only feasible alternative is its replacement by a pluralistic, democratic state that includes the Palestinians as equals. There is no other viable solution to the Israeli/Palestinian conflict. " So says Roger Tucker, who speaks from the bottom of my heart.

I say this with the knowledge, that Israel has succeeded continually from the beginning of its founding as a state without fixed borders and without a constitution to destroy the livelihoods of the native population, that means the Palestinians. Through massive annexation of land and occupation through oppression and expulsion , a two-state solution has become an impossibility. It has become merely a catchphrase for Israel and for world politics.

That is also one of the reasons that I support the Jerusalem March from the bottom of my heart as a symbol against occupation and disenfranchisement. It is our common task and duty to point out that while the world looks on, the Judaization of Jerusalem is driven forward day-to-day. Jerusalem is and will remain a symbol for all religious groups and nations. This fact should also remain that way. But since the occupation of East Jerusalem by Israel in 1967, it has been working with great determination and, unfortunately, quite successfully to develop the city as a Jewish symbol.

The claim, that Jerusalem should remain the undivided capital of a Jewish state, is now an official part of governmental policy and thios claim is continually repeated. It is our obligation as a civil society association, to struggle against and prevent this with all means of disposal. Also because of this, the idea of the Jerusalem march, which was born by participants of the Gaza-Caravan in February 2011, is so important and worth supporting.

It makes me very proud to be among the supporters, including human rights activists such as Richard Falk and Mazin Qumsiyeh, whom I also had the good fortune to get to know personally. Especially Attia and Verena [Rajab] who brought me now to this march following the unique Stuttgart conference. Let me emphasize once more, that this march to me is a matter close to my heart, in solidarity with the Palestinian people, who are continuously suffering under disfranchisement, settlement and ethnic cleansing, through land grabs and displacement – so that Jerusalem, as desired by Israel, will remain Jewish forever. However, I protest against this and tell the Palestinians "You are not alone" in your struggle against the Jewish state of Israel, which tramples on your legitimate rights by being the only ethnocracy in the Middle East. I’m also urging the safety of the Palestinians and Palestine become a national interest for the German state. Jerusalem must be the capital of a democratic state of Israel / Palestine.

Evelyn Hecht-Galinski
Neue Rheinilche Zeitung, 4 March, 2012.