Last update - 00:00 26/11/2007
Right-wing activists hold anti-Annapolis rally at Western Wall
By Haaretz Service
Around 15,000 people on Monday took part in a demonstration at the Western Wall to protest the Middle East peace summit being held Tuesday in Annapolis, Maryland.
Protest organizers questioned whether Israeli government representatives at the summit were heeding the wishes of the Jewish people and argued that the current Israeli government is behaving like a dictatorship.
A separate protest organized by the West Bank Settlement Council is scheduled to be held Monday night at the Paris Square in Jerusalem.
The rally is part of ongoing efforts by right-wing activists to protest what they fear could be plans to divide Jerusalem and evacuate settlements in the West Bank.
A coalition of dovish American Jewish organizations were to hold a rally for Israeli-Palestinian Peace to coincide with the peace conference on Tuesday.
The rally, which will be held near a church in the Maryland city, will be jointly sponsored by Americans for Peace Now, Brit Tzedek v'Shalom, Ameinu, Meretz USA, Habonim Dror, Hashomer Hatzair, Union of Progressive Zionists, The Workmen's Circle/Arbeter Ring, and Kesher ARZA.
On Sunday, a march to an interfaith rally in Annapolis was called off because organizers were told local police could not spare the extra personnel needed along the route.
Organizers had planned to walk from Temple Beth Shalom to a World War II memorial overlooking the U.S. Naval Academy, where the peace conference is scheduled for Tuesday. Participants ended up taking school buses to the rally instead.
"As you can see, the march didn't happen, but that is a police decision and not a synagogue decision," Rabbi Ari Goldstein of Temple Beth Shalom told participants at the memorial.
Jennifer Laszlo Mizrahi, president of The Israel Project, which helped prepare for the event, said authorities told organizers that there were not enough officers available to spread along the planned route. Several Anne Arundel County police monitored the flow of traffic at the memorial.
"This conference is putting tremendous strain on the local security
establishment," Mizrahi said. To have so many world leaders coming here, it's quite a strain."
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