On Friday, July 20, Israeli Falun Gong practitioners and human rights activists held events commemorating the eighth anniversary of the start of the Chinese Communist Party's brutal persecution of Falun Gong in China. A long row of ladies dressed in white (white is the traditional color indicating death and mourning in Asia.) people held pictures of Falun Gong practitioners who were persecuted to death.
Falun Gong practitioners and human rights activists held a rally in front of the Chinese embassy in Tel-Aviv. Falun Gong practitioners also staged quiet demonstrations on Thursday in front of the Prime Minister's offices, the Foreign Affairs Ministry and the Knesset (the Israel parliament).
Eli Rachelevsky, for two years a volunteer for the China Network of Amnesty International in Israel, attended the rally. "In such a country you don't hold Olympic games," he said about China. He told that since the Kilgour and Matas Organ Harvesting report was published, the China Network of Amnesty took more active steps regarding Falun Gong in China. He suggests approaching the influential powers in the world to put pressure on China, and to ban the Olympic games.
Rabbi Uri Sharki, a rabbi from Jerusalem, came to support the rally. "It is the role of every upright person, and especially the Israeli people, to protest against any injustice", he said to The Epoch Times. In his speech at the rally he said that we should not be mistaken by the Chinese regime's attempts to contradict the allegations, and he blamed the regime in terrible cruelty. He called on anyone who has "the image of God in his consciousness" to take action. "Even animals have mercy towards their own species," he said.
Sharki said that things such as balance of terror or financial and political interests should not stop us. "We came back to this land (Israel) because we have a moral message to the world," he said.
Michael Fuah, the general manager of Manhigut Yehudit (Jewish Leadership) organization, also addressed the rally. He demanded the CCP to open the slave-labor camps for international examination. "The representatives of the Chinese regime should be condemned, and they should be condemned everywhere," said Fuah. He said that we should not worry about China 's being a big power while relatively few people participated in the protest; "The moral justice will prevail." He concluded his address by saying, "I call upon everybody—be human".
One Chinese Falun Gong practitioners addressed the staff of the Chinese embassy. She said in Chinese, "The ancient people said: when someone makes you the gift of a single drop of water, you should repay them with a gushing fountain. Falun Gong is enduring an unprecedented injustice of all times. Wouldn't the practitioners who benefited physically and mentally say something for the sake of justice?" She added, "If there was an injustice against your parents, would you keep silent out of fear of a government's power?"
"We should not close our eyes," said Gilad Slonim, spokesman for the Israeli Epoch Times. "Just as we don't understand how the world was silent during the 40' and all the Holocaust period, we should not be silent today. This is the responsibility of each and every one of us", he said.
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