Common Dreams
March 25, 2012

On Saturday, Israelis against a military strike on Iran marched in Tel Aviv to tell their government, and the world, that a majority of Israeli citizens do no want military action.

They held signs with such captions as “No to War with Iran,” and “Talks, not Bombs,” as well as “No to pre-emptive suicide.”

The protest follows, though was not endorsed by, an increasingly popular Facebook campaign initiated by an Israeli family, Israeli and Iranian citizens are expressing mutual respect and a hope for peace between the two countries.

Recent polls suggest that some 58 per cent of Israeli citizens are against any military strike, RT’s Paula Slier reported from Tel Aviv.

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The Jerusalem Post reports:

In the first significant antiwar- with-Iran protest held in Israel, around 1,000 people marched through central Tel Aviv on Saturday evening to voice opposition to those calling for a military strike to stop the Islamic Republic’s quest for nuclear weapons.

“We will not agree to an irresponsible Israeli attack on Iran, leading to a war with an unknown end-date and casualty count,” organizers said on the protest’s Facebook page, under the title “Israelis Against the War.”

“The billions that this war will cost will be paid by us – in health, education, housing – and in blood.”

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Haaretz reports: Hundreds of Israelis march in Tel Aviv to protest war with Iran(Ronnie Edri/Michal Tamir Facebook post, via +972)

The protest came amid a recent Facebook campaign linking Israeli and Iranian citizens in their opposition to war between the two nations. Campaign leaders, however, made it clear on their Facebook page that they had nothing to do with the Tel Aviv protest march.

Last week, graphic designers Ronny Edry and his wife, Michal Tamir, unknowingly began a Facebook phenomenon when they uploaded a poster depicting Edry and his daughter with the words, "Iranians, we will never bomb your country, we [heart] you."

That one image sparked a movement of sorts, with hundreds, if not thousands, of images sent from Israel, Iran, and elsewhere in the world, in support of exposing what participants consider to be the human side of the conflict between Iran and Israel.