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500 Gush Shalom and Ta’ayush activists joined 2000 inhabitants of Abu Dis in a dramatic protest rally in honor of Arun Gandhi, the grandson of the great Mahatma.

In the searing heat, they marched through the streets of Abu-Dis to the wall which cuts the town off from Jerusalem. The Palestinian Prime Minister Ahmed Kurei (Abu Ala), himself a resident of Abu-Dis, Dr. Arun Gandhi, Uri Avnery, Hulud Badawi as well as religious and civic leaders advocated non-violence in the struggle against the occupation and the wall. They also expressed their solidarity with the Palestinian prisoners who are on a hunger strike. Gandhi said that the wall reminds him of South Africa during the apartheid regime. It will be remembered that Mahatma Gandhi started out as a fighter against racism in his native South Africa.

The rally reached its climax when one of the protesters climbed to the top of the 8-meters high concrete wall in a breathtaking act of courage. He threw down a rope and half a dozen Palestinian youth joined him on the top. One of them stood there like a human statue, the flag of Palestine in his outstretched hand. Unintentionally, the daring act was a perfect illustration of the Gandhi method: breaking the law of the occupation regime openly but non-violently.

After the speeches Abu-Ala and Gandhi together wielded a hammer and hit the wall symbolically. They were followed by the religious dignitaries and then by Israeli and Palestinian peace activists. “We have proved that it is possible to go over the wall,” one protester remarked. “With a bigger hammer, it is also possible to open a hole in it. This is not a security wall, it is a wall of oppression and annexation.”

Uri Avnery’s speech at the Abu-Dis demonstration