The rally which included religious leaders, intellectuals, MP Rabbi Michael Melchior, and human rights supporters. also marked nine years since the persecution of Falun Gong began in China,
Roy Bar Ilan, spokesman for the Falun Gong Israeli Information Center, explained that during the past nine years the Chinese regime has been persecuting the practitioners of Falun Gong, using extremely cruel means.
“In fact, in China, about 100 million people are denied their fundamental rights because of their beliefs,” said Bar Ilan.
As for the Israeli angle, Bar Ilan replied: “All Falun Gong practitioners living in Israel, who are law abiding civilians, are bluntly discriminated against. For example, no Israeli Falun Gong practitioner is allowed to participate in the Olympics—either as a competitor or as a spectator.”
“The objective of the rally,” explained Bar Ilan, “is to support the government in taking a moral stance and addressing the facts. We should not allow a ‘business as usual’ approach with China to go on while ignoring the genocide taking place against Falun Gong practitioners.”
‘If We Don’t Raise Our Voices, Who Will?’
“I came here to raise my voice against organ trading,” said Father Abu Hatum Masud, a Greek Catholic priest from Nazareth, referring to the evidence of harvesting of vital organs from live Falun Gong practitioners taking place in China.
According to an investigative report conducted by two Canadian lawyers, Falun Gong practitioners are gathered in concentration camps and then taken to surgery for removal of their organs for on-demand transplants, without sufficient anesthesia. Most practitioners are killed during the process, or later when they are immediately thrown into a crematorium.
Abu Hatum Masud said that the Israeli Government should raise its voice against such atrocities.
“We still remember what happened in the 40’s. If we don’t raise our voices against such things, who will?” he said, also noting that the regime is also suppressing Catholics and Tibetans.
Men of Letters Are Free from Political Considerations
Chairman of the Hebrew Writers Association, Balfour Hakak, said: “I came here on behalf of the intellectuals in our country. As Jews we remember how the world kept silent while Jews were being murdered. Hitler interpreted this silence as an acceptance by the world of his wrong doings. Being the next generation of Holocaust victims, we should raise our voices against the Olympic Games in China.”
