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Thousands march in Tel Aviv in favour of a Palestinian State

04 June 2011 23:49 (UTC +04:00)

Baku-APA. Thousands of Israelis marched Saturday in Tel Aviv in support of the recognition of a Palestinian state, and to show their rejection of Israeli Prime Miniter Benjamin Netanyahu speech to the US Congress last week, APA reports quoting news.yahoo.com webste.

"Bibi (Benjamin Netnayhu) wake up, it’s time to recognise Palestine" and "Israel, Palestine, two states for two people" were some of the slogans chanted.

Around 4,000 demonstrators attended the march, according to the police.

The march started in the central Rabin Square and ended at the Tel Aviv Museum Square with speeches from opposition Israeli figures from the parties Kadima, Meretz, Hadash and the Labor party, as well as Israeli peace organisations.

"We came here to say ’Yes’ to the Palestinian State and ’No’ Netanyahu", Efraim Davidi Israeli, member of the Hadash party told the German Press Agency dpa.

"We want to say that Israeli government policy of putting obstacles to the start of negotiations and deny the right to recognising a Palestinian state does not represent all the citizens of the country", Davidi added.

The demonstrators asked for the recognition of a Palestinian state inside the borders previous to the 1967 Six Day war, when Israel occupied the West Bank and East Jerusalem to Jordan. Israel also captured Sinai from Egypt and the Golan Heights from Syria.

Leftist and centrist parties also defended East Jerusalem as the capital of the future Palestinian state, and the communist branch of the demonstration also asked for a solution for the 4.8 million Palestinian refugees outside the occupied territories.

In his speech last week Netanyahu said that Israel would be "generous" on the size of a future Palestinian state, but it would not return to the "indefensible" lines of 1967, when it captured the West Bank from Jordan and Gaza from Egypt.

He also said that Jerusalem "must never again be divided" and "remain the united capital of Israel," while added that the refugee problem must be solved "out of the borders of Israel"