Israelis protest in support of Syrian people

TEL AVIV – Several hundred protestors in Tel Aviv showed their support for ordinary Syrians, demanding international intervention to put a stop to the Syrian government’s suppression of pro-democracy demonstrations.

The demonstrators, about half Jews and half Arabs, carried placards in Arabic, English and Hebrew calling for an end to attacks by the Syrian army on civilian protesters who have been demanding democratic reform for the past 16 months.

“My sister… I couldn’t keep my conscience closed off any longer,” rally organizer Shira Ingbar-Cohen told the crowd in a speech aimed at a Syrian woman named Amal. “I heard you ask ‘where is the world? How can it be that the world is covering its eyes?’”

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Amal is a resident of the Syrian city Homs, besieged by the Syrian army and featured in a highly-graphic news report by Israel Channel 2 News reporter Itai Engel, who covertly entered Syria to document the carnage and suffering of the civilian population. The woman fled her home just before Syrian security officials allegedly massacred 45 women and children in her neighborhood, Engel reported.

The United Nations estimates that more than 8,000 people, mostly civilians, have been killed and tens of thousands displaced. “Such violence is totally unacceptable before humanity,” U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said of the civilian death toll.

“We’re here to express our solidarity with the Syrian people and we urge the international community to intervene and put an end to this awful massacre,” said another protest organizer, Orly Bar-Lev.