It was a small crowd, but a momentous occasion, when about 200 anti-war protesters took their places at a roadside junction in central Israel on Saturday afternoon, and began calling in Arabic and Hebrew for a ceasefire in Gaza, as passing cars honked their approval.
More than five months into the war, with more than 30,000 killed, it was the first time that residents of the Arab town of Tayibe have had a chance to come out and protest. It was also only the third anti-war demonstration organised by Palestinian citizens of Israel to get approval from security authorities, the leaders said.
