20,000 rally in Israel to protest offensive: Message at march -- 'We must get out'

Tel Aviv -- More than 20,000 Jews and Israeli Arabs marched together here last night demanding that the government withdraw from the West Bank and immediately resume peace talks with the Palestinians.

"There is a black flag waving over this war. We must get out of the territories and return to the 1967 borders. (Prime Minister Ariel) Sharon wants to take us back to the 1967 war," said Zahava Gal-On, a lawmaker from the leftist Meretz party whose speech was greeted with wide applause and cheering.

Hundreds of Israeli Arabs came out in force for the first time in many months, marching alongside Jewish Israelis and chanting, "Yalla, yalla, Sharon get out of Ramallah." Yalla means "come" in both Hebrew and Arabic.

"I think it was after the (suicide) bomb in Haifa last week, in which so many Arabs died, too, that made people from Sakhnin want to come out tonight and demonstrate," said Maher Tawsiq, an Arab Israeli from northern Israel, shouting to make himself heard over the noise of the demonstration.

Although the numbers did not match the crowds that the peace movement once commanded, the march from Rabin Square, in the center of the city, to the defense ministry a mile away provided a boost to Israelis on the left.