A message from the Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas was read during the rally.
"It is time to live together in harmony, security and stability. The only way to end the conflict and the fight against terror in the region and the entire world is a solution of two states based on the 1967 borders, Palestine alongside Israel," Abbas said.
The Palestinian leader went on to say that Palestine accepted the U.N.'s decisions, the two-state solution and recognized the State of Israel, adding that it was now Israel's turn to recognize Palestinian state and end the occupation.
The leading organizers of the demonstration, Israeli NGO Peace Now, said that the rally was to protest "the lack of hope being offered by a government perpetuating occupation, violence and racism."
"The time has come to prove to the Israelis, the Palestinians and the entire world that an important segment of the Israeli population is opposed to occupation and wants a two-state solution," Peace Now head Avi Buskila said.
The Palestinians want the West Bank, as well as the Gaza Strip and east Jerusalem, —areas captured by Israel in the 1967 war— as part of their hoped-for state. The Palestinians want these areas along with the Gaza Strip for the establishment of a future Palestinian state. International law views the West Bank and east Jerusalem as "occupied territories" and considers all Jewish settlement-building activity on the land as illegal. Roughly 500,000 Israelis now live in more than 100 Jewish-only settlements built since Israel occupied the Palestinian West Bank and east Jerusalem in 1967.
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