(Minghui.org) Around July 20, which marked the 16th anniversary of Falun Gong's peaceful resistance to the persecution in China, rallies held around the world to condemn the persecution drew media attention. Arutz Sheva, a popular news site in Israel, covered the protest in front of the Chinese embassy in Tel Aviv.

Its article, “From China to Tel Aviv, Protestors Say 'We Can't Close Our Eyes',” said that “chilling testimonies were read out at the rally, telling of organ harvesting and sending warm bodies to the crematorium, sometimes when the person is still alive.”

The article cited the chairman of the Falun Dafa Association (Falun Gong) in Israel,Vadim Berestezky and his explanation for how, on July 20, 1999, then-Chinese leader Jiang Zemin, launched the persecution of the peaceful spiritual practice out of fear of its rapidly growing popularity.

Berestezky said in the article: “[Jiang] enlisted the power of China [to help, including] the police, the army, the system of propaganda, and gave orders to eliminate them physically, to destroy the reputation of Falun Gong practitioners and impoverish them economically, and allocated three months for the job.”

“Then something happened that no one expected. The same system of well-oiled destruction failed. Ten months have passed, and two years and today we mark 16 years.”

“In fact, a Holocaust is happening in China,” stated journalist Billie Beserglick at the event, according to the article. “Whoever remains silent is also a partner in it.”

The article also mentioned the recent flood of lawsuits against Jiang Zemin. Since May, more than 130 thousand Falun Gong practitioners filed criminal complaints against this former Chinese dictator.

According to the article, Rabbi Haim Cohen called upon the Chinese government, saying: “The path of truth, through compassion and through tolerance, it's part of your culture. It's part of the character of the Chinese people.”

“Stop persecution, skip the violation of human rights, and skip the hatred and oppression, for the creation of a society based not just on economics, but on happiness,” Rabbi Cohen said.

The article further quoted from Berestezky's speech, “We are here because we do not want to close our eyes. We do not want to keep quiet. We came here because we want to take responsibility for our future. We do not agree that in our world, people will be murdered just because they are trying to be good people.”