(Minghui.org) City Center Beach in Tel Aviv was crowded on Saturday June 24, 2023. Amid the hustle and bustle many people found an oasis of calm—a group of Falun Dafa practitioners quietly meditating and practicing the standing exercises. Some stopped to read the practitioners’ signs and chatted with them.
Practitioners introduced Falun Dafa and collected signatures on a petition calling for an end to the persecution on June 24, 2023 at City Center Beach in Tel Aviv.
When people learned about the 24-year-long persecution of Falun Dafa in China, many expressed their respect for the practice’s values of Truthfulness, Compassion, and Forbearance—and their hope that these values may one day be freely practiced in China.
Former Soccer Player: “You are doing a blessed job!”
Shmulik Mizrahi, a former soccer player, pointed at the banner with the words “Truthfulness, Compassion, Forbearance,” and said that he hopes that people in Israel will become familiar with these values that Falun Dafa teaches. He said compassion is one of the fundamental values of mankind, while tolerance helps reduce conflicts between people.
“You are doing a blessed job! I wish everyone would come across these three values,” he said.
When he learned about the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) forced organ harvesting from practitioners he was sad. He said that this situation was “worse than a crime” and must be stopped.
Student: “Falun Dafa makes me feel calm and serene.”
High school student Noy said, “Tolerance is a supreme value.”
Noy, an 18-year-old highschooler from Ness Ziona, a small town in central Israel, said that she can relate to Falun Dafa’s three principles, “I see what these practitioners are doing here, and it makes me feel calm and serene.”
She said that she thinks tolerance is a supreme value and that she would like to see more of it in her life. She added that it is important to accept others, and that she tries to behave that way.
It was also shocking to Noy how people who follow these values could be suppressed in China, and even have their organs stolen from them. “I think most of the world probably doesn’t know (about this persecution),” she said. “It’s good that you continue to spread this information, because it’s important that the world knows.”
Live According to Falun Dafa’s Principles
Nir from Tel Aviv, who works as a scooter rental operator, heard about Falun Dafa for the first time at the event. After learning about the CCP’s many human rights violations in China, he said he was saddened to hear that practitioners are one of the CCP’s targeted groups.
“It’s terrible,” he said. “Forced organ harvesting is an extreme act, similar to what occurred in World War II, but worse.”
Nir said that he stopped to learn more because he was drawn to the values written on the practitioners’ sign: Truthfulness, Compassion, Forbearance. “I’ll try to live according to these values. Tolerance is beneficial for you and for others, as well as for the environment in general,” he said.
“These persecutors have lost their humanity.”
Hilly, 18, from Ramat Hasharon, recently graduated from high school. She was fascinated by the exercises practitioners were demonstrating. “I like to meditate, and I love these values, they are very good” she said, referring to the principles of Truthfulness, Compassion, and Forbearance.
She said she admires how the practice teaches practitioners to put compassion into practice in their daily lives. “That touches me the most. It is important to me that people have compassion towards others,” she said.
To spread compassion herself, Hilly plans to do a year of volunteer work after her graduation. After she learned about the abuse that practitioners suffer for their beliefs in China, she said that she felt pity for the people who have lost their moral values by committing such a crime.
“I find it shocking. These persecutors are people who have lost their humanity and anything good that a human being can have. They must be taught how to be good,” she said.
“When I see practitioners, it gives me hope.”
Oz from Vienna encouraged practitioners to keep exposing the persecution in China.
Oz, a painter from Vienna, was visiting Tel Aviv. He said that the scene of practitioners doing the exercises and the entire event was beautiful, colored in blue and yellow. He said that in Vienna he heard mainly about the persecution of Falun Dafa in China, but did not know that practitioners meditated and cultivated themselves.
Since his mother was a Holocaust survivor, Oz knew about authoritarian power and why such regimes seek to eradicate peoples’ beliefs.
“I saw practitioners in Vienna and I heard about the persecution. The communist regime wants to make people think that the persecution is right, believe in the Party, and live according to its norm, to align with it,” he said.
Oz said he believes that the principles of Falun Dafa are stronger than those of many other disciplines he came across. He said, “When you tell someone what not to do it becomes negative. Here they say, ‘Truthfulness, that a positive thing, Compassion – that’s a positive thing, Tolerance – a positive thing.’”
Oz said that it’s these three values, along with the resilience of practitioners, that gives him hope for the people in China. “When I see these practitioners, it gives me hope in my heart that the CCP will one day be replaced,” he said.
Teacher: “I would like my daughters to grow up in a world where there is Truthfulness, Compassion, and Tolerance.”
Miri (front, in green dress), a kindergarten teacher, learned the fifth exercise.
Miri, a kindergarten teacher who was celebrating her 41st birthday with her husband at the beach, joined the practitioners in doing the fifth Falun Dafa exercise, the meditation.
“I felt a strong force. I felt a very strong energy,” she said after she meditated.
Learning about the practice’s persecution was especially important to Miri because she is a third-generation descendant of Holocaust survivors. She was appalled to hear that the persecution methods used on her ancestors are still being used in China today.
“To think that such things still happen in the world, that’s really terrible. Organ harvesting is terrible,” she said. “But it inspires me to know that there are practitioners in China who continue to practice even under persecution. This is a great lesson in compassion and tolerance.”
She expressed her appreciation of Falun Dafa and the values it emphasizes, which she believes could benefit all of humanity.
“I would like my daughters to grow up in a world where there is Truthfulness, Compassion, and Tolerance. Thank you to everyone who continues to stick to their truth. It’s very beautiful.”
Before leaving, Miri said she hoped that when her daughters walk in Tel Aviv on their 41st birthday, there will be no more concentration camps and no more organ harvesting. She also promised that she would tell her daughters about the values of Truthfulness, Compassion, and Tolerance.
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