Falun Dafa Practitioners in Israel Mark Chinese New Year in Tel Aviv’s Chinatown

(Minghui.org) Dozens of Falun Dafa (Falun Gong) practitioners gathered at the Tel Aviv old central bus station on Saturday, January 25, 2020, to wish visiting Chinese workers a happy Lunar New Year.

On Saturdays, the Old Tel Aviv central bus station usually serves as a kind of local “Chinatown” gathering spot for hundreds of foreign Chinese workers, who arrive here to buy groceries, clothing, cellular accessories, and the like.

The groups of Chinese who arrived at the station on this particular Saturday seemed, according to their responses, to have recently arrived in Israel. They marveled at the sight of signs greeting them with “Happy New Year” and the group of practitioners freely practicing the Falun Dafa exercises.

Practitioners distributed information materials in Chinese and colorful, folded paper lotus flowers with bookmarks reading “Zhen-Shan-Ren” (“Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance,” the principles of Falun Dafa), and greeted the Chinese workers with a smile and a “Happy New Year.”

A TV screen on-site was broadcasting videos in Chinese, telling about the beauty of Falun Dafa and its benefits, including interviews with Western practitioners from around the world.

All this was a rare sight for the Chinese workers, since the beauty of Falun Dafa cannot be publicly displayed in China. Many stood and watched, while others took photos with their cell phones. It was evident that it pleased them and lifted their spirits. Even those who refused to accept the materials being offered by the practitioners, responded to the practitioners' greetings with a smile, and a “Happy New Year.”

Wishing people a Happy New Year and presenting the exercises of Falun Dafa

The Chinese workers were given information that reveals the true picture of what is going on in China today. Through these contacts, they have come to see that Falun Gong practitioners are not at all bad people (as portrayed by the Chinese Communist Party – CCP), rather that Falun Gong is a peaceful practice that encourages the goodness in people.

One practitioner at the site recounted how the look in the eyes of one Chinese worker changed and started radiating with optimism upon signing the petition to withdraw from the CCP. This petition is a global effort, carried out by Falun Dafa practitioners all around the world. Withdrawing from the CCP allows Chinese citizens to freely express their stance of not willing to be part of the crimes committed by the CCP against its own citizens.

Background

Falun Gong (Falun Dafa) is a spiritual practice that includes five gentle meditative exercises, based on the principles of Truthfulness, Compassion and Forbearance. Falun Gong is taught freely and voluntarily throughout the world. It had become the most popular self-cultivation practice method throughout China, and many practitioners gained physical and mental health by practicing it.

Surveys in 1999 showed that there were about 100 million Falun Gong practitioners in China. Jiang Zemin (then head of the CCP), fearing its growing popularity across China, and being unable to institute the practice and turn it into a state-owned entity, started a brutal persecution against Falun Gong practitioners.

Jiang Zemin gave the order to “Destroy them [Falun Gong practitioners] physically, ruin their reputations, and bankrupt them financially.” Under this order, people who practiced Falun Gong were fired from their jobs, sent to forced labor camps, prisons, brainwashing centers, and “re-education” camps where they were brutally tortured, sometimes to the point of death, or rendered disabled.

Research and evidence show that Falun Gong practitioners have also been subject to forced organ harvesting, with the organs being sold to the highest bidder on the thriving organ transplantation market.