Protests in the United States and Around the World for Palestinians
Photos from Indymedia Sites
New movie about the Palenstine Demo in Boston, April 6, 2002, is on the IAC Boston Site. Click on streaming link http://www.iacboston.org or go directly there: http://www.iacboston.org/index_streaming.html
WORLDWIDE SUPPORT SWELLS FOR PALESTINIANS
By G. Dunkel
April 17, 2002--In the past three weeks, thousands of demonstrations and protests throughout the world have supported the Palestinian people's heroic resistance against Israeli aggression. According to news reports, almost all of these demonstrations have protested the absolutely essential ingredient: U.S. military, financial and political support for Israeli aggression.
The most militant, angriest protests have taken place in the Arab world, especially in Jordan and Egypt, both of which have diplomatic relations with Israel. Jordan's Interior Minister Kaftan Majalin told Agence France Press (April 9) that 374 demonstrations and rallies against Israel have taken place since March 29, when the Israeli offensive started. Some 138 cops have been injured in them and 182 vehicles, including 95 cop cars, damaged. One 10-year-old Palestinian boy was killed by a tear-gas canister, according to his parents.
The most intense struggles have taken place in Amman, the capital of Jordan, when protesters try to march on the Israeli or U.S. embassy.
The Egyptian authorities have banned demonstrations since 1981, when President Anwar Sadat, who had signed a peace treaty with Israel in 1979, was assassinated. Despite the ban, as many as 80,000 people in a single day have taken to the streets and confronted the cops, mainly in Cairo, Alexandria, and other major cities.
An Egyptian university student was killed April 9 in Alexandria when police shot rubber-coated bullets at students denouncing U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell's visit to Cairo.
The victim, Mohammed Ali al-Sayyed al-Saaa, was a business student at the University of Alexandria. His death has become a symbol of the Egyptian people's boiling anger in the face of harsh repression.
Some 200 people, mostly students but also including 40 cops, were wounded badly enough in this confrontation that they had to be taken to the Alexandria hospital. The clashes erupted when the 7,000 students taking part in the protest left the campus and headed for a nearby U.S. cultural center.
"Colin Powell get out of here, our country will remain free," protesters chanted. They also demanded, "Sell Mubarak, buy arms for the Palestinians," referring to Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak.
Thousands of Palestinians and Lebanese also protested Powell's visit to Beirut, Lebanon. Some burned U.S. and Israeli flags.
In Saudi Arabia where a feudal monarchy still rules, telethons urge people to donate jewels and other property to be sold for the Palestinian people. U.S.-based supporters of Israel have denounced the telethons for raising "blood money." But for the Saudi rulers, these efforts provide an outlet for popular anger and solidarity that does not threaten the regime. Saudi telethons and similar ones in the Gulf emirates have raised about $200 million.
Despite the Saudi ban on demonstrations, in the first week of April some 2,000 people protested angrily outside the U.S. consulate in the eastern city of Dhahran. Another 2,500 pro-Palestinian demonstrators protested outside the nearby town of al-Qatif. (Toronto Star, April 6)
In Israel itself on April 11, some 2,000 Jewish and Arab women marched from Jerusalem to Kalandia, a checkpoint at the entrance to Ramallah, to show solidarity with a Palestinian women's group stuck on the other side. A special army roadblock kept the marchers from reaching their goal.
SUPPORT IN AFRICA
In an interview with the Pan-African News Agency, the Palestinian ambassador to Senegal, Said Abbassi, said he was grateful for the mobilization and solidarity of the people of Africa for the Palestinian cause. He said: "Today Palestine's fight against racism and occupation is the same one that Africa has gone through to gain independence. The demonstrations staged throughout Africa are meant to send a strong message to Palestinian people to tell them that they are not alone in this nasty war imposed by Israel."
On April 13 in Dakar, the capital of Senegal, over 6,000 people marched from the Grand Mosque to the Israeli Embassy, chanting "Free, free Palestine," and carrying signs against the aggression of the Zionist state and George W. Bush's support of butchery. Uganda also saw a smaller demonstration the same day, organized in the religious community.
Over 1.5 million people marched in Khartoum, Sudan, April 8 to denounce Israeli aggression and U.S. complicity. They destroyed effigies of Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, while shouting, "Death to Sharon," and "Down, Down U-S-A, We will not be ruled by the C-I-A." This was the biggest demonstration in the Sudan in decades.
In South Africa, the African National Congress and the main labor union confederation, the Congress of South African Trade Unions, are planning for a two-week series of major demonstrations beginning April 19. In Pretoria, a march to the Israeli and the U.S. embassies is planned to kick off the protests.
"The ongoing military invasion and reoccupation of Palestinian-controlled territories by the state of Israel is a blatant violation of human rights and an attempt to deny national liberation to the people of Palestine. This amounts to an act of state terrorism by the Israeli government," said ANC General Secretary David Makhura.
In Cape Town on April 11, about 200 pro-Palestine supporters picketed outside the U.S. Consulate to protest against the "U.S.'s continued bankrolling of the Israeli occupation of Palestine." The Palestinian Solidarity Group and COSATU organized the picket. COSATU members also participated in a prayer service later that day. Both events drew wide coverage in the South African media.
SUPPORT IN EUROPE
The weekend of April 12-14 saw some 30,000 people march through London, chanting, "Down with Israel," and "Jihad," the traditional Muslim appeal for holy war. Some protesters burned Israeli and U.S. flags. The Association of British Muslims called this protest.
Some 30,000 people in many German cities joined solidarity protests. The biggest was in Berlin, where 13,000 people marched from the capital's famous Alexanderplatz to Potsdamerplatz, an area between the old East and West Berlin. Another 7,000 gathered in Frankfurt; there were 5,000 in Duesseldorf and smaller numbers in other Germany cities.
In the Netherlands, tens of thousands marched through Amsterdam April 13 in a demonstration organized by the Dutch Committee for Palestine. At the end of the march, some youths started throwing stones and bottles at police and nine were arrested.
Portugal saw a major demonstration in Lisbon April 10. Some 7,000 people came to Lisbon's Camoes Square at 6:30 PM and marched through the city chanting slogans like "Bush, Sharon: murderers," "Palestine will win," and "Sharon: you are the terrorist." A smaller demonstration took place in Madrid April 10 to mark Powell's visit.
France, which has the biggest Jewish community in Europe as well as the highest proportion of Muslims, saw a number of pro-Palestinian protests outside Paris the weekend of April 13. The major demonstration in Paris was on domestic issues, since the first round of the French presidential election is April 21.
There have also been protests in Poland, Hungary, Ireland, Scotland and Sweden.
BUSTIN' OUT ALL OVER: SUPPORT FOR PALESTINE SWEEPS U.S.
By Leslie Feinberg
April 10, 2002--Across the United States, people of all ages and walks of life are delivering a passionate and heartfelt message of solidarity with the besieged Palestinian people. And they are demanding that Wall Street, the White House and Joint Chiefs of Staff end their bankrolling and patronage of the Zionist settler occupation of historic Palestine.
Large, angry protests flooded into the streets in cities and towns across the country for a second week. And the response is mushrooming. Crowds are growing from hundreds to thousands, from thousands to tens of thousands.
It's an unprecedented development. It holds great significance for the people of Palestine, and Arabs and Muslims throughout the world, because it is a growth of anti- imperialist consciousness and combativeness developing in the heart of the world's imperial tyrant.
The actions are bold and gutsy.
Seven activists chained themselves to gas station pumps during morning rush hour in Albuquerque, N.M., on April 9. They shut down the Texaco station with large banners reading: "Stop Israeli terror. No blood for oil. Free Palestine." Police later cut the chains and arrested the pro- Palestinian protesters.
Palestinian supporters disrupted a "Stand With Israel" rally April 7 in Blue Ash, a Cincinnati, Ohio, suburb.
More than 2,000 peace activists, mostly Arab and Palestinian, took their demands to George W. Bush's ranch in Crawford, Texas, on April 6. Bush was home on the range parleying with British Prime Minister Tony Blair to win support for the imperialist objective of overthrowing the Iraqi government. The protest was organized by the Dallas Peace Center and others in support of the Palestinian struggle and against U.S. and British plans to invade Iraq. Police had mandated no more than 600 people and a total of 125 automobiles would be allowed in the area. But the event far exceeded that arbitrary limitation. While no U.S. media were present, there was a strong international media presence. What, CNN couldn't find Crawford?
At the University of California-Berkeley on April 9, some 1,500 students and community activists marched across campus to Wheeler Hall. Hundreds of protesters took over the building while supporters rallied outside. Police broke up the sit-in after five hours, arresting 78 people. Demonstrators then marched to police headquarters demanding their release, including one activist who was reportedly brutalized by cops and then charged with assault. Students for Justice in Palestine organized the protest.
UP & DOWN THE WEST COAST
The same day, some 600 San Francisco State University students and community members demonstrated at Malcolm X Plaza on campus. The university president had sent organizers of the demonstration a letter threatening them with disciplinary action. But students continued to organize. The administration was forced to give GUPS--the General Union of Palestinian Students--a permit the morning before the demonstration. After a militant rally, protesters took over 19th Street, blocking traffic. They marched through the residential community adjacent to campus and occupied the four corners of 19th and Holloway by streaming back and forth in the crosswalks.
Students at the University of California-Davis held a march that day, too.
"Free, free Palestine," and "Libre, libre, Palestina" rang out in the streets of Los Angeles on April 6 as thousands marched demanding an end to the murderous Israeli military offensive and the occupation of Palestinian lands. The event commemorated the 1948 Deir Yassin massacre of at least 120 Palestinian men, women and children in cold blood by Zionist commando units. Hundreds of colorful Palestinian national flags waved at the rally of some 6,000 activists from around the region, from many national and ethnic backgrounds and ages-including many youths--standing together in unity. The broad diversity underscored the growing solidarity in the United States with the Palestinian liberation struggle. The event was organized by the Ad-Hoc Committee to Stop the Israeli War of Liquidation against the People of Palestine. Rally speakers denounced the virtual "green light" of the Bush administration to the Israeli atrocities. Michel Shehadeh, Western Regional Director of the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee, stressed that Israel "is terrorizing and targeting civilians and brutally subjugating an entire nation. It is imperative that the American people stand with what is right."
NEW YORK & NEW JERSEY
The International ANSWER--Act Now to Stop War & Racism-- coalition called for an April 5 demonstration in New York on only a few days' notice. Organizers estimated some 10,000 people packed Times Square. In light of the Bush-Ashcroft administration's terrible repression and racism against Arab and Muslim people since 9/11, it was of great consequence that so many people of Middle Eastern descent turned out. Whole families chanted, waved flags and marched, joined by Black, Latino and white supporters, including Jews. All together they chanted "Bush, Sharon you should know: The occupation has got to go!" as they marched through heavily trafficked streets at the height of rush hour to the Israeli Mission to the United Nations.
Demonstrations took place the same day in Jersey City and Paterson, N.J.
The Palestine Right to Return Coalition Al-Awda organized an April 6 rally in Union Square in Manhattan. Some mosques in Brooklyn drew thousands to a demonstration that day that marched across the Brooklyn Bridge to New York City Hall. Perhaps half its ranks were non-Arab supporters. After a City Hall rally, participants helped swell the Union Square protest.
The Metropolitan Muslim Federation has called for an April 12 rally in Times Square that is expected to draw very large numbers.
ACROSS THE COUNTRY . . .
In Chicago, 5,000 people marched on the Israeli Consulate to demand an end to the U.S.-backed Israeli occupation of Palestinian cities and refugee camps. The demonstration was one of the largest in recent memory, drawing huge numbers from local Palestinian, Arab and Muslim communities and including support from the progressive movement. Protesters demanded an end to the massive military aid that has made Israel the fourth-largest power in the world. They called for the right of return for all the Palestinian people driven from their historic home when the settler state of Israel was set up.
Several progressive and peace organizations, including the Buffalo, N.Y., International Action Center, held a spirited picket line on April 6. Passersby and motorists demonstrated considerable support. The activists who participated are working together to provide transportation from Buffalo and Western New York to the April 20 protest in Washington, D.C., to stop the Pentagon war drive and support the Palestinian struggle.
On April 5, a militant crowd of over 1,000 gathered outside the Islamic Center of San Diego to voice their outrage at the U.S.-financed carnage underway in numerous Palestinian cities and refugee camps. Another protest of equal numbers occurred on Sunday in San Diego's Balboa Park. Demonstrators waved Palestinian flags and held signs condemning Israeli aggression. One of the most popular chants was, "Bush, Sharon, you can't hide. We charge you with genocide."
Black Voices for Peace called an April 4 protest in Washington, D.C. The American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee co-sponsored the event and ANSWER helped mobilize for it. About 1,000 activists answered the call-- predominately African American, Arab and Muslim.
From reporting by Bob Anderson, Deirdre Sinnott, Sharon Ayling, John Parker, G. Dunkel, Bill Massey, Dallas Peace Center, Bob McCubbin and Malcolm Cummins.
MASSIVE AND MILITANT: WORLD PROTESTS HIT BUSH, SHARON
By John Catalinotto
April10, 2002--Millions of demonstrators waving Palestinian flags. That's what greeted U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell when he arrived in Rabat on April 8 to try and line up the Moroccan king behind Washington's Mideast policy.
Waving signs condemning U.S. support for Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and his "war against unarmed Palestinian people," the protesters burned Israeli and U.S. flags.
The Moroccan Association for the Support of the Palestinian Struggle organized the rally. The group's chairperson, Khalid Sefiani, told the media that "It's not 3 million Moroccans who expressed total and unfailing support to Palestinians but all Moroccan people who, from now on, consider themselves Palestinians."
This was the biggest--but not the only--proof of worldwide anger against both Israel's brutal assault on Palestinian towns and refugee camps and U.S. backing for that assault.
Powell's trip itself, billed as an effort to stop the fighting in Palestine, is aimed at deflecting the growing outrage focused on U.S. imperialism. U.S. strategists worry that the mass outpourings, especially in the Arab countries, could turn into uprisings against U.S. client regimes. In Morocco, Egypt and Jordan, as well as Saudi Arabia and most of the other Gulf states, there is a wide separation between the regimes and the masses.
As the Israeli invasion of the West Bank entered its second week, tens of thousands of people in Cairo and other Egyptian cities protested against Israel and the U.S. despite state repression. When students attempted to leave the University of Cairo grounds, police used violence to stop them, arresting at least 30.
On the eve of the April 6 foreign ministers' meeting in Cairo, Egyptian demonstrators called for military action against Israel. "The liberation of the occupied territories is possible only with weapons," they shouted, "not with a peace initiative."
In Bahrain demonstrators broke into the U.S. Embassy compound and set some vehicles on fire. In Saudi Arabia, after the regime forbade any type of demonstration, police attacked young people who had gathered to protest against the U.S. and Israel.
In Jordan, where a large majority of the population is of Palestinian origin, the regime of King Abdullah tried to channel the protests into non-threatening areas. People were asked to donate blood at the hospitals and send funds to charitable organizations headed by the king. After the interior minister proclaimed that any demonstrations needed permits, tens of thousands of people took part in a permitted protest April 2 in Amman.
In Khartoum, Sudan, on April 8, more than a million people demonstrated solidarity with the Palestinian struggle and called for a boycott of U.S. products. Government and opposition parties participated.
In Lebanon, where a half-million Palestinian refugees live, there were demonstrations all week; 15,000 marched in Baalbek, according to the BBC. Tens of thousands also demonstrated in Syria, Libya and Iraq. In Turkey, where the regime has military pacts with Israel, mass protests across the country on April 5 followed Friday prayers.
PROTESTS IN ISRAEL, EUROPE, LATIN AMERICA, AUSTRALIA
In Tel Aviv Israeli Arabs and anti-militarist Jews joined in the thousands to protest Sharon's offensive and demand that Israeli forces leave the Occupied Territories and remove the Jewish settlements from those areas. "It is not a war against terror, it is a war of occupation and reoccupation," said one speaker.
Also, the movement among Israeli soldiers and reservists to refuse duty in the Occupied Territories has grown. Over 1,000 people have pledged to refuse, and as of April 8 some 30 of these soldiers and officers had been imprisoned for active refusal.
Thousands of people demonstrated in Sao Paolo, Brazil, where there is a large Arab community, and there were also demonstrations in Santiago, Chile, and in Managua, Nicaragua.
Mass protests took place across Europe. In Italy, some 40,000 people marched through downtown Rome April 6 in support of the Palestinian people and against the Israeli war. There were demonstrations of 10,000 in Naples, 5,000 in Milan, 4,000 in Turin and smaller ones in dozens of other Italian cities.
The three trade union confederations in Italy, which are preparing a general strike for April 16 to defend labor rights, pulled out of the Rome demonstration at the last minute, saying it was too pro-Palestinian. Some major individual unions participated, however.
In the Basque Country in Bilbao and Pamplona, tens of thousands demonstrated solidarity with the Palestinians on April 6. They were responding to a united call from both Spanish- and Basque-based trade unions, an uncommon event.
In Paris, some 40,000 people protested Israel's invasion. Slogans included, "From Shatila to Ramallah, the murderers are still there" and "Those who sow injustice will reap the Intifada." The demonstrators also protested attacks on synagogues in France.
Other significant demonstrations took place in Marseilles, Strasbourg, Lyon, Montpellier and at least a dozen other French cities.
On April 7, 25,000 people marched through Brussels, Belgium, to demand an end to Israel's war against the Palestinians. Converging in front of the U.S. Embassy, they shouted, "Bush, Sharon, terrorists! Bush, murderer! Sharon, his dog! We are all Palestinians!"
In Berlin, 10,000 marched on April 6 to the pro-Israel media concern Springer and raised a Palestinian flag on the building. Tens of thousands demonstrated in Bonn, Karlsruhe, Hannover, Dusseldorf and other German cities. Some 10,000 people also demonstrated in Bern, Switzerland.
In Australia, some 2,000 people demonstrated in Sydney, including 30 who tried to invade the Israeli Consulate, and in Brisbane.
Other demonstrations took place in Indonesia and Uganda.
Reports from the Panafrican News Agency (Morocco), AFP (Sudan) and the newspapers Junge Welt (Germany), Il Manifesto (Italy), l'Humanite (France), and Solidaire (Belgium).
WORLD PROTESTS DEMAND: "BUSH, ISRAEL--STOP YOUR VIOLENCE!"
Millions March in Solidarity with Palestine
By Richard Becker
On March 29 Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon answered the Arab League's "peace plan," adopted the previous day at its meeting in Beirut, with a declaration of war on the Palestinian people.
The new war of re-occupation began with a massive assault on Palestinian cities, towns and refugee camps in the West Bank and Gaza. The compound of Palestinian Authority President Yasser Arafat in Ramallah, the PA's administrative capital, was the first target. The complex of buildings was invaded and largely destroyed. Arafat remains trapped in two rooms as of this writing on April 3. Many Palestinians have been killed, wounded and rounded up. There is irrefutable evidence that the Israelis executed five Palestinian police officers inside the Ramallah compound. All were shot in the head at close range. Widely published photos of the murder scene show bloodstains on the walls two to three feet above the floor, indicating that the officers were kneeling or squatting when they were executed.
The Israeli offensive quickly expanded to Bethlehem, Qalquilya, Jenin and other West Bank and Gaza cities and towns. Israel has called up 20,000 reservists in preparation for wider attacks and occupation.
The entire Palestinian population in the re-occupied areas has been subject to a reign of terror and collective punishment. Round-the-clock curfews have been imposed on hundreds of thousands of people, electricity and water lines have been deliberately cut, food and medical supplies blocked. Shoot-to-kill orders are in place to enforce the 24- hour curfews.
A U.S.-ISRAELI WAR
A necessary pre-condition for launching this new war was support from the United States, Israel's chief patron and military supplier. Backing from the Bush administration was immediate and emphatic.
In an astonishing display of arrogance that elicited widespread outrage in the Arab world, President George W. Bush, Vice President Dick Cheney and Secretary of State Colin Powell all demanded that President Arafat "do more to stop the violence," even as Israeli troops surrounded him in his shattered and darkened headquarters.
"Do those Americans live with us on the same earth?" asked Wael Hassan, an Egyptian law student protesting the Israeli assault in Cairo, quoted in the Washington Post. "Can't this Bush realize what the Israelis have been doing to the Palestinians for the past 50 years? Well, how could he realize the pain of the poor Palestinians who are living in camps while he is condemning them from his ranch playing with his dogs."
"He [Bush] had a limited vocabulary," said former Jordanian Prime Minister Tahir Masri responding to the president's comments. "He kept repeating terrorism 10 or 20 times and not mentioning occupation. It was as if the Palestinians are the aggressors."
The strong support from Washington for Israel's massive assault on the Palestinians may appear paradoxical to some. Massive demonstrations have swept the Middle East, worrying the pro-U.S. regimes in Egypt, Jordan and elsewhere, and seemingly making it more difficult for the U.S. to move ahead with its plans for a new war against Iraq.
Others see the Bush administration's stance as evidence that it is being "held hostage" by the pro-Israel lobby; that is, that the administration has assumed a position that runs counter to its own interests in order to satisfy the needs of Israel.
The reality is that the most extreme, adventuristic and militarist elements, who tightened their grip on the reins of government in the aftermath of Sept. 11, view the U.S.- armed Israeli offensive as the opening of a new, wider war of domination in the Middle East.
In order to carry out the war, and particularly a new attack on Iraq, conventional wisdom says that the Palestinian- Israeli struggle must first be calmed down. Even the most pro-U.S. leaders in the Arab world, like Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, have repeatedly stated that an attack on Iraq while the struggle was still raging in Palestine would produce "an explosive situation" in the region.
Vice President Cheney's tour of 10 Middle East countries in March dramatically illustrated the problem. While it was intended to line up support or acquiescence for a new U.S. war on Iraq, Cheney ran into the Palestine-Israel conflict in every Arab capital he visited. The Palestinian struggle had become an obstacle to the administration's war plans.
The argument in Washington has been how to remove that obstacle in order to get on with the wider Middle East agenda. One side, led by Secretary of State Powell, has advocated a renewal of negotiations. Powell was clearly behind the Saudi plan passed by the Arab League. The idea was that the Palestinians would call a halt to the struggle and talks would then resume, possibly leading to the creation of a Palestinian mini-state on part of the territory of the West Bank and Gaza. Powell's aim is to liquidate the struggle by splitting the Palestinians and making the Palestinian Authority beholden to the U.S.
But there is another view in Washington, as Sharon was well aware, of how to achieve the same objective, the liquidation of the Palestinian resistance movement.
Cheney, Secretary of Defense Rumsfeld and others see the Palestinians as a whole as a force that must be crushed and destroyed as part of subjecting the region as a whole. And it is this view that is holding sway in the Bush administration today.
Bush, Cheney and Rumsfeld have repeatedly promised a prolonged and far-flung war. Phase I of the endless war was Afghanistan. Phase II is Palestine.
If they succeed in these opening phases--and success is far from assured--Iraq, Iran and Syria will be future targets, as indicated in remarks by both Bush and Rumsfeld on April 1.
The administration's aim is the recolonization of the entire vital Middle East, home to two-thirds of the planet's known petroleum reserves.
To achieve their neocolonial objectives, the U.S. leaders are seeking to crush all who would resist. The Palestinian struggle is at the very heart of the liberation struggle in the Middle East, as evidenced by the militant solidarity protests that have swept the Arab world in recent days.
The unambiguous support of the Bush administration for the Sharon offensive, and the fact that the Pentagon has supplied the F-16 fighter-bombers and Apache helicopters being used by the Israeli military, make it clear that this must be called what it is: the U.S.-Israeli war against the Palestinian people.
ANTI-WAR MOVEMENT MUST SUPPORT PALESTINIANS
The stakes in this struggle are very high, first and foremost for the Palestinians, who are fighting for their long-denied right to self-determination. But it is not only the Palestinians who will be greatly affected by the outcome.
If the combined might of the U.S. and Israel--which are the first and fourth-rated military powers in the world--were to be successful in crushing the Palestinian Revolution, new wars against Iraq and other countries in the region would likely come sooner rather than later. U.S. global domination would be greatly enhanced, to the detriment of the masses of working people around the world and here at home as well.
The Palestinian struggle, in other words, is today the key barricade in the world struggle against imperialism.
All who truly stand for justice and against war must rally to the side of the Palestinians in their heroic and unequal fight. This is especially true in the United States, the heartland of Palestinian oppression, where the traditional peace movement has too often in the past looked away from the struggle in the Middle East.
Twenty years ago this June, in the midst of the U.S.-backed Israeli invasion of Lebanon, an anti-nuclear war rally was attended by a million people in New York City. The organizers of that rally disgraced themselves and their movement by refusing to address the carpet bombing of Beirut taking place as they gathered. No anti-war or peace movement is worthy of that name if it does not forthrightly defend the Palestinian people today.
Solidarity with the Palestinian cause will be a central focus of the April 20 marches called by the International ANSWER coalition in Washington and San Francisco.
Thousands Rally in LA for Palestine
Thousands in Los Angeles March and Rally to commemorate the Palestinian Day of the Land and to protest the escalating violence by Israel’s Occupation Forces against innocent Palestinians
Demonstrators demanded to "Stop the Killing" and called for a Free Palestine and an end to the Israeli Occupation
March 31, 2002--Los Angeles:-Demonstrators marched through the streets of Westwood in Los Angeles on March 30 to demand an end to the killing of innocent Palestinians by Israeli military forces, and for an immediate end to Israeli occupation of Palestinian lands. Following the united, spirited and peaceful march, the demonstrators gathered in front of the Westwood Federal Building for a rally featuring speakers and music.
Between 5000-6000 people from throughout the Southern California region, Palestinian and Arab-Americans, peace, religious, and community groups, to say in one voice, “Free, Free Palestine” and to demand an immediate end to the horrendous suffering and anguish caused by the Israeli occupation. The diversity of racial and ethnic representation at the event and the large participation of youth underscored the growing solidarity with the Palestinians among people in the United States.
United in their solidarity with the struggle of the Palestinians for peace with justice, they filled the streets with signs and banners denouncing the brutal and illegal occupation and calling for an end to the killing.
A dramatic and moving procession of coffins draped with the Palestinian flag lined each side of the march in commemoration of the more than 1200 Palestinian men, women and children who have been murdered by the Israeli military. Hundreds of Palestinian flags were carried to show solidarity with the national and political aspirations of the Palestinian people.
At the rally following the march, which was chaired by Michel Shehadeh, the Western Regional Director of the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC), speakers called for an end to the killing of innocent Palestinians who are being killed with U.S.-made weapons.
“It is essential that the American people understand that the Israeli occupation of Palestine is the root cause of all evils in the region.” Michel Shehadeh said. “It is imperative that all peace and justice loving people unite in a strong movement to end the Israeli occupation to give peace a chance.” He emphasized.
Maggie Vascassenno of the International Action Center agreed with Shehadeh and added,” Our tax money is financing the Israeli atrocities. The U.S. government sends Israel $5 billion a year in addition to f-16 jet fighters, Apache helicopters and all the sophisticated weapons money can buy. All are being used against Palestinian innocent civilians. We have to stop that.”
Ad-Hoc Committee to: Stop the Israeli War of liquidation against the People of Palestine
For more info call: (714) 636-1232 or (213) 487-2368
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Atlanta: Georgia Protests for Palestinians in Thunderstorm
by March for Palestinians • Sunday March 31, 2002 at 01:45 AM
In a thunderstorm with drenching rain, 200 people in Atlanta, Georgia picketed the Israeli consulate. One wonders how many Israeli consulates there are in the US. Our movement is beyond the major Northern cities; it is everywhere.
In a thunderstorm with drenching rain, 200 people in Atlanta, Georgia picketed the Israeli consulate. One wonders how many Israeli consulates there are in the US. Our movement is beyond the major Northern cities; it is everywhere.
Atlanta, Saturday, Mar. 30th- Despite a torrential downpour well over 200 people participated in the Palestinian Land Day demonstration and March. The event was organized by the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee and co-sponsored by many others including American Friends Service Committee. The first Palestinian Land Day occurred on March 30, 1976. According to organizers, "it was the first time that Palestinian Israelis held massive demonstrations to protest the confiscation of their land."
This year's event called for an end to the occupation and the violence. Huddled under umbrellas before the Nelson Mandela Stone in Piedmont Park, the group strained to hear speakers over the rumble of thunder. Much anger and energy was focused on Israeli Prime Minister Sharon who many feel is responsible for the recent escalation of violence against the Palestinian people.
After the park rally the group marched on the sidewalk to the Israeli consulate located several blocks away on Spring street. Although the protestors were soaked to the bone spirits were not dampened. Their chants of "Palestinians are People Too" and "No Justice, No Peace" drew the attention of drivers and brought neighborhood residents to their windows.
The marchers had some difficulty negotiating the traffic and flooding at intersections but they arrived safely at the consulate without police interference. The group then lined both sides of the street waving signs and Palestinian flags. At one point 3 or 4 police showed up but only told the demonstrators to stay out of the road. After a moment of silence and singing "We Shall Overcome" the group dispersed but expressed its intent to demonstrate again.source: http://www.atlanta.indymedia.org/front.php3?article_id=4398&group=webcast
source: http://chicago.indymedia.org/front.php3?article_id=8599&group=webcast
Chicago: More than two hundred fifty protesters marched from the Tribune Plaza to the Israeli Consulate on East Wacker Drive Monday evening to oppose the Israeli occupation of Palestine and the latest round of Israeli atrocities against Palestinians. Chicago’s Palestinian and Pakistani communities turned out in large numbers for the action, which was endorsed by more than a dozen local anti-war and social justice groups. Core demands included an immediate end to the Israeli occupation, a halt to U.S. military and economic assistance to the Sharon government, and support for justice and independence for the Palestinian people.
Over 100 Palestinians have been killed and hundreds more wounded in the last week, apparently in an effort to fulfill Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's threat to 'beat' the Palestinians into submission. Casualties continued to rise over the weekend. Monday, Israeli forces pushed into Jabalya refuge camp with more than 30 tanks and arrested hundreds of Palestinians, with total Israeli arrests in occupied Palestine in the last day numbering more than a thousand. Eyewitnesses characterized the mass round-ups as ‘Nazi-like’.
The International Red Cross and the Red Crescent Society have also decried the Israeli military's recent targeting of Palestinian ambulances and health care workers, three of whom have been killed in the most recent wave of violence.
Some community leaders have been reluctant to stage protests at the Israeli Consulate in the wake of September 11, but Monday’s marchers – particularly Palestinians and Muslims – said the community could no longer be silent about the brutality of the occupation. “We cannot be quiet any longer in the face of daily Israeli atrocities against our people,” said one woman, who came with her grown daughter to the march. “I am a refuge myself,” said another man, “and I am here to support my fellow refugees and fellow Palestinians. It is only by speaking out against the injustice of the occupation that we will win freedom and dignity for Palestinians – or for any oppressed people.”
Organizers of Monday’s action also urged marchers to support a national call to protest Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon’s planned visit to Washington, D.C. on April 22. Many in Monday’s action have committed to traveling to Washington for the protest.
Endorsers of Monday's protest included the Arab American Media Guild; the Chicago Anti-Bashing Network; the Chicago Coalition Against War and Racism Emergency Response Committee; the Chicago Islamic Center; the Committee for a Democratic Palestine; Granada Muslims and Jews for Human Rights; International Action Center; International ANSWER Coalition; International Socialist Organization; Islamic Association for Palestine; National Lawyers Guild - Chicago; the Palestine Aid Society; Palestinian-American Council; Prairie Fire Organzing Committee; Worker's World Party - Chicago; and the 8th Day Center for Justice.
source: http://nyc.indymedia.org
New York: New Yorkers Join Int'l Solidarity Movement In Palestine
(Updated 3/31) A delegation of 10 New York City activists have joined the International Solidarity Movement in Palestine in an effort to use non-violent direct action tactics to help end the illegal Israeli occupationThe two-week campaign began Thursday as the Israeli military assault reached new extremes. Ariel Sharron pledged "an extended operation against Palestinian territories" and activated 20,000 military reservists. Some 600 internationals, mostly from Europe, are acting as legal observers and human shields across the occupied territory including Ramallah where Israeli forces attacked Yasser Arafat’s compound. On Saturday, in New York, hundreds protested against the Israeli aggression. Also here the United Nations Security Council unanimously called for Israel to withdraw its troops from Palestinian cities.
San Francisco: Hundreds March for Palestine in SF on 3/30
by March for Palestinians • Saturday March 30, 2002 at 04:32 PM
On a beautiful, warm, spring day in San Francisco, March 30, 2002, hundreds of people of all ages and colors marched for Palestinian Land Day on San Francisco's main thoroughfare, Market Street, from the Financial District to the Civic Center.
On a beautiful, warm, spring day in San Francisco, March 30, 2002, hundreds of people of all ages and colors marched for Palestinian Land Day on San Francisco's main thoroughfare, Market Street, from the Financial District to the Civic Center.
Most impressive was the enthusiasm of the young people who proudly waved the many Palestinian flags, while one senior citizen in a wheelchair carried an American peace flag, with the peace symbol replacing the stars.
Our political messages were reflected in our wide variety of signs and banners, as well as in our chants. Some of those chants were: No justice, no peace; US out of the Middle East; Bush, Sharon, you can't hide, we charge you with genocide; Hey Hey, Ho Ho, The Occupation has got to go; Falasteen Arabiyeh! Thawra, Thawra Shaabiyeh!-Palestine is forever Arab, hail to the people's popular revolution!
Among the many pieces of literature available was a leaflet with the text of a milestone resolution passed by the San Francisco Labor Council on March 11, 2002, condemning the February 17, 2002 "bombing of the headquarters of the Palestine General Federation of Trade Unions by US-supplied and paid-for Israeli F-16 jets, which continue to bomb civilian and Palestinian political targets, against US legal restrictions." The full text of this historic resolution, which was unthinkable just a few years ago, can be seen at:
http://www.jerusalem.indymedia.org/news/2002/03/1224.phpAt the end of our march, we were treated to a wide variety of speeches by people from other liberation struggles, such as those of the Philippines and Puerto Rico. Perhaps the most poignant was the speech in Arabic and English of a young Palestinian girl from a refugee camp, about 13 years old, wearing a beautiful ankle-length, embroidered dress. Her understanding of the struggle was sharp and profound. It is for her generation that we must all carry on the struggle until we have a socialist, secular Palestine, thus guaranteeing peace in the Middle East.
ources: www.jerusalem.indymedia.org/news/2002/03/1224.php http://sf.indymedia.org
Washington DCPalestinians and Allies Rally in DC
by Mobile SF-IMCista • Saturday March 30, 2002 at 03:51 PM
salem@indymedia.orgAudio from todays rally against the zionist occupation of Palestine
Listen to audio from today's rally against the Israeli aggression against Palestinians. As a warm up event for the shut down Sharon in DC actions in DC from April 19th-22nd over 1400 people rallied to support the Palestinians people in Freedom Plaza.
information on april actions go to http://www.sustaincampaign.org
link to audio from rally: http://dc.indymedia.org/audio/dcimc.pls
sources: dc.indymedia.org/audio/dcimc.pls http://sf.indymedia.org/news/2002/03/119995.php
Seattle: A picture of Palestinian Land Day protest in Seattle yesterday. 300 people.
source: http://seattle.indymedia.org/
Around the World:
Pro-Palestinian protests in European cities
by AFP -repost, Chicago IMC • Saturday March 30, 2002 at 01:54 PM
Repost from the AFP wire: Thousands of people marched in support of the Palestinian people and their besieged leader Yasser Arafat in France, Germany and other European - countries Saturday, as Israel continued its operations against the Palestinian Authority.
In central Paris around 1,000 people demonstrated in a protest against the "logic of war" of Israeli prime minister Ariel Sharon.
- In Lyon, France's second city, police said around 5,500 people took part in a pro-Palestinian demonstration.
- In the German capital Berlin around 800 people took part in a pro-Palestinian rally.
- Security around Jewish establishments was increased in the city amid fears that there might be an anti-Jewish backlash related to events in the Middle East.
- In Strasbourg in eastern France, between 2,000 and 3,000 people from France as well as from nearby Germany and Belgium took part in a protest called by the Party of French Muslims (PMF).
Its president, Mohamed Laprecje said: "Our goal is to give our support to the Intifada (the Palestinian uprising), to uplift a people in the face of a colonizing army."
Organizers spoke out against some elements in the march who began shouting anti-Jewish slogans, saying their fight was against Israel's policies and not against Jews.
- In Marseille, in southern France, a city with a large Muslim population, around 1,600 people demonstrated in favour of "respect for the rights of the Palestinian people."
They shouted slogans against Israeli prime minister Ariel Sharon and US President George W. Bush.
- Easter peace marches in Hanover, Munich, Duesseldorf and Stuttgart, with between 250 and 1,000 protestors in each, also had a strong pro-Palestinian element.
- In Bordeaux in southwestern France a pro-Palestinian demonstration of around 300 people took place in the city centre.
- In Athens, Greece, around a dozen members of parliament demonstrated in front of the Israeli Embassy and called for the withdrawal of Israeli forces from Ramallah.
- The Israeli ambassador to Greece, David Shasson, refused to meet them and said in a statement that, "while the protesters are upset by the Israeli army actions, they showed no reaction to the terrorist attack in Netanya, which took the lives of 21 Israelis during the Jewish Easter."
- Israel's current operations in the Palestinian territories are being carried out in retaliation for the Netanya suicide bombing, which took place on Wednesday.
ource: http://jerusalem.indymedia.org/news/2002/03/1355.php
More coverage: A compilation of solidarity protest/demonstration coverage on Indymedia at http://seattle.indymedia.org/front.php3?article_id=12464&group=webcast
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