Raising our voices for Gaza

THEY CAME from all along the East Coast--and from cities in Michigan and Ohio. Some spent 12 hours on the bus just to get there.

Some 20,000 people gathered across the street from the White House January 10 to denounce Israel's war on Gaza--and to demand an end to U.S. support for state-sponsored terrorism.

The Washington, D.C., demonstration was one in a flurry of shows of support for Palestinians that began hours after the Israeli onslaught started two weeks before.

The next day in New York City, as many as 20,000 protesters turned out to rally, just a week after a 25,000-strong march.

Throughout the protest, police harassed protesters, many of them Arabs and Muslims--with one uniformed officer saying, for example, "Why don't you all blow yourselves up?" At least 30 people were arrested, most of them as they were trying to leave, and cops used pepper spray, unprovoked, against teenage protesters.

Other demonstrations took place from coast to coast. In San Francisco, 7,000 came out to protest on Saturday; in Los Angeles, 5,000 marched; in Chicago, 6,000.

EVEN AS the rally in Washington, D.C., began, the crisis was escalating. While protesters made their way from chartered buses to Lafayette Park, Israeli tanks were approaching Gaza City.

"We have to get our point across," said a young Muslim woman in the crowd who said she was a student at the University of Michigan. "How is history going to judge us? The American people have seen how many civilians are dying. Those images are real. You can't pretend they aren't." More than 840 Palestinians have been killed since the offensive began on December 27.

Regarding the idea that things might change under Obama, she expressed skepticism--but also hope. "Maybe not hope in politics," she said, "but hope in the American people."

A recent survey by Rasmussen Reports suggests her optimism might be warranted. While 44 percent of those polled expressed support for Israel's military action against Gaza, an impressive 41 percent were opposed to it. That's a long way from the moral equivalent of a blank check--which is just what U.S. administrations, under whichever party, have been writing for decades.

Saturday's demonstration in Washington--called by the ANSWER Coalition, Muslim American Society Freedom, Free Palestine Alliance, National Council of Arab Americans and Al-Awda-International Palestine Right to Return Coalition--took place amid constant reminders that one president is departing from office and another preparing to move in.

Lafayette Park was, like much of downtown Washington, a scene of frantic preparations for the inauguration--with much of the area enclosed by security fences.

And protesters found themselves almost literally "between administrations." On one side of the park is the White House--a place occasionally visited by George W. Bush, when there was no brush to clear in Crawford. On the other side is the Hay-Adams Hotel, now the temporary home of Barack Obama and family.

Speakers at the rally expressed frustration with the president-elect's failure to speak out about Israel's attack. Perhaps the best line of the day came from Cynthia McKinney, who ran as the Green Party presidential candidate last year. "Barack Obama roared onto the political scene like a lion," she said. "But when it comes to the suffering in Gaza, he is as shy as a lamb."

Many people expressed that they didn't know what the new president might do--but they themselves had to speak out for Palestine. Belal, a student from Carman-Ainsworth High School in Flint, Mich., said that it was important to keep the pressure on American officials by showing that "people do care...We want them to see the truth."

Another young protester from the University of Michigan named Rana made similar points--but in a more sharply worded way. "We have a representative government," she said, "but it doesn't represent us. We're taught about the values of liberty and equality in school, but we don't do anything about it in reality. The United States is supposed to support democracy around the world, but Hamas was democratically elected, and we don't defend them when they are attacked."

What about the new administration? "They talk the talk," said Rana, "but do they walk the walk? It's unpredictable."

Demonstrators traveled from as far south as Florida and as far north as Vermont. The rally had already grown to impressive proportions, when it was swelled by an influx of some 750 people who had just arrived by bus from Cincinnati. The crowd represented a range of ages and ethnicities--though people of Arabic descent appeared to be the majority.

Perhaps the most conspicuous thing about the event was the number of young Muslims in attendance. Many were in their teens--meaning that they had grown up under years of pervasive Islamophobia. Their sense of urgency at protesting the atrocities in Gaza seems mixed with a determination never to tolerate second-class citizenship. And their willingness to become active now has the potential to revitalize an antiwar movement that has lost much energy over the past couple of years.

Speaking from the podium on behalf of the International Socialist Organization, Dave Zirin drew a spirited response from the crowd when he identified the rally as part of "a historic opportunity to build a new movement for justice in Palestine."

He noted the poll showing that 41 percent of the American public is opposed to Israel's brutal assault on Gaza. "Those are the people we need to organize in the days--not weeks, days--to come," he said.

LARGE PROTESTS in solidarity with the people of Gaza were repeated in city after city.

In New York City, at the January 11 demonstration sponsored by Break the Siege on Gaza-New York, the 20,000 demonstrators turned out in spite of the bitter cold.

"We have no rights there--10,750 Palestinians are held in jail with no trials, and now they are killing our children, our women," a Palestinian named Mahmoud said. "We are not the ones who want war, it is Israel who is killing."

The behavior of the police added to the anger of the crowd. "This police riot was clearly on orders from Mayor Bloomberg, who just returned from Israel, where he cheered on the attacks against the people of Gaza, and who is clearly trying to intimidate the mass protests that have taken place here," said Lamis Deek, human rights attorney and co-chair of Al-Awda New York. "But these tactics will not keep us off the streets."

In San Francisco, over 8,000 people protested on January 10, one of the largest of some half-dozen pro-Palestine protests that took place there in recent weeks. The Arab and Muslim communities were out in full force, with many families with children in attendance.

A diverse range of speakers addressed the crowd, including Lemya, a 9-year-old girl living in Gaza who called in on a crackling telephone line to report on the situation. "They bombed my school," she said. "The sounds don't stop. I hear the bombs constantly. The noise of the ambulances will not stop."

Well-known antiwar activist Cindy Sheehan said: "The Palestinians are entitled to that land. Israel is the illegal occupier, like the U.S. in Iraq and Afghanistan. Other speakers included Jack Heyman of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union, who reminded the crowd, "Labor helped to bring down the apartheid regime in South Africa. Labor must organize for one democratic state."

Like many present, Nari and Rima had family in Palestine on their minds as they called for an end to U.S aid to Israel. "History will come back and haunt Israel," Rima said. "The U.S is going to have to stop supporting Israel. Israel has been given the license to kill. Enough is enough. We need to spend more money on our cities here, not bombing innocent people."

In Chicago, the 6,000-strong protest on January 9 turned out a large number of Arabs and Muslims, many of whom traveled on buses from around the city and suburbs.

"I feel like my national identity is being exterminated, and the world is watching," said a Palestinian woman who was there with her mother. "And the country that I pay tax dollars to is helping and supporting and supplying the weapons that are being used to kill my brothers and sisters."

Said protester Luke Jones, "As an indigenous person, as a Native American, the issue around land theft, around dispossession, around erasure of historical truth is very personal to me, so I feel a natural affinity for what Palestinians are experiencing, because in many ways, it's similar to what has happened and continues to happen to Native Americans here today."

In Los Angeles, some 5,000 people rallied on January 10. Chants of "Gaza, Gaza don't you cry, Palestine will never die!" "Not a dollar, not a dime, we won't pay for Israel's crimes!" "Hey, Obama, break the silence! Take a stand, stop the violence!" rang out as protesters marched behind black coffins, draped with Palestinian flags.

"We have to bring awareness of this issue to those Americans who don't know what is happening in Gaza," said Diana Bonilla, an Arab-American protester. "We live in a country that has civil liberties, and we have to exercise them."

Protester Dianna Afif said that she still has hope for ending the suffering of the people of Gaza if "we give the world some kind of sign that things have to change in the Middle East...Our coming out today to protest is part of that. The Arab nations also must come to the aid of the Palestinian people."

In Seattle, 1,000 people demonstrated on January 3.

"It's important, as a vet," said Chanan Suarez Diaz, president of the Seattle chapter of Iraq Veterans Against the War, "to know that Iraq, Palestine and Afghanistan are connected. In order to build an antiwar movement and fight imperialism, it's important to make these connections."

Cindy Corrie, the mother of Rachel Corrie, an American activist who was killed by an Israeli bulldozer in the Rafah refugee camp in Gaza, was there. "One of Rachel's friends is there and refusing to leave," she said. "I feel appalled that my government isn't calling for an immediate cease-fire."

Carol Johnson, who lived in Lebanon for over 14 years, said she was "impressed by this turnout of such a variety of groups...I deplore the outrageous imbalance of power and the U.S. money going to support the suppression of human rights among Palestinians. I'm also out here to protest the 450-mile-long wall. It makes the Berlin Wall look like a picket fence."

The next weekend, 300 people protested at the federal courthouse in Seattle. Over half of the demonstration, led by students from the University of Washington (UW) groups Democracy Insurgent and Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP), led an impromptu march through downtown. A few days earlier, over 150 UW students rallied on campus. Campus groups are planning a walkout for January 20 to celebrate the end of the Bush regime and organize for "change we believe in."

EVEN PROTESTS in smaller cities drew out hundreds of people.

In Portland, Ore., more than 500 people, many of them Arab and Muslim, came out on January 10. Protesters lined a block of a busy downtown street with Palestinian flags, chanting "Free, free Palestine," followed by a spontaneous march.

The same day, some 200 people gathered in Champaign-Urbana, Ill., to protest the brutal Israeli offensive in Gaza. Members of the local mosque, college students, parents and their children and antiwar activists all took part.

In Amherst, Mass., 400 people marched on Saturday, the largest antiwar protest in several years. The diverse group included large numbers of Arabs and Muslims. One speaker, a Palestinian college student, pointed out that "this war didn't start last month, it started 60 years ago"--when the state of Israel was formed from the ethnic cleansing of Arabs from historic Palestine.

Protesters were eager to continue organizing in solidarity with Gaza, and several students called for movements to demand divestment from Israel. Organizers of the action included Students for Justice in Palestine at Hampshire College, the Hampshire Mosque, the Campus Antiwar Network, the ISO and Justice for Jason campaign.

In Cincinnati, Ohio, word of protests spread by text messages, Facebook and word of mouth--with some 300 turning out January 3, many of them wearing "Stop the Killing in Gaza" T-shirts that had been produced overnight.

In Columbus, Ohio, some 350 people protested on January 5, in a protest called by the Committee for Justice in Palestine.

Atlanta saw three Gaza protests over an eight-day period--with 600 people demonstrating at the CNN Center on January 3. On January 5, 250 came out to another emergency protest and march organized at the Israeli consulate. Following the protest, marchers again took over the street for a march through midtown Atlanta. On January 10, 500 people came to another march, led by a contingent of children.

In Houston, a candlelight vigil on January 8 drew 300 supporters, a protest at the Israeli consulate the next day turned out 500, and a last-minute counterprotest to a pro-Israeli demonstration on Saturday brought 250 pro-Palestine protesters.

In Madison, Wis., 150 people took part in a "March of the Dead" called by Voices for Creative Non-violence and the Madison-Rafah Sister City Project on January 6.