Posts Tagged ‘students for justice in palestine’
 
November 20, 2012 3

“End the Nazi Occupation in Gaza”: A Round-Up Of U.S. Anti-Israel Protests On November 19

Close to two dozen anti-Israel ral­lies took place across the United States on Mon­day, from Greens­boro to Gainesville, Seat­tle to Santa Cruz. Nearly half of Monday’s demon­stra­tions occurred on uni­ver­sity and col­lege cam­puses, an indi­ca­tion of how student-driven the anti-Israel reac­tion is to the lat­est round of vio­lence tak­ing place in the Mid­dle East.

Below is a sam­pling of yesterday’s anti-Israel protests:

New Brunswick, NJ

At Rut­gers Uni­ver­sity, a state uni­ver­sity with more than 50,000 stu­dents, a rally orga­nized by Stu­dents for Jus­tice in Pales­tine drew approx­i­mately 150 demon­stra­tors to Brower Com­mons. One of the signs dis­played by stu­dents read, “It would be my great­est sad­ness to see Zion­ists do to Pales­tini­ans much of what Nazis did to Jews.” Demon­stra­tors also chanted “Intifada, Intifada” dur­ing the evening protest.

At least four rep­re­sen­ta­tives of Neturei Karta, an ultra-Orthodox anti-Zionist orga­ni­za­tion, par­tic­i­pated in and spoke at the rally. Jew­ish anti-Zionist groups often view their role as “pro­tect­ing” the anti-Israel move­ment from alle­ga­tions of anti-Semitism. It seemed to work here. Shortly after the protest ended, sev­eral stu­dents expressed how happy they were to have the Neturei Karta rep­re­sen­ta­tives, with one stu­dent not­ing, “I’m tired of being crit­i­cized as an anti-Semite for hav­ing crit­i­cal views of Israel, when in fact I have no qualms with our Jew­ish broth­ers and sis­ters, but rather an apartheid nation.”

San Fran­cisco, CA

A rally out­side the Israeli Con­sulate drew activists from Jew­ish Voice for Peace who held ban­ners and signs that read “The Siege of Gaza Betrays Jew­ish Val­ues” and “Israelis Against War and Apartheid.”

Chicago, IL

More than 300 demon­stra­tors ral­lied out­side a Fed­eral Build­ing in Chicago and then pro­ceeded to march to Daley Plaza, chant­ing “From the river to the sea, Pales­tine will be free.” Speak­ers alleged that Israel is a “ter­ror­ist state,” a “bru­tal killing machine” and that Jerusalem is “occu­pied.” One young woman held a sign that read, “End the Nazi Occu­pa­tion in Gaza!” The same sign also showed the Israeli flag with a large red swastika drawn over it and the words “real ter­ror­ists.” The rally attracted the sup­port of Amer­i­can Mus­lims for Pales­tine, Chicago Move­ment for Pales­tin­ian Rights, Coun­cil of Islamic Orga­ni­za­tions of Greater Chicago, Pales­tine Sol­i­dar­ity Group, US Pales­tin­ian Com­mu­nity Net­work and Jew­ish Voice for Peace.

Ithaca, NY

Anti-Israel stu­dents at Cor­nell Uni­ver­sity squared off against pro-Israel stu­dents who were hold­ing a rally to sup­port Israel’s actions and then marched across cam­pus chant­ing, “Hey Netanyahu, what do you say, how many kids did you kill today?” “Brick by brick, wall by wall, Israel’s apartheid’s got to fall” and “When peo­ple are occu­pied, resis­tance is jus­ti­fied.” The rally, called “Sol­i­dar­ity from Ithaca to Gaza,” was heav­ily attended by Jew­ish anti-Zionists, includ­ing rep­re­sen­ta­tives of Jew­ish Voice for Peace-Ithaca who held signs that read, “Jew­ish Voice for Peace Says Divest From the Occu­pa­tion” and “I am another Jew opposed to Israeli attacks on civilians.”

Tal­la­has­see, FL

The Stu­dents for Jus­tice in Pales­tine chap­ter at Florida State Uni­ver­sity orga­nized a protest that drew sev­eral dozen stu­dents. The stu­dents held signs that read, “Resist Zion­ism and Impe­ri­al­ism,” “Sup­port Peace, Defend Gaza” and “Denounc­ing Israel’s War Crimes is not Anti-Semitic.” One of the lead­ers of SJP was inter­viewed by local media and said, “We’re out here because Pales­tini­ans are being bru­tal­ized, are being bombed, are being killed every sin­gle day with Amer­i­can tax dol­lars and we think that’s inher­ently wrong.” He also apol­o­gized for Pales­tin­ian ter­ror­ism, say­ing it is the result of how “mis­er­able and hope­less” the Pales­tini­ans feel and pre­dicted that the “extrem­ism” will only end when the sit­u­a­tion for Pales­tini­ans improves.

For infor­ma­tion about other anti-Israel protests that have taken place since the start of Oper­a­tion Pil­lar of Defense, please see these pre­vi­ous posts:

“Israel should be Ended Once and For All,” “Cru­cify Him, Cru­cify Them…Israel’s Pol­icy:” A Round-Up of Anti-Israel Protests in the U.S., Novem­ber 17–18

Demon­stra­tors at Anti-Israel Ral­lies: “Gaza is the Real Holo­caust,” “Long live the Intifada!”

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November 16, 2012 10

Demonstrators at Anti-Israel Rallies: “Gaza is the Real Holocaust,” “Long live the Intifada!”

Vir­u­lent anti-Israel protests were held in at least two dozen cities across the United States yes­ter­day. The demon­stra­tions were orga­nized to protest Israeli air strikes against Hamas and ter­ror­ist infra­struc­ture in Gaza in an ongo­ing effort to defend Israel’s civil­ian pop­u­la­tion against the con­tin­u­ous bar­rage of indis­crim­i­nate deadly rocket fire from Gaza which now extends to Tel Aviv and Jerusalem.

Many of the demon­stra­tions were marked by extreme and anti-Semitic mes­sages. Signs that com­pared Israel to Nazi Ger­many and expressed sup­port for “armed resis­tance” in Gaza were wide­spread. Below is a sam­pling of the demonstrations:

New York: Approx­i­mately 1,000 indi­vid­u­als attended a rally to “Protest Israeli crimes in Gaza” out­side the Israeli Con­sulate. Signs held at the demon­stra­tion read, “Pales­tini­ans are free­dom fight­ers;”  “Stop Israeli geno­cide in Gaza;” “Resistance is jus­ti­fied when peo­ple are occu­pied;” “Long live the Intifada;” “With our soul and our blood we will redeem you, Pales­tine;” and “Gaza is Today’s War­saw Ghetto.”

One after the other, dif­fer­ent speak­ers took turns con­demn­ing Israel using Holo­caust analo­gies, prais­ing “armed resis­tance,” and call­ing for “Pales­tine to be free, from the [Jor­dan] River to the [Mediter­ranean] Sea.” One speaker said, “Speak­ing of resis­tance, do you guys think resis­tance equals ter­ror­ism?” The crowd shouted, “No!!!” Another speaker claimed that “Gaza is the War­saw Ghetto of today. Sixty years ago when the Jew­ish peo­ple in the War­saw Ghetto fought back against the Nazi war machine, today it is the peo­ple of Gaza and Pales­tine who are fight­ing for free­dom against a war machine that is no bet­ter than that of the Nazis.”

The speak­ers at the rally rep­re­sented a num­ber of groups, includ­ing Al-Awda, the Arab Mus­lim Amer­i­can Fed­er­a­tion, New York Uni­ver­sity and Hunter College’s chap­ters of Stu­dents for Jus­tice in Pales­tine, Mus­lim Amer­i­can Society, ANSWER, and more (see below for videos of the event).

Los Ange­les: Sev­eral dozen stu­dents protested on UCLA’s cam­pus hold­ing signs that read, “From the River to the sea Pales­tine will be free,” “This Israeli Jew­ish Grand­daugh­ter of a Holo­caust Sur­vivor is against the Mas­sacre of Gaza,” “Blow­ing up chil­dren ≠ self –defense” and “Respect Exis­tence or Expect Resis­tance.” Another sign, which read “93% effec­tive mis­sile defense Iron Dome paid for by $250 M in US tax $,” seemed to be upset with the Israeli defense sys­tem that pre­vents rock­ets from land­ing on Israeli civil­ians. Stu­dents also chanted, “Free, Free Pales­tine; Long live the intifada” and “Israel is a ter­ror­ist state.”

Chicago: Sev­eral hun­dred pro­test­ers held signs that read “Gaza is the Real Holo­caust,” “Con­demn Gaza Geno­cide,”  “Divest from Israel’s Crimes,” and “Stop Israel’s Slaugh­ter in Gaza.” One per­son held a sign that showed the Star of David = Swastika. The rally was held in Pru­den­tial Plaza out­side Pres­i­dent Obama’s cam­paign head­quar­ters. It was spon­sored by sev­eral Chicago-based orga­ni­za­tions, includ­ing the Chicago Move­ment for Pales­tin­ian Rights, the Pales­tine Sol­i­dar­ity Group and Amer­i­can Mus­lims for Pales­tine – Chicago. It was also endorsed by nearly 20 other orga­ni­za­tions, including 8 area chap­ters of Stu­dents for Jus­tice in Pales­tine and the Chicago chap­ter of Jew­ish Voice for Peace.

Boston: Pro­test­ers chanted “Resis­tance is Jus­ti­fied When Peo­ple are Occu­pied” and “Pales­tine will be free, from the river to the sea.” “Long live Intifada, Intifada, Intifada!” A large ban­ner that read “Jews for Intifada” was held by sev­eral activists at the front of the crowd as they marched towards the Israeli Con­sulate in down­town Boston. The rally was spon­sored by Jew­ish Voice for Peace, CODEPINK, the United National Anti­war Coali­tion, and Occupy-Boston. A sign that read, “Un-Occupy Pales­tine” was also on display.

Videos from the anti-Israel demon­stra­tion in New York City:

 

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November 16, 2012 1

Anti-Semitism and Legitimization of Terror Abound in Reaction to Israeli Operations in Gaza

Anti-Israel activists are using var­i­ous social media plat­forms to express their oppo­si­tion to Israel’s ongo­ing mil­i­tary oper­a­tions in Gaza and com­ment on the unfold­ing sit­u­a­tion. These remarks fre­quently con­tain extreme lan­guage. Sev­eral state­ments tend to legit­imize Hamas and rocket attacks tar­get­ing Israeli civil­ian com­mu­ni­ties. Oth­ers com­pare Israel to Nazi Germany.

The ban­ner at right, for exam­ple, which has been widely cir­cu­lated on Face­book, calls the oper­a­tion, “the Holo­caust in Gaza.”

Mary Hughes-Thompson, co-founder of the Free Gaza Move­ment, com­mented on her Face­book page: “Oper­a­tion Israeli Gestapo is under­way in Gaza.” Another anti-Israel activist who posted on Face­book almost imme­di­ately after the strike that killed Hamas leader Ahmed Jabari yes­ter­day wrote: “Jew­ish Zion­ist ‘moral­ity and brav­ery’ on dis­play in Gaza is no dif­fer­ent than that which was dis­played by the Nazis in the Con­cen­tra­tion Camps.”

George Gal­loway, a for­mer mem­ber of the British Par­lia­ment and leader of Viva Palestina, used extremely caus­tic and vir­u­lent lan­guage on a pro­gram he hosts on Press TV, an English-language Iran­ian satel­lite sta­tion. Gal­loway called on view­ers advo­cat­ing for non­vi­o­lent resis­tance and/or diplo­macy to resolve the Israeli-Palestinian con­flict to “get off their knees” and acknowl­edge that diplo­macy won’t be use­ful against Israel’s “blitzkrieg of death and gas.”  He also claimed that Pales­tini­ans in Gaza are being “gassed” and “roasted” by Israel.

Attempts to legit­imize or min­i­mize Hamas’s rocket attacks against Israeli civil­ians have also appeared. A stu­dent at George Wash­ing­ton Uni­ver­sity who is involved with Stu­dents for Jus­tice in Pales­tine on cam­pus wrote, “The Resis­tance has reached Tel Aviv! Long Live the Resis­tance.” The com­ments appear to cel­e­brate that an Iran­ian rocket launched by Islamic Jihad in Gaza had landed in Tel Aviv. After a com­ment appeared ques­tion­ing his sup­port for vio­lence, the stu­dent responded, “Vio­lent resis­tance is our right” and com­pared the sit­u­a­tion to a raped woman strik­ing her assailant in self-defense.

Ben White, a promi­nent anti-Israel activist and author of “Israeli Apartheid: A Beginner’s Guide,” wrote on his Face­book page: “Israel’s has­bara says con­text for assault is rocket fire. Well, con­text for rocket fire is 64 years of expul­sion and occu­pa­tion.” (As a side note, Israel’s occu­pa­tion of the West Bank began in 1967. White’s ref­er­ence to “64 years” of occu­pa­tion sug­gests that he con­sid­ers all of Israel to be occu­pied Pales­tin­ian land.)

Noura Erakat, a fel­low at George­town Uni­ver­sity and for­mer orga­nizer with the US Cam­paign to End the Israeli Occu­pa­tion, expressed frus­tra­tion with what she deemed to be a response from Israel that was wholly unpro­voked. She wrote on Twit­ter: “#Hamas has observed cease­fire, Shalit returned, now what?” [Con­trary to this claim, Hamas did not observe the cease­fire and was respon­si­ble for launch­ing more than 100 rock­ets into Gaza in the days pre­ced­ing Israel’s response.]

Other extreme com­ments include state­ments by:

  • Julio Pino, a pro­fes­sor at Kent State Uni­ver­sity who infa­mously shouted “Death to Israel” dur­ing a pro-Israel pre­sen­ta­tion on cam­pus last year. Pino called the action a “geno­cide” on his Face­book page.
  • Ali­son Weir, the direc­tor of the Coun­cil for the National Inter­est and If Amer­i­cans Knew, who referred to Israel’s actions as a “slaughter.”
  • Remi Kanazi, an anti-Israel activist and rap­per based in New York who wrote, “Dear Zion­ists: You have never ‘defended your­selves.’ You came in, stole land that wasn’t yours & main­tained a racist state through mas­sacres and brute force.”
  • Sherry Wolf, a Jew­ish anti-Zionist and mem­ber of the Inter­na­tional Social­ist Orga­ni­za­tion, who wrote: “The homi­ci­dal racists who run Israel have launched an all-out bomb­ing cam­paign on Gaza…#FuckIsrael.”

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