Atlanta Responds to the Freedom Flotilla Massacre

Posted June 2, 2010

In response to the belligerent attacks on the civilian aid ship headed for Gaza early Monday morning, the local BDS organization in Atlanta, Movement to End Israeli Apartheid-Georgia, called for an emergency protest in front of the Israeli consulate. Over 100 people answered the call, from local BDS activists to high school students and members of other socialist organizations. Many of these demonstrators were Palestinian and a few were Jewish.

The majority of the outreach for the demonstration was done over Facebook and the Internet, showing the organizing capabilities of online promotion. The demonstration held for two hours and ended with a gathering calling for action to be taken in two ways. The first being focused on contacting representatives in government, and the second being done in a more effective means: a Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement at the Atlanta-based Georgia State University (GSU). GSU houses a program called the Georgia International Law Enforcement Exchange, which facilitates exchanges between Georgia police officials and security officials in Israel under the guise of sharing drug-enforcement and counter-terrorism techniques.

The international exchange programs are not limited to GSU. In fact, the program is a reflection of a much broader policy of the Zionists. Israel, a veteran in the art of suppressing local populations with force and using sophisticated propaganda techniques to hide the violence, brings what they know best to the international market of security and arms dealing. A great article that details Israel’s policy of selling their ‘Occupation for dummies’ can be found here.