Posted December 28, 2008
New Yorkers Respond to Israel’s Attacks on Gaza
Nearly a thousand protesters flooded Rockefeller Center in Manhattan on December 28th in response to the Israeli attacks against Gaza.
The demonstration was called by ANSWER but the visible presence of the far left was dwarfed by Arab and Muslim families, women with baby carriages and teenagers, who packed Fifth Avenue between 50th and 48th Streets and chanted in English and Arabic.
The NYPD was clearly unprepared for the enormity of the crowd and was forced to expand the pen an extra block. This prevented a planned march to the Israeli consulate on 42nd Street and 2nd Avenue.
Throngs of tourists stopped to take photographs as protesters chanted “Free Free Palestine” and “While you’re shopping bombs are dropping.” At least one tourist constructed a make shift sign on a brown paper bag and joined the demonstration.
In Gaza, Casualties Mount
As of the writing of this article, the New York Times reports that the death toll has risen to over 280.
Electronic Intifada reports that a majority of those killed and injured were civilians and that water wells, mosques, community centers and private homes have been destroyed. The dead include students at a UN school and police trainees. Hospitals, already suffering from supply shortages due to the blockade, are unable to adequately care for the wounded.
International Response
In a typical but still nauseating act of magical thinking, the US government has joined Israel in blaming Hamas for the Israeli attacks.
President-elect Obama didn’t comment, but given his now-notorious speech at the AIPAC event in which he referred to Jerusalem as the undivided capital of Israel, there isn’t much for Palestinians to get excited about come January 20th.
Helpfully, the New York Times reminded readers of the president-elect’s Palestine politics by resurfacing this quotation in today’s paper:
“’If somebody was sending rockets into my house where my two daughters sleep at night, I’m going to do everything in my power to stop that,’ Mr. Obama said in July. ‘And I would expect Israelis to do the same thing.’”
The Egyptian government must be squirming; recently Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni was pictured on television sharing a warm laugh with Hosni Mubarak. According to the New York Times, Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Aboul Gheit responded to the attacks by calling on Hamas to renew its truce with Israel.
Even French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner did better than that. According to the New York Times, he commented that “We have entered a new spiral of despair.”
No wonder that Egypt, along with Israel and the US, was a major target of demonstrations throughout the Middle East this weekend.
Mainstream Media Response
The New York Times and other mainstream media have echoed the US/Israel line by referring to Israeli “retaliation” and failing to point out that the Israeli blockade – which strangled Gazans by denying medical supplies, cooking oil and flour – was imposed throughout the time that Hamas was essentially adhering to the cease fire.
As usual Ha’aretz, a liberal Israeli daily, pulled off more thoughtful coverage of the crisis than the New York Times, pointing out, among other things, that Israel purposely led the public to believe that the strike would begin a day later than it actually did.
Comments
5 responses to “Nearly 1000 NYers Protest Israeli Attacks on Gaza”
There was a demo in Austin, Texas two days ago (Jan 17) in support of those in Gaza. I’d estimate there were 250 or so, maybe more.
We have reprinted it at http://internationalviewpoint.org/spip.php?article1582
I talked to someone today who said the Palestine march on Sunday from Rockefeller Center did actually happen but much later than planned…
I hope people can share accounts of demonstrations in other cities. I know things have been happening in Portland and Atlanta, and I’m sure others as well.
One sympathetic reporter I know estimated 1000 so I went with that. Someone else told me 500 which seemed low. But it could’ve been thousands… I’m bad at estimating these things.
There’s another demo today in Herald Sq. called by Adalah and one tomorrow by the Israeli embassy called by ANSWER. My guess is that turnout will be smaller than yesterday but hopefully I’m wrong.
Other people I’ve talked to in NYC have reported “thousands,” even up to five thousand. What do you think is accurate? (It’s always difficult to estimate crowd sizes.)
There were 100-150 people at the Israeli consulate in Atlanta, with more demonstrations planned for later in the week.
Palestine solidarity activism has been at a low ebb for the past couple of years here. There are a few student groups that are planning for boycott/divestment campaigns. This is exciting since the previous manifestations of Palestine activism were mostly confined to education and almost ritual-like demonstrations at the Israeli consulate.