Across U.S. protests hit U.S.-Israeli terror attack

Philadelphia WW photo: Berta Joubert-Ceci

Workers World received reports from some of the many protests.

In San Francisco on July 13, reports Judy Greenspan, “Chants of “Free free Pales tine” and “Bush/Olmert you can’t hide, We charge you with Genocide,” filled the street in front of the Israeli Consulate. Led by Palestinian activists from Al-Awda, the Palestine Right to Return Coalition, over 700 demonstrators demanded an end to Israel’s military attacks and bombing of Gaza and Lebanon.

Dearborn, Mich.

Speakers also called for immediate divestment of U.S. funds and an end to all U.S. support for Israel. This demonstration took place on the eve of the Fourth Annual Al-Awda International Conven tion organized by Al-Awda and the General Union of Palestinian Students at San Francisco State University.

Four days later on July 17, Jewish peace groups in the Bay Area, outraged by the Israeli attacks on Palestinians in Gaza and the bombing of Lebanon, held a large demonstration during the lunch hour in front of the Israeli consulate. The protest was organized by Jewish Voice for Peace and Jews for a Free Palestine, reports Greenspan.

Following a short rally which included a brass liberation band, 18 Jewish protesters were arrested in a civil disobedience action in the street in front of the consulate. The civil-disobedience action was orchestrated as part of the overall protest demanding an end to the Israeli government’s “military attacks on Gaza and Lebanon,” reports Greenspan, who was one of those arrested. The protesters were eventually herded into police vans, driven to the main jail, cited and released.

New York City WW photo: Monica Moorehead

Chicago, New York and Dearborn, Mich.

Lou Paulsen reports from Chicago that on the night of June 12, hours after the beginning of the Israeli assault on Leba non, activists with the Chicago Coalition against War and Racism (CCAWR) unanimously voted to call an emergency demonstration. At 5 p.m. on July 14, protestors gathered at the Israeli consulate, carrying signs and banners denouncing the Israeli offensives in Lebanon and Gaza and the U.S. government’s role, and calling for the freedom of the 9,000 Pales tinian prisoners in Israeli jails.

Speakers representing the Arab and Muslim communities and peace and justice organizations held a rally for 90 minutes, with over 200 attending it in the course of the evening, continuing to stream in until the last speech. Despite five years of vicious U.S. government repression, prosecutions, deportations, and threats, intended to terrorize them into silence, the Palestinian and Arab communities of Chicago were well represented.

San Francisco WW photo: Judy Greenspan

The CCAWR went on to organize a counterdemonstration against a war rally at Federal Plaza at noon on June 17, organized by the Jewish United Fund and including politicians from both Repub lican and Democratic parties. Some 150 people protested, and toward the end of the rally, police under the Department of Homeland Security arrested veteran activist Betty Resnikoff, bringing a federal charge of trespassing against her, although she was on the sidewalk and in compliance with police orders.

From New York, Monica Moorehead reports that as many as 1,500 “predominantly Palestinian and Lebanese people along with North American activists rallied in front of the Israeli Mission to the United Nations in New York on July 18. The crowd, which included many young Arabs including children, chanted, ‘Free, free Palestine! Free, free Lebanon!’”

Moorehead says that the crowd held high graphic signs showing Lebanese children killed by Israeli rockets. Following the rally, the protestors held a militant, spontaneous march going up the sidewalk of 42nd Street despite the police attempts to intimidate and break up the demonstration as passersby watched. Speakers at the rally included representatives from the various Arab and Islamic communities, the Al-Awda Right to Return Coalition, the International Action Center, the ANS WER Coalition and the International Socialist Organization.

Chicago WW photo: Lou Paulsen

In Houston on July 17, over 300 demonstrated outside the Israeli consulate. One person, Herb Rothchild, was arrested, reports Gloria Rubac. The next protest in Houston, called by the Arab community, is scheduled for July 28 at the U.S. Federal Building.

In Philadelphia on July 14, demonstrators picketed in front of the Israeli Consulate.

Cheryl LaBash reports from Detroit that “in the biggest outpouring in the Metro-Detroit Arab community in many years, more than 10,000 people streamed into the streets of Dearborn, Mich., on July 18 to express their outrage at the terror bombing of Lebanon. Led by youth, the march and rally put the responsibility for the death and destruction squarely on the United States and its client, Israel.”

The brutal U.S.-backed Israeli attacks on Gaza and Lebanon prompted a series of protest demonstrations around the world in mid-July, from Tehran to San Francisco. Inside the U.S., organizations from the Arab immigrant community and U.S. anti-imperialist groups called pro tests before Israeli consulates and similar symbolic buildings in cities across the country.

Many people in the Dearborn area have relatives who are students on holiday with family in Lebanon and who are now stranded in the bombing zone. Speakers condemned the lack of concern and poor treatment of Lebanese-American families by the U.S. government that has refused to evacuate their loved ones.

Rabbi Yisroel Dovid Weiss of Jews United Against Zionism spoke at the rally. “We are here to show solidarity and support for the Palestinian people,” he said.

On July 19 in Traverse City, Mich., a Code Pink action will demand, “From Iraq to Palestine to Lebanon, the U.S. must stop arming Israel!” and “The U.S. must pull out of Iraq now!” As early as July 8, a demonstration in Windsor, Canada across from Detroit demonstrated to support Palestinians under attack in Gaza.