"From the river to the sea," the speaker's voice echoed across Union Park. "Palestine will be free."
The sun was high and blazing Monday, the air electric with drums and chants and squawking bullhorns. Thousands of people milled around, holding signs, backpacks, bottles of water.
The only way to cover such a sprawling chaos is to pick a person and dive in. I settled on a trio holding a banner 45 feet long featuring the thought of the day: "FREE PALESTINE." I approached the young man on the left and asked: Free Palestine ... of what? To me, the end of that phrase is obvious: "... of Jews."
"Absolutely not," he said. "To me, it means the freedom in Palestine to live, to have food and water. To not be in an open-air prison. To not be exterminated."
He said they were with Students for Justice in Palestine.
"My personal goal, the reason why I'm here, is to call for a cease-fire and to call for peace," continued the man, 19, who did not want to be identified. "The situation is pretty complicated, to be honest. It would take a long time, but I do think a single-state solution could work."
A future of peaceful coexistence was not exactly being floated from the stage.
"Stop all aid to the racist, colonial, terrorist state of Israel!" the speaker shouted. "We will continue to march, until we ... achieve total and complete liberation of Palestine. From the river to the sea. Palestine will be free."
At a New Students for a Democratic Society booth — echos of the 1960s SDS — I spoke with a young woman whose face was wrapped in a green keffiyeh.
"Everybody has the right to exist, to live," she said. "We believe everybody should be liberated, but most importantly, the Palestinian people should be liberated."
And the Jews?
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I expect they'll "liberate" the Jews in the same way Hitler did during the Holocaust.
ReplyDelete100% correct!
DeleteIt's sad to see how little the young protestors know about Israel.
ReplyDeleteSince Ronald Reagan the Republican party has been is in an open revolt against education as education. They only care about indoctrination. Religious Schools, Charter Schools, Private Schools. None should get public funding because none are held to standards. Government exists to protect it's people, not fund private propaganda machines and reeducation camps.
DeleteMost Americans know very little about their own country. Even less about the not America countries.
Delete"where do you want me to be shipped too? I was born here. " how ironic. I guess one thought can be completely divorced from another if you ignore context and reality.
ReplyDeletein the US of all places, where Iran , hamas sponsor and supporter, the leaders shout death to Israel, death to America. here you can side with the enemy and not end up in prison.
hurts my brain .
hamas should surrender and bring an end to the fighting so the people of Gaza can begin the rebuilding process. hamas should surrender and lay down its arms, in return the hostages in return for an end to the fighting. won't happen .
You may have missed that that statement was said by an observer, not by an actual protester.
DeleteHamas did not come into being in a vacuum. Say they surrender, are put on trial and punished. What kind of rebuilding does history of the region lead you to envision?
Delete"I saw that people are against both the Democrats and the Republicans."
ReplyDeleteOh yeah? Then why is it always, ALWAYS the Democrats who get held responsible for every single goddamned thing Israel does, while the Republicans get a free pass to be Netanyahu's willing enablers?
Netanyahu's real enablers are the insane Christian Zionists who support Israel, because they want all the Jews on Earth to move to Israel so that the battle of Armageddon can happen, to bring Jesus back to Earth, where all the Jews who don't bow down & accept him as the savior will die & then he'll reign over Earth forever.
DeleteAnd Netanyahu, being a grifter just like most of those Christian Zionists, especially their #1 stooge, the fat orange traitor, who believes in nothing but his own godhood, as he's a narcissistic sociopath, takes their support & does what pleases them.
It's simple. Democrats listen. They hear what's being said, they acknowledge it, and they think on it. They are an actual political party that changes its opinions and works for the people. So people show up and speak, for better or for worse.
DeleteRepublican's don't care. That's not hyperbole, that's the truth. Just read the news and you will see.
I live in a rural Trumpland where evangelical preachers and non-Christian white supremacists embrace such Armageddon comic book thinking. The latter believe they will become worshipped (aka feared) all powerful tribal warlords. The former that they will be raptured up, escaping the horror of the tribulation even though their bible says otherwise.
DeleteThe whole situation is impossible: impossible for Hamas and Israel to agree on a cease fire; impossible to end the killing; impossible for the spokesmen for each side to quit stoking the fire; impossible to return to a status quo that both sides deride; impossible to separate support for Palestinians from anti-semitism; impossible to force either side to honor commitments of any sort; impossible to even think of creating one state to include Israelis and Palestinians; impossible to hope that anyone involved in this will act in good faith; impossible for the student protesters to get their stories straight; impossible for Kamala Harris to say a word about the conflict, given that she is not the president yet; impossible for Trump and company to keep their mouths shut for an instant. Except for the foregoing, it's all quiet on the Mid-Eastern front.
ReplyDeletejohn
This is very nice, Neil. Thank you.
ReplyDeleteI especially liked the inclusion of the two Harris clad women and their opinions combined with the part about the Potawatomi. It really puts the entire issue in perspective.
There is no easy solution, there is no simple fix. Unless of course you simply say "Eradicate Hamas, oust Netanyaho and his regime." Its terrible in every sense of the word.
I appreciate that you've given no answer, you've just reported. It's made my take on the situation more clear, and i can ask for nothing more from the news or reporting.
Yasher koahch
I've learned there are no bomb shelters in Gaza. Thanks Hamas. Hamas would never allow its beloved citizens to take shelter in their vast tunnel-land, when needed. And both of those of course, are Israel's and USA's fault. Right.
ReplyDeleteAnd the old news - Hamas hides themselves and their weapons (no food, but there sure are plenty of weapons) in schools, homes, hospitals, and mosques. So, apparently Israel should attack only what, open, empty fields? They should not attack their enemy? Right.
Interesting that the column ends without a conclusion. Probably appropriate for the subject?
ReplyDeleteI suppose after the Hamas attack on October 7th Israel could have negotiated for the release of the hostages. They could have promised not to attack Hamas and Gaza and overlooked the people who had been killed and injured during the Hamas invasion
ReplyDeleteBut realistically turning the other cheek just gets both of your cheeks Slapped and it likely wouldn't have been long before Israel was attacked again and more hostages were taken
At this point there is no solution only mitigation of this circumstance. I don't hear anyone saying we should work towards mitigation, but that's the only option to try and convince both sides to accept less than what they want because all of what they want for both sides is an actual impossibility.
A two-state solution with the end of the settlement strategy and abandonment of some existing settlements might satisfy less than half of the people on each side. A compromise that would lead to things staying pretty much the same as they are now. Not a solution. There just doesn't seem to be one
Some people seem to think victory through warfare is the solution even though pursuing this policy is the problem.
Somehow I've learned to get along with my ex-wife. Maybe there's hope in the world
Show your face or shut your mouth. I admit this is somewhat crude but if you really support a cause you should be willing to face the public with you whole self. Not hide your face because it might hurt your future job prospects. Talk about fair weather friends.
ReplyDeleteWe live in a facial and voice recognition society with Supreme Court-enstowed police powers that ignore long held constituional rights that make even peaceful dissent a hell of a lot scarier than hurting future job prospects.
Deletei seem to recall that while Palestinians were certainly there in 1948 before the state of Israel was formed, when it comes to matters of seniority (the union. organizer in me), Jews have been around for more than 5,000 years and were driven out of good many areas through the millenia, including the geography that is now Israel. just another uncomfortable truth i suppose.
ReplyDeleteFew of the Arabs living in what is now Israel were forced out. The overwhelming majority left on their own because the Arab armies told them to leave because they wanted a clear field of fire to kill all the Jews there!
ReplyDelete@Neil, I've noticed you've moderated on the Israel issue over the years. When the CST was owned by the Jerusalem Post, it was a staunchly pro-Israel paper in the columns and the editorial board.
ReplyDeleteI sense American Jewry is waning on Israel. Younger Jews are calling for a one State solution, something like the end of Apartheid in South Africa.
Could that work in Israel?
I always rooted for Israel but it seems it's only a matter of time before something truly dreadful happens, an October 7th but much worse.
Free Palestine….from Hamas!
ReplyDeleteI am no fan of the Israelis...and haven't been for decades...but Hamas is not blameless, either. I'm pro-Palestinian and hope for a two-state solution, as I have for many years. But this latest horror...40,000 dead and no end in sight... also makes me want to quote Shakespeare..."A plague on both your houses."
ReplyDeleteAs long as those New York bully boys, those cousins under the skin...Netanyahu and Trump...are still around, this will not end. Until they are both gone, the killing will not stop. Orangy Boy even told Bibi to keep on fighting, because a cease-fire would hurt his election chances. Unbelievable. All either one cares about is himself, and furthering their wealth and their power. Human beings, to each of them, are like little green Army men on a youngster's playroom floor..