Fist of all it is disingenuous to say that this was a "pro-Hamas" rally when I saw no clear indication that it was such. From what I saw it was simply pro-PALESTINE.
Secondly, you can clearly see people on the Palestine side trying to diffuse the situation and get the pro-Palestine protesters moving again and away from the pro-Israel people. This proves that the organizers didn't want the protest to degrade into a confrontation or a brawl.
Thirdly, the pro-Israel people were obviously not innocent in all this, as towards the end one of them antagonizes the crowd further by shouting at them "BURN GAZA!" (or something along those lines) right before going into the building.
In many of these events, the flag of Hamas is shown, occasionally the flag of Hizbollah. Secondly, watch event after event after event. It is the Palestinian side that acts aggressively and crosses police lines to get at pro-Israeli demonstrators. At the LA event I attended a month ago, only the LAPD kept them away from us. There was a total of about 20 of us against at least 1500 of them. We obeyed the orders of the LAPD and did nothing or said nothing to discredit our side.
It is true that many event organizers try to keep order, and that is good. There is nothing wrong about shouting "Free Palestine" etc and being orderly. Unfortunately, some of these events have featured references to Hitler and "the ovens" as well as swastikas superimposed over the Star of David. In others only the police, as in Ft lauderdale, kept Israeli supporters from being attacked.
Don't take my word for it. Check out all the videos on youtube.
In the next few days I will be posting a long report on a UCI event I attended last Saturday. It was total bash Israel and America. The crackpot ex-professor Norman Finklestein was there and he addressed a question (written) I sent up front about these anti-Semitic chants. You won't believe his response.
Fist of all it is disingenuous to say that this was a "pro-Hamas" rally when I saw no clear indication that it was such. From what I saw it was simply pro-PALESTINE.
ReplyDeleteSecondly, you can clearly see people on the Palestine side trying to diffuse the situation and get the pro-Palestine protesters moving again and away from the pro-Israel people. This proves that the organizers didn't want the protest to degrade into a confrontation or a brawl.
Thirdly, the pro-Israel people were obviously not innocent in all this, as towards the end one of them antagonizes the crowd further by shouting at them "BURN GAZA!" (or something along those lines) right before going into the building.
Bryan,
ReplyDeleteIn many of these events, the flag of Hamas is shown, occasionally the flag of Hizbollah. Secondly, watch event after event after event. It is the Palestinian side that acts aggressively and crosses police lines to get at pro-Israeli demonstrators. At the LA event I attended a month ago, only the LAPD kept them away from us. There was a total of about 20 of us against at least 1500 of them. We obeyed the orders of the LAPD and did nothing or said nothing to discredit our side.
It is true that many event organizers try to keep order, and that is good. There is nothing wrong about shouting "Free Palestine" etc and being orderly. Unfortunately, some of these events have featured references to Hitler and "the ovens" as well as swastikas superimposed over the Star of David. In others only the police, as in Ft lauderdale, kept Israeli supporters from being attacked.
Don't take my word for it. Check out all the videos on youtube.
In the next few days I will be posting a long report on a UCI event I attended last Saturday. It was total bash Israel and America. The crackpot ex-professor Norman Finklestein was there and he addressed a question (written) I sent up front about these anti-Semitic chants. You won't believe his response.
Stay tuned.