SFist: Scene from a Free Palestine Protest

steveuk

Fri, 23 Jan 2009 05:45:18 -0800

The ignorance and prejudice on this and so many other (particularly american) boards is astounding. First of all you must have pretty good eyesight to see that all of the people in the picture protesting are muslims because I can't. Lots of people care about the plight of the palestinians - anyone with functioning ears and eyes and an inquisitive mind in fact. The situation throughout Palestine is clearly as bad, if not worse than South Africa. The pro-paletinian posters on boards like this may be emotional and sometimes not as articulate as they could be but I don't think Jimmy Carter, who has described the situation there as apartheid, is. I hate the way that any protest at Israels' imperialism and brutality is seen, automatically as being pro-'Hamas' or pro Hizbollah or anti semitic. This, it seems to me is just a convenient way to smear the opposite opinion without engagaing in the kind of mature dialogue that is needed if this interminable conflict is ever to cease. It's also an insidious lie that Hamas broke the ceasefire, they didn't. Israel re-introduced the embargo long before Hamas fired any rockets into Israel and killed 6 Hamas members in november. If people knew the situation in gaza I hope that they wouldn't be anywhere near as callous or partisan as the people on this thread. Yes Israel has the right to exist and to be secure but so does Palestine and at the moment Israel, through it's embarhoes, its' walls and watchtowers, its checkpoints and settlements, is not allowing palestine to exsist.

TheCharlie

Tue, 06 Jan 2009 12:56:07 -0800

They'll keep coming out until winter break ends.

manys

Tue, 06 Jan 2009 12:10:18 -0800

This joke would be funnier if the reference was to The Starry Plough or the Ashkenaz.

SFX

Tue, 06 Jan 2009 12:05:24 -0800

so are they out there today? last night, abc local news was brazen enough to go out there and play "devil's advocate" (their words), and ask the "activists" a few pointed questions about the conflict. in return, they got a lot of , "well, yeah, but..." light as a feather without the heavy burden of facts, i'd think this mob would be able to continue protesting for weeks, or at least until something else comes along to distract them, like a shiny piece of metal or next week's bay guardian.

spysea

Tue, 06 Jan 2009 09:50:44 -0800

Over the years many of us have heard over and over again that American Muslims are different from Muslims everywhere else. For years I have been saying that this is not true. Now it is clear that they are just like Muslims anywhere else. Back in 2006 over 1,000 of them had come out to protest the cartoons of Mohammad in front of the Danish consulate in NYC. In July of 2006 over 3000 Muslims in America came out in support of the Hezbollah terrorist group over the Israel-Lebanon war. They were cheering for the repeated calls of the destruction of Israel. Just over a week ago Israel decided that they have had enough of the daily rocket attacks on Israel and began to retaliate against Hamas. As the rockets were flying into Israel all year, I did not see one Muslim protest against the attacks on Israel. Recently American Muslims have come out in several states here in America to protest against Israel and it is getting ugly.

Xenu

Mon, 05 Jan 2009 22:55:54 -0800

That's a PROTEST?! Oh come on! Even Yoshi's draws a larger crowd than that.

Sniffy

Mon, 05 Jan 2009 20:28:29 -0800

END THE TURKEY AND CHICKEN HOLOCAUST NOW!!

aj

Mon, 05 Jan 2009 18:54:48 -0800

Arrgh. Commenting was so much better in the old SFist.

aj

Mon, 05 Jan 2009 18:54:05 -0800

Oh by the way: Israel doesn't care AT ALL that they get picketed. AT ALL. This offensive is going on now because Bush is about to leave office, and they think their window of opportunity is closing, and for no other reason.

aj

Mon, 05 Jan 2009 18:52:08 -0800

Um, no, I don't think most commuters are thinking of it that way. Actually you can empathize with, and even support, freedom for Palestine without blocking entirely unrelated traffic.

kainoa

Mon, 05 Jan 2009 17:14:55 -0800

The anti-protest/er sentiment of most commenters on all these Israel vs. Palestine threads is simply delicious. Seriously. Keep on.

manys

Mon, 05 Jan 2009 16:12:07 -0800

Replies are apparently broken, I clicked it on another comment. Get your IT shit together Gothamist.

manys

Mon, 05 Jan 2009 16:10:12 -0800

It does if people come away thinking it's Israel's fault that they were late to work.

periqueblend

Mon, 05 Jan 2009 14:51:25 -0800

While blocking traffic (the ne plus ultra of don'ts in the bay area) may be annoying, to say it has no use misses a key component of what protests do. Whenever Bush was protested every where he went, it didn't unelect him, but it probably did limit his abilities because it was clear to one and all, that he had no political capital. Will this stop a single bomb or halt a single tank no. But does the gov't of Israel enjoy having its consulates picketed worldwide? No. Its bad for business, and at the end of the day, business buys bombs, business feeds your people. Having said that, I'm offering no position on which side is 'right' - because I don't have the foggiest. I'm more interested in the (intellectual) missiles being fired from the Marina into the Mission.

TheCharlie

Mon, 05 Jan 2009 13:33:00 -0800

That's Market and Montgomery/New Montgomery. I hope to have a smooth commute home tonight. I'm tired of being on buses that I could outwalk.

ChinaNob

Mon, 05 Jan 2009 13:10:09 -0800

No worries - next week half of them will be back to their "Free Mumia/Free Tibet" activities.

Jas

Mon, 05 Jan 2009 12:53:29 -0800

Was there soup at this protest, too?

withak

Mon, 05 Jan 2009 12:47:09 -0800

They are either college students or unemployed.

SFJoe

Mon, 05 Jan 2009 12:43:42 -0800

How is it that protesters never seem to have jobs to go to? More importantly, how can I get in on this? I can chant with the best of them, "hey hey, ho ho, blah blah blah blah got to go".

SFX

Mon, 05 Jan 2009 12:22:26 -0800

i think i'm going to throw around a bunch of words that have no practical application to the reality of the situation. apartheid! apartheid! ethnic cleansing! victimhood! see? now i'm a useful idiot, too!

fizzandpop

Mon, 05 Jan 2009 12:09:37 -0800

That's utter crap, however I didn't learn about apartheid from the safety of an American college classroom, so what do I know.

softunderbelly

Mon, 05 Jan 2009 12:04:33 -0800

If it looks like Apartheid, walks like Apartheid, and quacks like Apartheid... well then guess what? Congratulations Israel, you're the new South Africa. I'm not saying a bunch of dummys should block traffic. I'm just saying everyone in this country should experiment with trying to empathize with the Palestinian people for a little bit, scary as that may sound.

miumiu

Mon, 05 Jan 2009 11:32:29 -0800

There's nothing worse than third-world fashion on first-world-french-1968-commune-wannabes. Worse than Uggs.

aj

Mon, 05 Jan 2009 11:26:05 -0800

Because nothing helps the people of Gaza like blocking San Francisco commuters.

MisterPlow

Mon, 05 Jan 2009 11:25:30 -0800

[Two people bump into each other.] Protester: Hey! You got matzah ball soup on my keffiyeh! Counter-Protester: Hey! You dipped your keffiyeh in my matzah ball soup! [Protesters exchange looks of pleasant surprise. Peace in the middle east ensues.]