Posted on 04/20/2002 4:55:52 PM PDT by Davea
Sunday April 21, 3:39 AM
Tens of thousands gather in Washington for largest pro-Palestinian protest in US
In the largest pro-Palestinian demonstration ever in the United States, tens of thousands of protesters gathered here Saturday to condemn what they saw as the US administration's pro-Israeli bent in the Mideast conflict.
Waving signs equating Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon with Nazi leader Adolf Hitler and wearing the traditional Arab headdress, or keffiyah, crowds massed on the Ellipse in front of the White House to voice their disapproval of Israel's treatment of the Palestinians and US Middle East policy.
Police estimated that around 50,000 people took part in the peaceful protest although organizers, a coalition pro-Palestinian pressure groups, put the figure at 100,000.
Saturday's pro-Palestinian demonstration was billed as an answer to a mass protest by a reported 100,000 supporters of Israel Monday at the US Capitol, where speakers linked the Israeli offensive against the Palestinians to the US-led war on terror.
The pro-Palestinian protesters came from across the United States, including chapters of Muslim American Societies from New Jersey, New York, Maryland, Virginia and Michigan, the Muslim Public Affairs Council, the Islamic American Institute and the Council on American-Islamic Relations.
While Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz spoke at Monday's pro-Israel rally, there was no representative of George W. Bush's administration at Saturday's pro-Palestinian protest.
Congresswoman Cynthya McKinney, a Democrat from Georgia, was due to address the crowd at the Capitol and the protesters heard a tape message of jailed former Black Panther member Mumia Abu-Jamal in support of the Palestinian cause.
Iyad Hindi, 42, was in a group of some 400 who bussed in from Raleigh, North Carolina to participate in the event.
Hindi, who belongs to Raleigh's Muslim-American Society, said the crowd was in Washington "to tell the Israelis there should be no occupation" of Palestinian territories -- and "as long as there is (occupation) there will be resistance."
The group's "other message is to the United States government to stop the clear bias towards Israel," he said.
Behind Hindi stood a young man with a Palestinian flag printed on his t-shirt, who carried a sign saying "Jenin = Auschwitz," equating the Palestinian refugee camp, where scores of Palestinians were killed by the Israeli army, with the infamous Nazi concentration camp, where more than one million Jews were slaughtered between 1942-1945.
Signs equating the Jewish Star of David with the Nazi swastika were waved along with signs stating that "Sharon is a terrorist too," and that "Violence breeds violence."
Speakers took to the podium to decry the two billion dollars in military assistance the United States provides Israel annually.
Among the protesters were members of "Orthodox Jews against Zionism" who led chants of "Judaism: yes, Zionism: No".
Some families traveled from far to lend their support to the Palestinian cause and add their voices to the chorus for peace.
Jesmin Saikh, 15, came with a group of 200 from Gaithersburg, Maryland. She said she wears a head scarf at school, and "obviously disagree(s)" with her Jewish friends at school over events in the Middle East.
"But the thing that we share is that we know that both sides want peace," she said.
The demonstrators had to compete with a rival anti-globalization protest that also commandeered part of the National Mall that stretches from the US Capitol to the Lincoln Memorial, although many attendees said the causes were complementary.
Ranks of police milled around the crowd, some on foot and others on horseback, to ensure that the demonstration remained peaceful.
While I respect their right to protest, it makes me SICK to know that so many are so lost. God have mercy on their souls.
It should be relatively easy to compare an aerial photo of the pro-terrorist rally with the pro-America/Israel rally, no ?
Disturbing, the ABC news said there was a "variety" of issues: Globalism, they showed anti-globalists; Palestine, they showed people, apparently Muslims, carrying a coffin; anti-racism, did they show a anti-racist poster of ANSWER? No, out of the many signs they showed one equating a swastika with a star of david. ABC's apparent endorsement that a star of david is a symbol of racism. Figures.
The first time as tragedy
the second time as farce
Just BTW, I'd swear I saw on another post that their numbers were more like 5,000.
"jailed former Black Panther member Mumia Abu-Jamal" = convicted cop-killer
Murdering thugs speaking in support of murdering thugs. There's a surprise.
Million Muslim March.
That's what I mean. And to the others who disbelieve the numbers or write it off as just a bunch of globalists and drama seekers I disagree. I believe it goes deeper than that. Much deeper. If anyone thinks these Islam fanatics are going to back down you are very wrong. The other day the Saudi Ambassador wrote a poem that was published in the Brit press extolling the virtues of the girl suicide bomber. This is an ambassador not some nut on the internet. I don't think I am being hysterical or alarmist. Put all of this together and the picture of what's coming isn't pretty.
Dead giveaway of the loser nature of this get together. A pro-Arab traitor for headline speaker and a cop-killer Palestinian-supporter who should have been fried long ago. These protesters are proud of this?
Thursday, 18 April, 2002, 15:41 GMT 16:41 UK
Diplomat censured over bomb poem
"Heaven opened" for bomber Ayat Akhras, said poem
The Saudi Arabian ambassador to the UK faces censure from the British government after writing a poem in praise of Palestinian suicide bombers.
Ambassador Dr Ghazi Algosaibi, a well-known poet in the Arab world, wrote that suicide bombers "died to honour God's word" in a short verse published in the London-based Arabic newspaper al-Hayat last week.
The poem, entitled The Martyrs, praised Ayat Akhras, an 18-year-old Palestinian who blew herself up in a Jerusalem supermarket on 29 March, killing two Israelis and wounding 25.
"Doors of heaven are opened for her," wrote Dr Algosaibi, who has been Saudi Arabia's ambassador in London for more than a decade.
A Foreign Office spokesman said a senior official would be speaking to the ambassador.
"We regard suicide bombings as a form of terrorism, and we would like to make our views known to the Saudi ambassador," said a spokesman.
'No rebuke'
However, he added that no further action would be taken.
"We're not saying reprimand or rebuke. We don't intend to take the matter any further."
Dr Algosaibi's poem also criticised the United States, referring to "a White House whose heart is filled with darkness."
The poem drew strong criticism from Jewish groups.
The Board of Deputies of British Jews said it was "appalled" by the poem and planned to send a letter of protest to the ambassador.
"It is deeply disturbing that a senior Saudi diplomat publicly supports the continued terrorist bombing campaign," said spokeswoman Fiona Macaulay.
"This is clearly condoning violence against Jewish people, and is a completely unacceptable position for the ambassador to take."
I agree IMHO.
You got that right. They're going to try to morph the US into what's happening in Israel among other things. This is all just getting started IMHO.
Believe me, most of us aren't blowing this off. We had a 700+ post discussion thread about that disgusting spectacle today, and many freepers attended a counter-rally.
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