Palestine United Demonstration
Driving home from the demonstration, National Public Radio announced the last casualty figures from the Gaza Invasion – 500 Palestinian Civilians. Today’s onslaught of Israeli bombs brought about the death of twenty Palestinian children, and yet political leaders on both sides of the aisle continue to support the Israeli offensive.
The demonstration was held Monday evening on January 5th at the Bell Tower next to Hillsborough Street on NC State’s campus.
The protest was organized by Palestine United! and F.I.S.T. Raleigh (Fighting Imperialism Stand Together). I heard about it as I was standing in line at the grocery store. I dashed home, grabbed my camera, and hurried back.
By the time I arrived, rushed and stressed from the traffic, the event was nearing its end. The sun had already set, but the cloud cover provided some nice ambient light. With the low light, shaky hands, and high shutter speed most of my pictures came out blurred. The pictures that remain, I hope, express the optimism, passion, and unity of the demonstrators, even as they face the reality of our political system’s historic disregard for the plight of the Palestinian People.
The people were all really friendly and very nice about letting me take their photograph.
There were a lot of signs, flags, Keffiyeh scarves, and people to photograph.
We’re not here to promote Hamas, we’re not here to say that violence is OK. We’re here to show our solidarity with the Palestinian people and to promote justice and peace.
— Sana, one of the organizers (above)
Crowd gathered in front of the Bell Tower
The demonstration began to break up and people started heading home.
Even as people were heading home, most remained very willing to have their portrait taken.
There were quite a few children there, some more camera shy than others.
This one almost got me smashed by a car, much to an officer’s dismay.
As John and I walked back to his house to upload these, I snapped a few pictures of the people still heading down the sidewalk.
The situation in Palestine will be resolved eventually. While there are a lot of ignorant people in the media who love to tout some theory of an eternal history of violence, the truth is the current situation between Israel and Palestine is less than half a century old.
While so much of our national discourse is colored by hawks, the truth is, the vast majority on both sides simply want liberty, economic success, and a peaceful coexistence for all peoples of the region.
John Morris contributed photos for this article.
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01/06/2009
I’m so glad you got pictures of this. I drove past on my way to work at about 2:15pm, and it was already going strong. I was on the phone to my mother at the time, and I described it as “Peaceful, but passionate.”
01/06/2009
This was an amazing protest! Hopefully the next one will be even better with more people. Everyone come to the one in Washington DC if you can! We need all the support we can get (1-10-09).
01/06/2009
meh, I never could get behind the free Palestine movement. To be fair, the very few times there actually is a cease-fire, its Palestinians who first break it. This is mostly because they dont have the cohesiveness required to keep the radicals in line like Israel does.
01/07/2009
Well, I think that a large part of that is because of how the media portrays it. It always looks like the Palestinians start it, but really there has never been a cease fire because the Israeli Settlers have never pulled out of Palestine.
While Palestine does have less cohesion, a large part of that is because of actions like we are witnessing today – a political entity crops up in Palestine, and since their position is either anti-Israeli or not as pro-Israel as Israel wants, they are branded terrorists and destroyed. Palestine never has the chance to develop cohesion and a strong political center because Israel is unwilling to negotiate with groups that are opposed to its goals. Obviously, with the situations the Palestinians find themselves in, there is little chance of a pro-Israel group forming in Palestine.
Israel, because of the structure of its Parliament, has problems from extremists, too. The way voting is structured, the larger, more moderate parties are forced to cater to the more radical elements (like the Settlers).
The Gaza Strip is literally a prison, while Israel holds all the cards. Until Israel is willing to give first, Palestinians could not be expected to back down. After all, on the times when Palestine was obeying a cease fire, Israel didn’t make any concessions to help the Palestinians improve their way of life.
01/08/2009
Where were the protests when Hamas began again to indiscriminately lob rockets intro Israel, well before Israel’s current response? Where is the international outrage towards Hamas when Hamas rocket teams fire from schools, mosques and crowded urban centers and then use the resulting civilian deaths as part of their propaganda? I would hardly call the international media pro-Israeli. Also, there isn’t so much attention being paid to Hamas’s purging of Fatah, rounding up Fatah activists that they label “pro-Israeli” and either beating or executing them. Your coverage of the Middle East conflict is extremely one-sided, sir. Yes, ground invasion of Gaza may be a mistake on Israel’s part, even if only because tactically it has little chance of stopping Hamas from firing rockets into Israel in the future. And your article pays little attention to Iran’s involvement in both Gaza and Lebanon, supplying Hamas and Hizbollah with increasingly large scale rockets and Iranian Revolutionary Guard military advisers.
01/08/2009
I in no way condone the actions of Hamas and its rocket attacks against Israel. Their purging of the Fatah is barbaric, and will only serve to exacerbate the lack of moderate leadership within Palestine.
I did not intend with my article to attempt to convey the entire history or political complexity of the situation, as I did not feel like writing a multi volume work. There are many topics I could have covered: Hamas and Fatah, the use of terrorist tactics for propaganda, Israel’s media silence of Gaza by refusing foreign journalists access, Iran’s involvement with extremist groups, American extremists support of the Settlers, Egypt’s culpability in the conflict by shutting off the southern entry to Gaza, or even detailing the British mandate system that created the current situation.
However, I only felt the need to highlight the current situation as it stands: Israel has launched a massive onslaught against a largely civilian population, resulting in massive civilian casualties. If my article seems one sided, it is only because the casualties of this conflict are one sided.
We can try to retrace the steps of violence that led to the current conflict back 100 years, but what good would that do us now? Now we must face the reality at hand, which is the deaths of hundreds of innocent people brought about by the Israeli invasion.
01/09/2009
What you call Egypt’s complicity or culpability can also be viewed as one of the region’s moderate Arab states becoming nervous at Hamas’s increasing range of mortars and missiles and with Iran’s growing role in the destabilization of the region through outright collusion with first Hizbollah and then Hamas. Is it unreasonable then for Egypt to crack down on the tunnels that are used by Hamas to funnel weapons into Gaza? By looking the other way, Egypt would instead be signaling acceptance to Hamas’s stated goals – the destruction of Israel. I realize that Hamas uses these same tunnels to bring in all sorts or supplies into Gaza other than weaponry, but it is the military hardware and Iranian involvement that comes into Gaza through these tunnels that make them a legitimate Israeli military target.
As for the onslaught, is it not directed at Hamas mortar teams, and is it not Hamas’s willingness to place the civilian population at risk by firing from within their midst that escalates the casualties? Case in point – Hamas mortar team sets up next to a refugee school, fires mortars into Israel, then scatters, school takes return fire but due to calculated position of mortar location, refugee casualties are inevitable. Refugee children killed in the return fire are then paraded on international media stations. In one case, mortar team didn’t scatter quick enough and were found dead amongst civilian casualties. Obviously, it would be oversimplistic to explain away all civilian deaths in this manner and in any warfare, some casualties are inevitable, but it is Hamas’s willingness to blindly fire rockets into Israel (is the Israeli people a valid military target?) and then involve their citizens as shields and dead children as propaganda that cheapens Hamas’s claims for world sympathy.
So you call it one-sided only because the Palestinians in Gaza have suffered hundreds of casualties while Israel has suffered but a few? Would you rather that the IDF had waited until Hamas rockets had killed a few hundred Israeli civilians so that it all ended up balanced?
What did you think Hamas intended to achieve by shelling Israel? Do you really think a steady barrage of rockets was going to make the Israeli people more willing to forge peace and make allowances? On the contrary, it has hardened public sentiment in Israel against Hamas and the Palestinians…I guess you can call all of Israel “hard-line” at this point.
Either it was a gross miscalculation on Hamas’s part, or their hatred of Israel was such that they were willing to sacrifice their own people in order to draw the IDF into a conflict. Maybe those at the rally can explain this. Do they really believe that Hamas acts in their best interest?
01/09/2009
[original response removed by admin]
not only has this discussion far departed from the initial article (the protest in front of the bell tower), but wishing harm upon anyone else is unacceptable within this forum. Please take further discussion on this topic elsewhere.