Global IssuesProtests Erupt After Israeli Flotilla Raid
Civil society protests are being staged in cities around the world following Israel's widely condemned raid on a flotilla of ships carrying humanitarian aid bound for Gaza.
On Tuesday evening, some 800 people gathered to demonstrate in New York City, where many expressed disappointment with Washington's tepid response to the deadly attack. The action came on the heels of a slightly larger protest Monday, said Felice Gelman of the International Coalition to End the Illegal Siege of Gaza, an organiser of the events.
'The U.S. government has failed to respond in any kind of strong and reasonable way to an amazing act of violence,' Gelman told IPS.
Further, she said, the Israeli government controls the information coming out about the raid. Those detained have not been able to speak and video has been confiscated.
The event's organisers wanted to raise awareness among a public that they say has not received a fair and accurate representation of what happened on the water off Gaza early Monday morning.
The raid, said Gelman, was 'technically an act of war'.
Tuesday's demonstration in New York began at the corner of 42nd Street and Second Avenue, near the Israeli Consulate. Activists, poets, and public officials spoke as attendees, peacefully corralled behind police barricades, waved signs.
People of all ages were present, from an infant clutched close by its mother to an elderly woman with a hand-lettered 'Jewish Grandmother for Gaza' sign, and the crowd was of mixed races and nationalities.
A contingent from Vamos Unidos, a Latino social-justice group from the Bronx, stood alongside a group of Hasidic Jews holding a banner opposing Israel's policies, and many Palestinians and supporters waved Palestine's red, black, white, and green flag.
The hundreds of protesters made their way across 42nd Street to Times Square, chanting 'Free, free, free Palestine!', 'End the occupation now!', and 'Not another nickel! Not another dime! No more money for Israel's crimes!'
Passersby on the street stopped to watch or take photos. Some expressed their support, although one man angrily knocked a sign out of a protesting woman's hand.
Richard Morin, holding a large flag and a sign saying 'The Palestinian People Have the Right to Return', told IPS, 'I'm against Israel's siege and blockade.'
'Israel should stop all of its aggression against the Palestinian people,' he said.
He said that the United States gives excessive support to Israel, and that President Barack Obama needs to do more than express regret for the violence, and should withdraw support from Israel.
Mir Ali, another protester, echoed the need for action. 'The United Nations should not just talk the talk. It should walk the walk,' he said. 'This was humanitarian aid. To use the army to kill people is unjustified.'
While President Obama has expressed his condolences for the at least nine people who were killed and has proclaimed the need for an investigation into the incident on the flotilla, he has not condemned Israel for the raid.
The United Nations Security Council spoke out against the violence, but also did not single Israel out for condemnation, which many protesters say was a result of U.S. influence.
U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said Monday, 'I am shocked by reports of killings and injuries of people on the boats carrying supplies for Gaza.'
He will discuss further investigation into the raid with Arab, Turkish, and Israeli officials, as well as the Security Council and other world leaders, in the coming days.
The first issues to be dealt with, he has stressed, are the release of detainees, the return of the remains of those killed, and care for the wounded. He has called for an end to the blockade of Gaza.
As the New York protesters marched across 42nd Street, other demonstrations went on around the world.
In Turkey, which suffered the detention of 300 citizens as well as some deaths in the raid, protests have raged since Monday.
Monday also saw actions in Palestine and Spain, Paris and Athens, and on Tuesday demonstrations took place in Australia, Egypt and Canada, among many other countries.
Britain's Stop the War Coalition led a demonstration outside Prime Minister David Cameron's office on Monday, and the organisations Palestine Solidarity Campaign and Stop the War plan a large-scale march to the Israeli embassy in London on Saturday.
© Inter Press Service (2010) — All Rights ReservedOriginal source: Inter Press Service