By Munir K. Nasser
Chief Correspondent, Washington, DC
Albawaba.com
Over 10,000 Arab and Muslim Americans protested in front of the White House Saturday, waving Palestinian flags and chanting angry slogans condemning Israel and the US over the killing of Palestinians.
The rally was described by the Washington Post as one of the largest in the United States since the recent clashes started. Demonstrators came from as far away as Detroit and Boston, demanding an end to what they see as unconditional US support for Israel. They carried signs reading: “Down, down Israel," and "The Occupation Got to Go." Many wore red stickers that said, "Stop Funding Israeli Terrorism."
A video projector displayed on a big screen images of television footage of the death of 12-year-old Mohammad Al-Durra, the Palestinian boy who was killed by the Israeli forces in Gaza on September 30, as his father tried to protect him.
The demonstrators listened to a series of speakers who stressed that the United States is participating in the killing by supporting Israel. A few hundred protesters marched around the square holding a makeshift child-size coffin covered with pictures of children killed or injured in the violence. At noontime, the protests paused for prayer.
Many families participated in the protest, bringing their children to learn about the issue, and to demonstrate that children killed in Palestine were at the same age. The children told reporters they are as concerned by what they see as a conflict with tanks on one side and stones on the other.
Meanwhile, a group of 25 Arab Americans started a hunger strike in La Fayette Park facing the White House on Saturday in protest of the killings of Palestinians by Israeli troops. Other Arab Americans from California, Florida, Illinois, Indiana, North Carolina, New York, Maryland, Virginia, and Washington, DC will join them. The Hunger Strike will end on Friday, November 3.
Organizers of the hunger strike said they hope this expression of solidarity will help humanize the plight of the Palestinian people who are being subject to brutal Israeli attacks and occupation of their land. One of the organizers of the event, Dr. S.M. Budron, of the Arab Americans for Peace and Justice, said that now is the time for all peace loving Americans to protest the blatant injustices against the Palestinian people. He invited the community to support the national hunger strike in front of the White House, as a basic human rights struggle against Israeli occupation and Palestinian dispossession.
© 2000 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
