TRUTHOUT
August 8, 2014
“Stop shooting rockets,” they yelled over the heads of the police. Waving Israeli flags, nearly a hundred members of Stand With Us stood behind stone-faced riot cops as a few thousand antiwar protesters filled the plaza to condemn Israel’s bombing of Gaza. Palestinian flags bobbed as attendees turned their backs on the Zionists and faced the stage. At the microphone, author Max Blumenthal bellowed, “The Zionist Era is over! Israel says it wants peace, and they do.” He paused, “They want piece after piece of Palestinian land,” he yelled, “That’s the kind of peace they want.” Cheering rose from the crowd.
The San Francisco rally joined others in London, Tel Aviv, Paris, Islamabad, Seoul, Frankfurt and more cities in a global outcry against Israel’s siege of Gaza. As Israeli missile after missile struck homes, photos of victims wrapped in gauze or parents cradling dead children filled social media. Driven by the deep human impulse to sympathize with suffering, thousands of people poured into city streets to demand an end to the rain of bombs.
NICHOLAS POWERS 