Jews blockade Los Angeles’ Israeli consulate to protest Gaza assault

CounterVortex

From the International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network (IJAN), Jan. 14:

Jews Shut Down Israeli Consulate for Three Hours;
Ten Jews chain together to block driveway and entrance
Early this morning, Jewish activists in a historic first in Los Angeles, chained themselves to the entrance of the Israeli Consulate and blocked the driveway to the parking structure, blocking all traffic in and out of the building. “We sent a clear message to the world that LA Jews are part of the global majority in opposition to the Israeli siege of Gaza,” said Lenny Potash a 72-year old protester who was cuffed to eight other activists, blocking the driveway to the consulate. The activists were joined by 50 other supporters and who chanted “LA Jews say, End the Siege of Gaza” and “Not in Our Name! We will Not be Silent!” Protesters also held up signs reading “Israeli Consulate: Closed for War Crimes.”

“We succeeded today in letting Jews and other Americans of conscience know that it is safe to speak out against the policies of the Israeli government and that the Israeli lobby does not speak for everyone,” said Robin Ellis, a registered nurse who also risked arrest to block the consulate entrance. “We are committed to escalating non-violent activities in the future to end the
siege and win justice for Palestinians,” Ellis said.

The group of activists were an ad-hoc, multi-generational group of LA Jewish residents, including members of the recently founded International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network. They shared a commitment to ending the Israeli siege on Gaza and an end to Israeli apartheid. The demonstration will kick off a wave of demonstrations across the United States uniting Palestinians, Jewish people, and other Americans outraged by the siege.

“We are shocked and outraged at Israeli’s latest act of violent aggression against the Palestinian people. Killing over 950 people, including 250 women and children, bombing schools and mosques and then calling it self-defense—that is the worst kind of hypocrisy. It also amounts to war crimes,” said Hannah Howard, a local member of the International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network. “We shut down the Israeli consulate today because as Jewish people we cannot allow business as usual while violence is being done in our name.”

Action participants also spoke out against the US government’s unconditional support for Israel’s siege and its ongoing war against the Palestinian people. “While US-funded F16’s rain down bombs on the people of Gaza, our elected officials locally and nationally offer unqualified support.” said Marsha Steinberg, a retired union representative. “Our government must stop sending billions of dollars in military and economic aid to the Israeli war machine,” Goldberg said. In the coming week, concerned Americans from all backgrounds will call on the new presidential administration to make a 180 degree change in policy.

“While the end of the siege on Gaza is our most immediate priority, this is only the latest chapter in Palestinians’ 60 plus year experience of occupation and ethnic cleansing. Peace and justice in the region will only come when Palestinians have freedom and control their own destiny,” said Lisa Adler, a community organizer in Los Angeles and another member of the International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network. “Even before the siege began, Israel’s inhumane months-long blockade of Gaza created a major humanitarian crisis. We must end the siege. And we are building a nonviolent international movement of boycott, divestment and sanctions that brings an end to Israel’s policies of occupation and apartheid and advances the Palestinian struggle for justice,” said Adler.

See our last post on Gaza.


IJAN

  1. NY pols attend pro-Israel hate-fest
    Meanwhile, some more predictable news from New York City. Max Blumenthal writes for AlterNet Jan. 13:

    Pro-Israel Rally Attended by Big-Time NY Dems Descends into Calls for ‘Wiping Out’ Palestinians
    On January 11, an estimated 10,000 people rallied in front of the Israeli consulate in midtown New York in support of Israel’s attack on the Gaza Strip. The rally, which was organized by UJA-Federation of New York and the Jewish Community Relations Council of New York in cooperation with the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, featured speeches by New York’s most senior lawmakers. While the crowd was riled to righteous anger by speeches about Hamas evildoers, the event was a festive affair that began and ended with singing and joyous dancing.

    Sen. Chuck Schumer highlighted Israel’s supposed humanitarian methods of warfare by pointing to its text messaging of certain Gaza Strip residents urging them to vacate their homes before Israeli forces bombed them. “What other country would do that?” Schumer shouted from the podium. Gov. David Paterson appeared on stage wearing one of the red hats distributed to demonstrators as symbols of the red alerts some residents of Israel endure when Palestinian groups fire rockets their way. Paterson cited the many Qasam rockets that have fallen on Israel as a justification for the country’s operations in Gaza, a military assault that has resulted in over 800 casualties and thousands of injuries.

    Then Paterson highlighted the anti-Semitism that has followed in the wake of Israel’s attack on Gaza, highlighting the beating of a teen-age girl in France. “This kind of anger and hatred spreads like a disease,” Paterson said, “and one thing I’ve always pointed out is there’s no place for hate in the Empire State.”

    But hatred was plentiful at the rally Paterson addressed. Right in front of the stage, a man held a banner reading, “Islam Is A Death Cult.” Rally attendees described the people of Gaza to me as a “cancer,” called for Israel to “wipe them all out,” insisting, “They are forcing us to kill their children in order to defend our own children.” A young woman told me, “Those who die are suffering God’s wrath.” “They are not distinguishing between civilians and military, so why should we?” said a member of the group of messianic Orthodox Jewish Chabad-Lubavitch group that flocked to the rally.

    As for the anti-Jewish attack in France, it is, alas, real. From AP via YNet, Jan. 9:

    French teenagers charged in attack on Jewish girl
    A juvenile court judge filed preliminary charges against four French teenagers accused of attacking a Jewish girl, a judicial official said Friday, amid tensions around Europe over the fighting in Gaza.

    Three of the four teenagers are accused of violence with a religious or ethnic motive, and the fourth is accused of failing to prevent a crime, the official said. The official was not authorized to be named because the investigation is ongoing.

    The four defendants – aged between 13 and 15 – are not in custody but are under judicial supervision. Under French law, preliminary charges allow for further investigation before a magistrate determines whether to send the case to trial.

    The teenagers are accused of making anti-Semitic insults toward the 14-year-old girl, pushing her to the ground and kicking her as she was leaving school in the northern Paris suburb of Villiers-le-Bel.

    The girl was lightly injured in the attack.

  2. israeli terrorism
    well to me those rockets…firecrackers is more like it(since the new year firecrackers give better result than those kitchen manufactured “rockets”) were raised as a reaction to the long inhumane blockade by israel, anyone would pick up arms if refused the right to live and killed slowly by starvation to a painfull death, this in addition to numerous other crimes commited by israel. if israelis dont like the hamas(whose creation is also a reaction to israeli terrorism..see what word “hamas” means) and thier rockets they so complain about, then they should check the actions that are causing these reactions…every action has an equal and opposite reaction…law of physics,so simple. stop the blockade and terrorism, the rockets would stop automatically,after all these rockets are being made free of cost for an already thin budgeted hamas.