------------------------- Via Workers World News Service Reprinted from the June 23, 2003 issue of Workers World newspaper -------------------------
PRO-ISRAEL PARADE DRAWS PROTESTS
In 1948 European settlers used terror, force and massacre to drive nearly 800,000 Palestinians from their homes and land. More than 400 villages were wiped off the map. In New York City this genocide is celebrated in an annual festival of hatred and bigotry called the Salute to Israel parade.
The organizers seek to mobilize the Jewish community in particular to support Israel's U.S.-funded reign of terror against Palestinians today. This year they failed. The city's hated mayor, billionaire budget-cutter Michael Bloomberg, and other white politicians--no Black elected officials were present--led contingents from private schools and a smattering of corporate floats up Fifth Avenue. But the turnout was sparse and the organizers were hard-pressed to fill the time alloted for the event. To make it appear larger, they arranged large gaps between contingents and had many of them march the route twice.
Protesters were there, too, many of them Jewish. Opposition to the hate march was organized by Jews Against the Occupation and the Palestine Activist Forum. They carried Palestinian flags and signs denouncing Israel's occupation of the West Bank and Gaza and supporting the right of Palestine refugees to return to their homes.
Some carried pictures of Rachel Corrie, the Olympia, Wash., trade unionist crushed to death by an Israeli soldier as she tried to stop his bulldozer from demolishing a Palestinian family's home. Protesters chanted, "Nothing here to celebrate, Israel is a racist state," and sang a song in support of Palestinian freedom to the tune of the Jewish children's song "Dreidl." Another chant told the marchers, most of whom hailed from prosperous, segregated suburbs, "Long Island is your home, leave Palestine alone."
A group of black-clad observant Jews from the Neturei Karta movement waved Palestinian flags. Israeli Army veterans were also among the demonstrators. The parade was thrown into further disarray when activists ran into the street and blocked the route with a sit-in. Two people were arrested. --Bill Cecil
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