Gaza again

10 February 2009

hi everyone,

before another week goes by, i thought i'd send you a quick feedback from that gaza demo two weeks ago. meant to do that ages ago, but just never got around to it.

first of all, thanks to the ones who came along and the ones who would have come along if they hadn't been out of the country of otherwise occupied.

very briefly:
it was short, sweet and not particularly exciting.
nothing major happened and the numbers of attendants were much lower than those on 10 january.
whereas on 10 jan figures reached about 10 - 20,000 (estimates vary), on 25 jan, there were only about 4 - 5,000 of us (? again, estimates vary).

as for the type of people present this time, i would say that various muslim groups and the more hard-line people around george galloway and the socialist party clearly dominated the picture.

police i spoke to at the end said the relatively low overall turn-out and the predominance of people of arab extraction and, to a lesser extent, members of the socialist party, was clearly in reaction to the starbucks-smashing incident of 10 jan, and that many of the 'mums with prams' and other 'normal people' present on 10 jan had stayed at home on 24 jan.
whether that analysis of his is accurate or whether this is due to a more general trend, i don't know.

even so, on 24 jan, there were still a lot of 'mainstreamers', some dressed very smartly, walking alongside the two other groups outlined above.

as for the arab participants, many of them seemed middle class, and young - there were lots of girls as well - nicely dressed, complete with headscarf and make-up (and probably listening to rihanna and beyonce in their spare time.)

at one point, we were caught between two groups of kids chanting 'free, free palestine' and 'from the river to the sea' - obviously making my hair stand on end.
and then passed an older english guy campaigning for 'a one-state solution: palestine'.
and we quickly escaped to a more balanced part of the demo, and then found ourselves walking in front of a banner by the 'israeli committee against house demolitions', which we felt was a bit more like it.

summing up, the mainstreamers came in smaller numbers this time (again, can't tell whether it was just a reaction to 10 jan or a general trend), and i resolved to definitely bring my own banner next time, with a more balanced message regarding peace in the entire region and on both sides.

(having said that we must not forget that the demos on 10 jan and 24 jan were a reaction to a humanitarian disaster unfolding in gaza, rather than the expression of a balanced political thought process concerning the entire region.)

last, but not least, one of the main themes of the demo on 24 jan was the BBC's refusal to broadcast the DEC appeal for humanitarian aid for gaza's civilians - a theme that was taken up by some of the UK's 'serious' newspapers (eg. the Observer) the next day, which strongly condemned the BBC's decision - and therefore in line with the demands of the demonstrants.

if anyone wants to read a little more - i came across the following two articles on the matter, which i find excellent:

- Time Magazine, by Tim McGirk:
http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1870314-1,00.html

- statement by the New Israel Fund, a fairly new organisation that I take very seriously
http://www.newisraelfund.org.uk/subPages/05_newsAndMedia/_archivedNews/__old/055.html

and if you still got the stamina for more:

for figures of victims (dead and injured),
take a look at
- the UN News centre's website at http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=29567&Cr=gaza&Cr1
- the Jerusalem Post at http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull&cid=1232292939271.

for the DEC appeal video: http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/video/2009/jan/26/dec-gaza-appeal.

for background stuff on sderot:
- voices from sderot http://www.bicom.org.uk/videos/voices-from-sderot
- 'other voices' from sderot http://pulsemedia.org/2009/01/12/a-sderot-woman-speaks-out-against-israels-brutal-folly/
- BBC http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/7830405.stm

and, last but not least, for a recent video by CBS:
- CBS video by Bob Simon, Jewish himself, living in Tel Aviv http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2009/01/23/60minutes/main4749723.shtml
- israeli blogger arguing against the CBS video
http://myrightword.blogspot.com/2009/02/harvey-taback-on-cbsbob-simons-60.html

please let me know if you'd like me to take you off this list. just in case there should be any follow-up emails.

all the best and have a good week,

isabella