We shut down 4th street and 3rd Ave in Minneapolis today

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Protesting the Israeli wall in Palestine, about 10 people formed a human wall on 4th street and 3rd avenue today in downtown.

A bus attempted to scare them out of the way, pulled into the intersection, stopped when the protestors didn't move, and actually wound up helping us, as both intersections were blocked, instead of just one.

Cops were called, and the protestors were eventually arrested.

Just wanted to share this with DU, it was kind of a neat thing to see, although I'm not as into the Palestinians as some people.

[KitchenWitch]

1. Cool

Sounds like it was a successful protest.

[question everything]

2. And... did you also protest and blocked traffic

when innocent people were killed by suicide bombers in Israel?

How many people have the wall killed so far?

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3. the protest was about US tax dollars supporting Israel

Your argument is eerily similar conservatives saying "where were the protests when Saddam was killing his own people?", and I'm not sure I really get it.

I stated above I believe that i'm not that into the palestian movement, I believe, and if I didn't, i'm stating it now. I just came out because I knew there would be civil disobedience, and I like that stuff. I honestly think that people need to be out on the street blocking traffic every single day, not beacuse of Palestine necessarily, but because of the many crimes and immoralities of our government, and it's one of the few ways that we can make a difference.

If something like this happens once on the streets of Minneapolis, it creates a hassle for a few motorists and some cops. If it happens a few times a week in every city, then we create a way to stop the system from functioning, and they will ultimately have to abandon their ways. From my involvement in the General College Truth Movement at the U of M, I can say that 10 people sitting inside the Presidents office for a few hours and 20 people camping outside the Administration Office for a week made a hundred times more of a difference than the 500 people who legally gathered outside the building a month earlier and whined for two hours and then went home and either stopped caring or stopped showing that they cared. So that's my feelings on CD.

I'll protest whenever my tax money goes to support the murder of civiliains, by the way. It's not my fault the US supports the Israelis murderers and not the Palestinian murderers. Once again, I sympathize with both sides, but I'm not necessarily protesting either side, because they are both wrong. I'm protesting MY government helping murderers, and my tax money being spent to help a government which does this. Whenever my money is spent on something like this, I will be in the streets. Which sadly is quite often.

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4. Press Release

Several protesters have just been arrested for blocking a downtown Minneapolis road with a massive banner depicting Israel's apartheid wall. On the banner was the slogan, "The Wall Will Fall." If you are interested joining in solidarity with this action, please join us for jail support at 4th Ave between 4th & 5th St. We will be there until all protesters are released - likely late tonight or in the early morning. What follows is a press release on their action.

Anti-war activists do civil disobedience to protest the catastrophic treatment of Palestinians

The Anti-War Committee has organized a demonstration on Monday, May 16th starting at 4:00PM at the Hennepin County Government Center (5th St and 4th Ave, Mpls). Protesters will gather to commemorate the tragedy of Al-Nakba (Arabic for the catastrophe). This date honors the destruction of 415 Palestinian villages and the creation of almost 1 million Palestinian refugees between 1947 and 1950. At 4:30PM they will march to the Federal building (4th St and 3rd Ave) to protest the $13 million sent every day the US sends in aid to Israel and the US’ support for the building of the “security” wall through the West Bank. Activists will do civil disobedience to highlight Israel’s destruction of Palestinian lands by creating a barrier symbolic of the wall.

Erika Zurawski, an Anti-War Committee and Anti-War Organizing League member, is doing civil disobedience and explained, “I want to take a stand against the brutal treatment of Palestinians and the use of my tax dollars to further their mistreatment. Our tax dollars should not go to fund racial and ethnic segregation, collective punishment, torture, or the purposeful mistreatment and murder of civilians. I hope that more people will see the connections between the US’ occupation of the Iraqi people and the US’ support for the terrorizing of Palestinians. More people need to say enough!”

Sabry Wazwaz, a Palestinian-American member of the Anti-War Committee explains the importance of this day, “Al-Nakba is about the land being stolen and how people were murdered. People saw their moms and dads or their kids killed right in front of them. In Deir Yassin, people were given 10 minutes to get out and were murdered. For people any where not to remember or know about this tragedy is to forget about what happened to innocent people.”

Katie Molm, another Anti-War Committee member said, “Remembering Al-Nakba is important because innocent Palestinians have been murdered for 57 years. The US gives Israel $13 million a day in military aid, and denies any wrongdoing by Israel. US aid has helped to fund the building of the wall, which ranges from about 25 to 50 feet tall. The wall is guarded 24 hours a day. The effect of the wall is to steal Palestinian lands, isolate Palestinian cities, and prevent people from getting the necessary services they need. The AWC’s protest is intended to stand in solidarity with the Palestinian people during a time of great oppression and to say that we want it to end.”

The Anti-War Committee was born out of a civil disobedience action at Rep. Martin Olaf Sabo’s office in 1998 in protest of his support for sanctions on the Iraqi people. The Anti-War Committee uses a variety of tactics including educating the public, lobbying politicians, organizing demonstrations, and sometimes breaking the law through civil disobedience to try to raise awareness about the real impacts of US foreign policy. This is the committee’s second civil disobedience action in support of the Palestinian people. The first was also organized in commemoration of Al-Nakba with especially a call for Justice for Jenin after the Israeli massacre at the Jenin refugee camp during the spring of 2002.

[question everything]

7. And... did you protest the aid the U.S. is giving Egypt

and Saudi Arabia, and Iraq?

And do you realize that most of the foreign aid comes with strings attached to purchase heavy equipment and, yes, fighters and arms in the U.S., thus contributing to the American economy? Contributing to good middle income jobs of engineers and factory workers who work in the aerospace industry and other manufcturing?

And do you realize that, as much as you abhor any war across the globe, that Israel has been an important ally of this country in providing access to intelligence - from the days of the Cold War - and other essential military equipment?

Are you opposing any foreign aid or only the one given to Israel?

And are you aware that Israel is on recored in terminating such aid within a few years? Do not remember the exact date, but it did set one.

And did you bother to read the corrected Amnesty International report that there was no Jenin massacre, or did you only read the first, erroneous report that there was?

I think that if you want to form an opinion about foreign affairs - an admirable desire not shared by many in this country - you should at least get all the facts from all sources, and you can start here http://www.mideastweb.org/index.html

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8. this should be fun

people are acting like i'm some palestinian jihadist fighting the intifada. i don't know how many times i have to say i'm not that into the palestinians, pretty much just a moderate leaning towards their side that came out to see some CD. but i'll refute your arguments anyway.

I have protested the US giving foreign aid to Egypt and Saudia Arabia before, actually. So thank you for bringing that up. At an Anti-War rally I went to a few months ago, that was one branch of it. That we attacked Iraq and overthrew its government killing tens of thousands of civilians, yet give aid to contries like Saudia Arabia, which are probably worse.

Your saying that the foreign aid is good because they buy the tools they used to kill each other from us then? Okay, I guess. Not especially liberal, but very capitalist. I like it. The good business thinking that has led to the great success of our nation. However, I do not support anybody's murder just because their tools of murder have "made in the USA" stickers on them.

I will admit to you once again that I am not that knowledgable in the Israel-Palestinian Conflict except what I read in the MSM. My area of expertise is Iraq, and I spend much more time studying about Iraq. However, I will look at the website you gave me.

[question everything]

10. So let me get this straight: you are not that knowledgeable in the

Israeli-Palestinian conflict, yet you join a rally because someone told you to do so? Did you also carry a banner that says: "Jesus Save?"

Because I thought that only Bush followers are the ones that go to rallies because someone told them to do so without an independent thinking. I certainly did not expect to find this on DU.

I do hope that you are in the minority among DUers.

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11. you are distorting what I am saying

to a very lage degree.

Some of it is my fault though, for not explaining well, but I don't think that that will change your opinion of me, though. I am more knowledgable of the I-P conflict than the average American, yes. It is not my expertise, and I am not that involved in the movement, because I see faults on both sides.

I did not go because somebody told me to go. I am friends with two of the people who were arrested, yes. Erika, who you read about in the press release, and another person from the anti-war group that I'm in at the U of M.

I went to the rally because I knew there would be civil disobedience, and I, as an activist, am interested in civil disobedience as a tactic that I may want to use one day. I went mainly to look at what they did. I was involved in the sit-in at the U of M earlier this month, which was another form of civil disobedience. That was an issue I cared dearly about, and knew a lot about. I will say that I went to this Palestine rally mainly as a learning experience, to study their strategy. I stood away from the main part of the rally for most of the time, and I don't recall participating in any chants either. I'm not sure what your problem is. I went to a rally for Palestine, and stood by myself away from the crowd most of the time. I observed people using civil disobedience, as I may one day want to use civil disobedience. I guess I'll apologize to you, if it will make you feel better. But I'm still not quite sure what the problem is. And frankly, if I wouldn't have been there, I just would have been home watching TV. I liked going out and studying the CD tactics better. But yeah, I apologize again, I guess. But I am glad I was out there to support my friends in a cause they believe in, all studying aside.

[ISUGRADIA]

5. I've never though pissing off commuters was the best way to win

people over to one's cause.

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6. you're probably right

but what other suggestions do you have for the anti-war community? we've had 100,000+ marching on DC, and got just a brief mention by the media.

the way i've always seen it is that the worst part of the day for a vast majority of these people was waiting 10-15 minutes for the cops to arrest us. when you compare that to the struggles of the people we were protesting for, i have a hard time really feeling sorry for them. and at least we got some attention. hell, we might have got more attention from that 15 minutes blocking of traffic than we did when 1500 of us were in loring park. the media may have ignored us, but we took our fight directly to the people.

civil disobedience has its effective and ineffective. and i think today was probably one of the less effective ways to use civil disobedience. but i think it gets the point across. these people become outraged at having to wait 15 minutes to get home from work, and lots of them just turned around and took another street anyway. what would they do if they had a deal with a permanent wall enforced by the government? would they honk their horns in anger? would they say "oh well, what are you going to do?" and not care about what was happening, like many people do here.

there may be a lot of criticism of things the anti-war community does. the best thing to do if you feel you have better ideas is to join your local anti-war group and give them your ideas. believe me, we want you.

[katinmn]

9. thanks for taking a stand, seg!

:yourock: