Gaza

[sabotabby]

I'm predictably sad and outraged and there's little I can say that hasn't been said already.

It seems beyond pointless to go to a demo and shout about it in front of a closed consulate, but what else can you do?











Article and video about the Toronto protest. I can be briefly spotted at the beginning of the video. By the way, the counter demonstrators weren't random concerned Jews—they were members of the JDL.

Comments

[esizzle.livejournal.com]

aw i totally missed u at the protest!

ukh toronto star. what does this even mean "Police had their hands full keeping the two groups apart as the pro-Palestinian group surged across the road but, apart from some minor scuffles, there was no violence"

what is "minor scruffles" and why are we the "pro-palestinian" group? why can't we be the "anti genocide" group ? shame shame media.

[sabotabby]

I don't think there were any scuffles. They left, we crossed the street. Unless someone beat up that undercover in the Sea Shepherd jacket who was Seig Heiling.

I gave (what I thought was) a pretty good interview to that reporter about how it had less to do with ethnic identity than with a straightforward gross violation of human rights, but I think Smadar was probably a more dramatic person to quote. The guy was nice but he didn't know shit about the issues.

[frandroid.livejournal.com]

I think newspapers need to have one or two dedicated reporters who are knowledgeable about the conflict, and assign 90% of these stories to them... I mean it was the same at Excalibur, Hillel would make outrageous claims and the Excal reporter would just print them without any fact-checking.

So anyway, I think different interviewing strategies might apply depending on the knowledge of the interviewer. :I

[frandroid.livejournal.com]

"Pro-palestinian" is at least a bit more inclusive than other reports I read, where it seemed only Palestinians were protesting. Because you know. Other Arabs, non-Arabs, and even SUMJOOZ couldn't possibly support Palestinians.

Anyway, don't you know? The only genocide ever was the holocaust, so only the counter-protesters could possibly be the anti-genocide group. Get your facts right!

[sabotabby]

One of my friends rather hilariously pointed out that there were more Jews on our side than the other side.

[frandroid.livejournal.com]

Did this get pointed out to the journalist? The story would have become "Jews are split over reaction to Israel attack", and there would have been no Palestinians involved in the article!

[sabotabby]

Haha, I imagine that's why it wasn't pointed out to the journalist. Like they need more of an excuse to make teh white people the centre of the story.

[99catsaway.livejournal.com]

There was a big demonstration and counter-demonstration in an area of Boston with a high Jewish population that Eric and I stumbled upon yesterday while returning a book. It spurred a big discussion between the two of us on the whole situation!

At an intersection, there were two corners of people holding giant Palestinian flags and two corners of people flying giant Israeli flags. It was like a mini-conflict right there. I wondered aloud which group got there first, and which one was responding. And then we realized that that was kind of what the argument was about in the first place.

[sabotabby]

Well, in our case, we got there first, but they had slicker signs. It seemed symbolic somehow.

[bcholmes.livejournal.com]

I stumbled upon it by accident. My partner and I were going to the ROM and discovered the protest. I chatted briefly with someone holding a sign near the ROM entrance. I hadn't even known that the Israeli consulate was there.

[sabotabby]

Demos look bizarre there because the ROM is so huge and the Israeli consulate is hidden. So it always looks like we're protesting the ROM (which is hideous, but as if anyone in Toronto ever protested hideous architecture).

[bcholmes.livejournal.com]

I just watched the video. It's interesting how "small world-ish" the activist community in Toronto is. When I saw the demo, I told my partner, "I bet I know people in this demo" and while I didn't go hunting, I recognize a number of the people in the video.

[eumelia.livejournal.com]

Those JDL people always scare the crap out of me.

Yeah, standing in demo's can be pretty disheartening.

It's nauseating, what's being done in our(my) name.

[sabotabby]

It was heartening as far as demos go. I mean, there were a lot of people who cared. So I didn't come back sort of hating life. But it feels like there's absolutely nothing we can do from here to stop the killing.

[eumelia.livejournal.com]

The more I'm at demos, the more I feel the hate.
Because really, the only thing (from our end) that will stop the violence at this point is if IDF soldiers, en mass, disobey the orders, which would be great if it happened somewhere outside my fantasies.

[jk-fabiani.livejournal.com]

Merci.

[sabotabby]

How've you been?

[jk-fabiani.livejournal.com]

I'm hanging in there, thanks for asking. Looking for the light. Clean water, good food. We live like royalty.

[frelling-tralk.livejournal.com]

:/ I'm pretty ignorant of the whole Gaza strip conflict, but the worlds response to the bombings has sickened me

[sabotabby]

Has there been a response?

*cries*

[frelling-tralk.livejournal.com]

Mostly comments about how sad it is, qualified with Israel having a right to defend herself, and fully blaming the Palestine people as asking for it by breaking a ceasefire (I don't even know the right terms, I really am pretty clueless over the whole conflict *embarrassed*)


I just don't get how it's two sides fighting, yet it's only condemned as terrorism when it's Palestine people carrying out the bombings, and with Israel bombings it's defending themselves. Wtf? I should try and read up more on it all :/

[dmlaenker.livejournal.com]

I love how the right makes Israel into the only gendered country in the world.

I think there's something to be said for self-defense, but there's also something to be said for not acting like an exceptional country and bombing the shit out of everything just because you can.

[frandroid.livejournal.com]

Meh, plenty of countries get gendered. The Indian right talks about Mother India all the time, and there used to be plenty of Fatherlands...

[rantipole6.livejournal.com]

Good for you for being out there. Too bad my country's president is being heavily bullied by pro-Israeli lobbyists

[sabotabby]

Too bad my country's Prime Minister, despite having originally risen to power on the strength of the generally-quite-anti-Semitic end of his party, is a neo-con bootlicker who wanted to beat America in not recognizing the democratic process in Palestine.

That was a painfully worded sentence, but you get the idea.

[dmlaenker.livejournal.com]

They're not even really pro-Israeli, usually. Actually, they want almost all of the Israelis to die so that everyone else can die. That way Jesus can come down and take away all of said lobbyists' problems.

[dmlaenker.livejournal.com]

I have to admit I don't quite understand why the bombing began. Was it only because the cease-fire expired?

Sending out an S.O.S.

[frandroid.livejournal.com]

Gazans are (not so) slowly being killed by a crippling embargo that prevents everything you take for granted in life from entering the territory, including tons of medecine, medical equipment, sanitation equipment, etc, creating a humanitarian crisis of epic proportions with another generation of Gazans being denied normal lives. People like Desmond Tutu have called it a genocide, and have deemed the conditions worse than what black South Africans had to suffer through apartheid.

Hamas then sends rockets into Israel, telling the world "Help! We're DYING in here!" because no one ever listens to Palestinians without the use of violence. Said rockets are comparable to giant homemade pipebombs, simple PVC tubes with fins hot-glued on the side, filled with explosives baked on kitchen stoves or bakery ovens, made of bleach and fertilizer, because that is the only explosive materials accessible to Hamas. Meanwhile Israel replies with the best artillery U.S. aid can buy, including F-16s, GPS-and-camera guided "smart" bombs, etc., telling Palestinians "what do you mean you're dying? That's the whole point! Here, die faster! But would you please Shut. Up. about it already?"

That's why Hamas has been launching rockets, and why Israel is pounding the shit out of Palestinians.

Re: Sending out an S.O.S.

[rantipole6.livejournal.com]

Feel free to visit one of my recent blog entries and repeat that explanation.

Blame the British

[cheshirecat25.livejournal.com]

I'm not up on all the particulars of the conflict, but being a Fenian-Irish Republican (not republican in the Bush/McCain sense, there is a big difference), I sympathize with the Palestinians. Blame the Brits. They started this mess over 90 years ago.

From a photographer's point-of-view, your lead photo is wicked. It deserves to be cd cover or something.

Re: Blame the British

[frandroid.livejournal.com]

Sure, blame the Brits for the origins of the conflict after WWI, although I would say that since WWII the resident of 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. has had more weight on the conflict than the one at 10 Downing St...

[mr-flabulous.livejournal.com]

i tried to get myself to the protest, but just gave up at 1:45. these days protests just make me feel more despondent because i have no faith in their ability to change anything. i just leave feeling cold, tired, and even more upset.

i felt guilty for not going, but really, we go to these things to make ourselves feel better. so if it doesn't make me feel better...

i just wish i could do something more productive than updating my facebook status, not buying israeli products or shopping at chapters (which i never really did anyway), signing petitions, and lying in bed feeling crappy.

[frandroid.livejournal.com]

i felt guilty for not going, but really, we go to these things to make ourselves feel better. so if it doesn't make me feel better...

Well, you wouldn't feel guilty if you went ;)

The Star covered the protest, I think it's about at good as it gets for now, showing that there is some dissent...

[ladypolitik.livejournal.com]

Either it's been too long since I last recalled int'l media coverage of Israel's government blatantly destroying the lives of Gaza civilians, or there's something extraordinarily infuriating about the mainstream consensus that dubs said destruction permissible/justifiable.

[rbowspryte.livejournal.com]

I also find the laissez-faire treatment from the press nauseating. Favor one side much?

Mostly people round here are just marvelling at this whole "permission to bully" attitude.