"I will not dance to your war drum."

[sabotabby]

We took to the streets today, thousands and thousands of us (10,000 according to the police estimate; I walked for blocks in a mass of people before I found anyone I recognized), as Israeli tanks entered Gaza.


























Also, John Bonnar's pictures are up now. You can really get a sense of the scale.

Here is Gaza.

Palestinian-American poet Suheir Hamad:

"Murder Murder - Where the Water Runs Black" (Watch on Vimeo)

Hat tip: eumelia.


"In Gaza there is..." by Mazen Kerbaj.

Comments

[ghostwes.livejournal.com]

I was very impressed with the numbers there today. I guess I'm used to piddly little Windsor demos where 15-20 people show up... and I know all 15-20 of them. Are Toronto rallies usually this well-attended or was this unusual?

I had the misfortune of walking through the pro-Israeli hecklers on my way to the demo... man, what a bloodthirsty lot they were. Vastly outnumbered by those who opposed them, however, fortunately.

[sabotabby]

No, this is very, very unusual for Toronto. The much-less-controversial anti-war demos don't even draw out that many people. I imagine that Palestine House, the organization that called it, got a lot of people in from Mississauga, where there's a huge Palestinian community, but even then—I was blown away.

The pro-Israeli people were all JDL. I mean, they're an actual terrorist group. Even Zionists are afraid of them.

[ghostwes.livejournal.com]

Well, one thing that was nice to see was that the Jewish groups who were opposed to this horrible war outnumbered the ones waving Israeli flags and shouting racist slurs. I don't think many people are aware that the Jewish voice is far from united on the matter of Israel, much less what Israel does to Palestinians. I think it's important that people hear about these groups.

[rbowspryte.livejournal.com]

Yes I'm the one who put the Palestine house support ads in m'library. I was glad to see them.

[sabotabby]

Go you! Did you catch shit for it?

[rbowspryte.livejournal.com]

It has not been noticed.

[audrawilliams.livejournal.com]

David-James and Nrinder!

[sabotabby]

I don't know any of the people in these photos!

[faithhopetricks.livejournal.com]

I'm proud to know you.

[sabotabby]

*blushes*

I'm not really a cool person, I just play one on the internets.

[mr-flabulous.livejournal.com]

For some reason I just read the "news" reports, where one said that the organizers expected 5,000 but only 2-3,000 showed up (in fact, while at dundas square i overheard one of the organizers comment that they were completely overwhelmed because the crowd was so much larger than anticipated) and another quoted some fuck from the JDL while conveniently forgetting to mention that they're a TERRORIST organization.

Anyway, it was huge and really good, aside from the usual stupid swastika signs and the two actual neo-nazi skinheads who hilariously left when they realized that the crowd was full of brown people who they also hate.

[sabotabby]

LOL WTF?

There was some dumb shit going on where I was standing—people shouting that the Holocaust was a hoax and all that. It didn't last long, fortunately.

[mr-flabulous.livejournal.com]

Mhm...oh, and there was a small group of women in front of me with the Hamas flag and green headbands. I kept trying to lose them, mostly to avoid some awkward National Post front-page picture with me & a bunch of Hamas supporters.

[sabotabby]

Yeah, there was a bit of that where I was too, though only a minority of people were pro-Hamas, and most folks weren't going along with their chants. But haha, there was me and Asad, a couple of atheist commies, in the midst of a bunch of folks shouting "Allah Akbar."

[esizzle.livejournal.com]

yaaaaaaa this time i saw you !! maybe next time u might even talk to me :)

[sabotabby]

What? Where were you? I didn't see you.

Of course, my glasses were fogged up and I was stumbling around half-blind, so that might have had something to do with it. Also I apparently had an evil twin at the demo because I was looking through photos and found someone who looks exactly like me, minus the glasses.

[ironed_orchid]

Great turn out. I miss living in a city where people come out to protest.

[sabotabby]

Usually people don't come out to protest. I was happy.

[ayoub.livejournal.com]

Protesting is a good thing!

[sabotabby]

It is, as long as people remember that it's a means rather than an end in itself.

[frandroid.livejournal.com]

I wish John Bonnar would trim his photodump a bit, and not post 10 pictures of the same sign with the same guy in front of it.

My photos to soon follow.

[sabotabby]

Seriously! Is that his friend or something? And I'm arrogant enough to even go through all six pages to see if I can spot myself in the crowd. (No, but there is a woman in two pictures who looks exactly like me except that she isn't wearing glasses and a keffiyeh, which I was.)