Holding placards appealing for peace and a large banner listing the number of Palestinian and Israeli dead, fifty-five Worcester area residents demonstrated Friday January 2,outside the office of US Representative Jim McGovern to protest the Israeli assault on Gaza. The hour-long demonstration, which began at noon, included a procession to Worcester's City Hall where activists distributed a leaflet(see below) calling for an end to the siege on the Palestinian territory. Organized locally by the Central Massachusetts Coalition for Middle East Peace and the SS. Francis and Therese Catholic Worker, the Worcester demonstration was part of a national initiative coordinated by the US Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation. In the past week, protests against the Israeli attacks have occurred in more than 65 cities nationwide.
Stop the Israeli Siege on Gaza (Text of leaflet distributed at the demonstration)
Six days ago, Israel launched air strikes on the Palestinian territory of Gaza-one of the most densely populated strips of land on earth. The strikes, which began while Palestinian children were en route to school, have killed 420 Palestinians, injured more than 2,000, and destroyed homes, medical buildings, mosques, and other civilian infrastructure. Today, Israel is amassing troops at the Gaza border in preparation for a ground invasion.
The Saints Francis and Therese Catholic Worker and the Central Massachusetts Coalition for Middle East Peace join with other Americans around the country in strongly condemning the Israeli invasion. To date, there have been demonstrations in more than sixty-five American cities protesting the Israeli attacks. Specifically, we stand with American Jews for a Just Peace which has called the Israeli assault a "cruel and barbarous attack upon a captive people."
Israel claims its air strikes are a justifiable response to the Palestinian rockets that have killed four Israelis and terrorized many. We condemn Palestinian violence, believing it is immoral, unlawful, and will not bring justice for the Palestinians. But we know the missiles are the desperate tactics of a people who have endured four decades of occupation and more than a year and a half of an unlawful Israeli blockade that has denied the people of Gaza food, medicines, fuel and other essential supplies. Imposed after the election of Hamas in 2006, the blockade was tightened during Israel's six month truce with Hamas. As a consequence, the United Nations Relief and Works Agency, which had been feeding 750,000 Gazans, reported it had run out of food on December 18, one day before Hamas refused to renew the truce.
Who, among us, is willing to watch our children starve in silence?
US taxpayers are paying for the killing of Palestinians. The US gives $2.4 billion annually to Israel for military aid. American-made F-16's, Apache helicopters, and naval boats are being used to attack Gazans. Therefore we urge our government to:
-demand an immediate cessation of hostilities
-require Israel to provide a lasting and normal opening of all borders to Gaza
-recognize Hamas as among the democratically-elected representatives of the Palestinian people and initiate negotiations with them
Demonstrators outside Worcester City Hall speak out about Israeli siege on Gaza
Young activists join the Worcester demo
Rep. Jim McGovern's Statement issued Jan.2
I believe the international community must press for an immediate cease-fire. A ceasefire would allow humanitarian assistance to be delivered most effectively and facilitate revitalization of the peace process.
I also believe that the United States has been dis-engaged from this process for far too long. President-elect Obama should indicate that he will appoint a Special Envoy to the region to revitalize stalled peace negotiations and to demonstrate the United States commitment to finding a long-term two-state solution.
Every nation, including Israel, has the right to defend itself from attack. Hamas's continued rocket attacks against Israeli civilians are unacceptable. Hamas should have agreed to extend the recently expired cease-fire. They must also recognize Israel's right to exist and dro p thier objection to negotiate a two-state solution.
peace around
yah but whats 2 lives from israel and what 30 injured compared to 480 palestine lives and over 2,00 injured they should have stopped a while ago wait they should have never fought back violence won't solve anything but peace will so why not have a treaty about peace instead of killing hundreds and injuring thousands were not uncivilized people anymore and were not 5 years old. when you were 5 you wanted to punch someone if they pushed you and now if someone pushed you, you would use your words there is not exception now! unless your 5 years old ceasefire and start promoting peace starting with israel and palestine
HOW DARE YOU!
You shouldn't glibly tally--all lost lives are tragic! What, so you decide who is right and wrong in a conflict simply based on body counts? That's intelligent!
The reason there are so fewer Israeli deaths is because Israel invests in an infrastructure that PROTECTS its people. BTW, how would you like to be a child forced to attend school in a $%#% bomb shelter? Or a parent living in fear that a rocket might fall on your kid's head and kill them? Calling for peace and for Israel to "stop the war" is pretty moronic in the face of the terror Israeli civilians have lived under for 8+ years!
Grow up and do some actual research on this conflict and you will see that it is not nearly as simple as the popular propaganda would have you believe. This is not simply a case of the "evil Western Israelis" against the "poor innocent Palestinians". But I guess it's easier to read propaganda posted on the internet rather than make your own decisions.
Re: HOW DARE YOU!
Finally, someone who makes sense.
The Palestinians clearly don't care about their own people enough to PROTECT them, as evidenced by the number of Palestinians killed recently. If they don't care about each other, why should we care about them? Until they make an effort, they deserve this war.
It's SIMPLE LOGIC PEOPLE! But I guess it's easier to read propaganda posted on the internet rather than make your own decisions.
Not In My Name
As an American Jew, I'm sickened that my tax dollars are going to support the Israeli military offensive against Gaza, and I'm tired of violence being done in the name of "protecting Jewish people."
Because of the purposeful conflation made by the U.S. and Israeli medias between "supporting Israel" and "supporting the Jewish people," I feel the need to stand with other Jews around the world who say that this violence must not be done in our name, and Israeli violence and terror against the Palestinian people must immediately cease.
I feel frustrated that pro-Israeli Jewish voices are treated by the United States government and news services as the only Jewish voices out there. They are not: there are many of us who are disgusted by the violence perpetuated by Israel in Gaza and the West Bank, violence that is both direct (as in the current siege) as well as economic, violence which not only murders but impoverishes Palestinians. The U.S. and Israeli governments, and Jewish leadership in the U.S., must recognize our voices for peace as legitimate Jewish voices, and stop the disingenuousness of acting as though there is justice in this violence.
No community is made safe by killing hundreds of Palestinians, and injuring hundreds more. Our communities are not made safe by building walls, launching military offensives and perpetuating an unjust occupation.
If anything is to be done "in the name of the Jewish people," then let the long legacy of Jewish concern for social justice, a legacy longer than the injustice of the Israeli occupation of Palestine, compel Representative McGovern and other officials to work for an immediate end to the violence in Gaza and the West Bank.
To Cha Cha
You have an excellent way of expressing your views. Intellegent and concerned. I agree with you!
Straw Man
Thanks for giving us the standard leftist take on this. This looks almost copy and paste from the handbook.
The idea that U.S. and Israeli media are purposefully trying to manipulate people into believing that being against this action makes you anti-Jew is absurd. The idea that a significant number of people actually believe that is absurd. The only reason to spread the idea is to prove your own moral superiority.
If you take that straw man attack away, your post is reduced to "War is bad. mmmmmmkay?"
Re: Straw Man
LOL
I think the standard leftist take is basically this but with "Some of my best friends are Jewish" in there somewhere
Cha Cha..no bombs being dropped in Kelley Square
Cha-Cha..they are not beating back Hamas and Hezbollah in yer name..they are beating back Hamas and Hezbollah because the two terrorist organizations are dropping bombs on Israel during a recognized cease fire!
Lets see how you feel after Hamas lobs a bomb onto the rooftop of the Vernon Hotel down in Kelley Square some night while you are sipping a cafe latte..Kevin the Bartender is killed and you are left limbless yourself..lets see how you react then! You may have to post your feelings tho via a tongue depressor cause you are limbless.
Paulie
right on -- this is how we do it in green island
i was stabbed in a barfight and basically lost my left arm years ago back when the vernon was at its worst
i tracked the jerk down out of state shot his wife in front of him then did him in
Can one be Jewish and not part of the chosen people?
Your comments make me think of the contrary son from the Passover seder:
The wicked son is intentionally vague when he haughtily asks: "What is this service to you?" To you being the operative phrase, since the wicked son is choosing to separate himself from the Jewish community. In today's day and age, the wicked son is a metaphor for children who are more concerned with fitting in than honoring their family's values. One might ask: Why is the wicked son second in the list of sons? Perhaps he should have been relegated to last. But since the wicked son is still engaged and asking questions - albeit with a flippant attitude - he is still connected on some level. With the right educational approach, a "wicked" son could easily be turned into a "wise" one.
----------------------------------------------------
This conflict is extremely complicated. Israel EXISTS for *US*, the Jewish people. Therefore Israel ACTS for *US*, the Jewish people. We may individually not agree with the actions of hawkish right-wing men in power, but do not for a second simultaneously declare yourself a Jew but also divorce yourself from your people who are in trouble in ha-Arezt, the promised land.
Can?
Can one be 'chosen' and not Jewish?
Gaza
The news from Gaza continues to appall, with the latest Israeli strike hitting a UN school, killing children and adult civilians. There is even no pretense of journalistic integrity since Israel is not allowing any observers in Gaza.
How quickly have the oppressed become oppressors! How can those who remember the Holocaust not remember the acts of passive and active resistance in the ghettos and concentration camps? In addition to holding clandestine political meetings and trying to inform the outside world about the Nazi horrors, the resisters set fires, planned revolts, fashioned knives out of scrap metal (only to be shot), etc. It seems to me that there is a parallel in the situation Jews faced in the Warsaw ghetto and that faced by Palestinians in Gaza.
Palestinians believe that resistance is their only hope against ethnic cleansing and annihilation, but the real hope lies in getting the oppressors out of Gaza.
Octavia Taylor
Too easy
This is flame bait, right? You don't REALLY believe that military actions killing a few hundred people are equivalent to systematically trying to take out an entire race.
Do you?
The Israelis are trying to
The Israelis are trying to take out all of the Palestinians -- and they're able to do it with all the US aid that we're providing.
Israel isn't that incompetent
So, you're saying Israel desires the genocide of the Palestinians, and they have the resources to do it. If that's true, why hasn't it happened? Several hundred deaths isn't much of a holocaust. Are there secret death camps we don't know about? Or, is Israel just incompetent?
Then Fight For True Justice!
Palestinian leadership has squandered aid money on weapons rather than infrastructure for years. Elders in their culture propogate a culture of death, encouraging unceasing hatred of Israelis and encouraging their own children to murder civilians.
Israel is trying to defend itself and despite whatever propaganda pops up on places like Indymedia, most of Israel's actions are done to PREVENT the death of civilians. Israel leadership for decades has compromised and compromised in the hope of a two state solution. Compare that to Palestinian terrorism that directly targets civilians and Hamas leadership that calls for the destruction of Israel.
Because of leadership like Hamas, Israel has no bargaining partner. How can you bargain with people who are literally sworn to destroy you???? Such a thing is suicidal and no other recognized nation would be expected to. No other nation would be expected to sit back in the face of continuing, seemingly unending rocket attacks on civilians and do nothing to try and end it. However we continue to hold Israel to such impossible standards.
It's easy to sit back and glibly say "stop the war" "not in my name" "killing is wrong" when you aren't the member of a country whose civilians are constantly threatened!!
Fight for real justice--the disarming of Hamas militants and a call for new Palestinian leadership that will support the two state solution and actually do something constructive to build up its people without calling for the blood of innocent Israeli citizens. Only then can we realistically call for the end of Israeli military actions--for now they are defending themselves.
Re: Then Fight For True Justice!
I totally agree. Until Hamas is disarmed and the Palestinians create a stable government, this is self defense. Israel has the right to kill as many Palestinians as necessary until Hamas is disarmed. I just pray that the Palestinians figure this out and submit before more lives are wasted.
WHY?
Where were you protesters when Palestinians terrorists lobbed thousands of rockets into Israel? Were you out on the streets protesting? Many of you, I'm sure, were not. Why?
Why do you support Hamas, which calls for the destruction of Israel? How can you call yourselves peace activists, when you support a group that advocates mass violence?
I think you need a new strategy.
Re: WHY?
It's not fair to say they're supporting Hamas by not supporting Israel. It's much easier to effectively protest a state that receives lots of finding from your own country than it is to protest non-state governing body without monetary ties.
What are you doing to protest Hamas? Next time you hold a protest against Hamas, post it to this site. I'd be interested to see how effective it is and if the people who were at this rally show up.
Because
Its not fair to have an Apartheid state and not expect it to breed conflict. Demanding fairness and virtue is a tall order. That's the tall order Peace demonstrators are trying to fill. Not tit for tat. And why are people afraid to bear witness to their beliefs and not sign their name? Do we live in a fascist state?
David Nader.
David Nader is a Hamas terrorist
We live in a fascist state.
They will come get you shortly.
Ken Ichigawa