[pjw] REPORT BACK: unrealistic: Friday rally #216 since stay-at-home orders

[Peace and Justice Works]

Iraq Affinity Group Supporters

It's hard to give clear totals for last night's Friday Rally for Peace and 
Justice; there were a total of 11 people involved that broke down roughly 
like this: 12 people were at the corner for the rally, one of whom never 
picked up a sign. Two left before the march, one joined for the march, two 
others peeled off a few blocks into the march. As we came to the last 
stretch up Yamhill street, a person with a bright rainbow-colors umbrella 
and clothes the color of the Palestinian flag joined us and promised they 
would bring more people next week (we shall see...). So 9.5 people 
at the rally, leading to 9->7->8 on the march.

It was drizzling rain most of the time-- my hat and coat were soaked 
afterward. Still we had a lot of enthusiastic support from pedestrians and 
drivers. Though we had a few who shouted out their car windows, one was 
"Palestinians are bad, you're bad people." If supporting human rights is 
bad, I don't want to be good! When I was dragging the wagon back to the 
parking garage a security guard asked what was going on. He seemed 
sympathetic but then said "it's unrealistic to put Palestine back like it 
was before 1948." I said "I think they just want to establish a state 
using the land Israel's been occupying since 1967." He said that's also 
unrealistic. I had to go, but wish I'd said "yeah, it's unrealistic that 
this country will survive without slavery. It's unrealistic that women 
will ever vote. It's unrealistic to think Black people and white people 
will drink out of the same water fountains."

Here's what we talked about, more or less:

--A report came out saying 13 libraries damaged or destroyed in Gaza by 
(US-backed) Israeli military action.

  https://lithub.com/israel-has-damaged-or-destroyed-at-least-13-libraries-in-gaza/

---I brought this up because there was a lot of hand-wringing about the 
graffiti and other property damage done to the PSU library before the 
Portland Police raided it twice on Thursday. The PPB was very indignant 
that they were accused of using tear gas. I guess it was just pepper spray 
and "less lethal" rounds fired at the protestors.

  https://www.portlandmercury.com/news/2024/05/02/47184449/police-arrest-30-during-portland-state-university-library-raid-and-ongoing-protest

---US bigwigs think Israel can't defeat Hamas, a chorus we're hearing a 
lot. This same article notes there are now  over 34,500 Palestinians dead.

  https://news.antiwar.com/2024/05/02/theres-widespread-belief-among-us-officials-that-israel-cant-beat-hamas/

---The US House passed a Law conflating anti-Israel rhetoric with 
anti-semitism 320-91. Biden, Bonamici and Hoyle voted no, but, this 
affront to the First Amendment is on its way to the Senate.

  https://news.antiwar.com/2024/05/01/house-passes-bill-that-conflates-criticism-of-israel-with-antisemitism/

---The US says the leveling of Gaza is the worst destruction since WW II, 
which says a lot with the two US wars in Iraq, plus their misadventures in 
Afghanistan and Libya 70% of homes have been destroyed.

  https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2024/5/2/gaza-will-need-largest-post-war-reconstruction-effort-since-1945-un-says

--Meanwhile, Israel bombed Lebanon in airstrikes five times in one night 
and... nobody seems to be stopping them.

  https://www.timesofisrael.com/liveblog_entry/idf-strikes-hezbollah-in-five-different-parts-of-southern-lebanon-overnight/

---and similarly they bombed Syria again, injuring eight 
soldiers... the US saves its moral outrage for countries it designates 
enemies.

  https://www.straitstimes.com/world/middle-east/israeli-strike-hits-syrian-security-building-outside-damascus-security-source-says?close=true

---Then again, the US keeps bombing Syria with no consequences, like last 
May when they claimed to have killed an Al Qaeda leader but they now 
admit, as was reported much less than a year later, that it was an 
ordinary Syrian civilian.

  https://news.antiwar.com/2024/05/02/us-military-admits-it-killed-a-civilian-in-may-2023-drone-strike-in-syria/

--On the far eastern front, the Philippines and the US fired rockets at 
the disputed South China Sea, but say it was "not provocative" and just a 
routine exercise. To rile up China!! Oh, I added that last part.

  https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/politics/article/3261222/south-china-sea-us-philippine-forces-fire-rockets-towards-disputed-waters-insist-drill-not-meant-be
  https://archive.fo/KBMzL

--I must have missed the earlier stories that the US was offering the 
Houthis to speed up the peace process in Yemen if they stopped attacking 
ships in the Red Sea. The Houthis know this is just another distraction 
from THE US ENDING THE WAR ON GAZA and rejected the offer.

  https://www.thenationalnews.com/news/mena/2024/04/30/yemen-houthis-red-sea-us-attacks-shipping/

--And another country that keeps getting away with cross-border murder, 
Turkey, killed 19 people they claimed were part of the Kurdish 
independence movement in northern Iraq. The difference here, though, is 
that (as noted a few weeks ago) Iraq is now OK with this violence.

  https://ninanews.com/Website/News/Details?key=1122615

In local news other than the PSU campus arrests, police in Oregon shot at 
four people in three incidents in the course of a week. There had "only" 
been five in 2024 until then, now it's eight. Two people were killed by 
police, one was wounded and a fourth took their own life.

Along the march route, I noted that Israel is blaming the Palestinian 
Authority if the International Criminal Court issues warrants against 
Israeli leaders. They say they will target the West Bank's ruling 
government if that happens, disabling them. They can easily do that since 
they control what goes in and out of the occupied territories.

  https://www.axios.com/2024/05/01/us-israel-palestinian-authority-icc-arrest-warrant

Finally, rather than spending money on housing, health care and other 
human need, the $61 billion the US agreed to give Ukraine last week 
includes $23 billion to replenish US weapons stocks that already went over 
there, and $14 billion to buy more weapons. Including, and I'm not making 
this up, $1.3 billion of Ukrainian made weapons. ???

  https://www.thedefensepost.com/2024/04/29/us-ukrainian-weapons-country/

This week the Ann Huntwork Peace Memorial Sign made it about three 
steps past the eerie underground signal jammer across from the Apple 
Store. So a few more shoppers got to see it, maybe!

We're still out there every Friday, rain or shine, and doing our best to 
keep distanced and masked up. Join us if you can!

peace
--dan handelman
peace and justice works iraq affinity group