A rchive Date
[ 22-04-2002 ]
Category
[ International Relations ]
sub-Categoy
[ U.S ]
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[Protests in D.C., Montrose decry U.S., Israeli policies
By MICHAEL PETROCELLI and MICHAEL HEDGES
Copyright 2002 Houston Chronicle Washington Bureau
April 21, 2002, 9:57AM
WASHINGTON - Tens of thousands of people, many draped in Palestinian flags and chanting anti-Israeli slogans, marched peacefully from the White House to Capitol Hill on a Saturday of eclectic protests in the capital. In the morning, activists rallied in separate groups around the city, railing against the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund, which are meeting here this weekend, and U.S. foreign policy before joining forces for the afternoon march by an estimated 35,000 to 50,000 people.
Police said 25 people were arrested for sleeping in a parking garage. Speakers representing a broad array of special-interest and human-rights groups mounted the stage at a rally near the White House to protest U.S. support for Israel, many repeating the mantra, "Today, we are all Palestinians."
Among those taking the podium was a group of Orthodox Jews from New York. A statement from the group said, "The world stands aghast as the atrocities on the West Bank become known in detail." Saying the government of Israel has abandoned Judaism in the name of Zionism, the group urged the United States to stop aid to Israel. Many in the crowd held up signs likening Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon to Adolf Hitler, and showing the Israeli flag with the Star of David replaced by a Nazi swastika. Others displayed graphic pictures of dead Palestinian children.
One group carried wooden platforms on which two young girls played dead under Palestinian flags and headscarves. Michael Broussard, a University of Houston student, held a small Palestinian flag and said that he wanted to show that non-Arabs were angered at U.S. aid going to Israel. "I feel like we're supporting a genocide," he said. While several people in the crowd said they would accept the existence of Israel if it pulled out of Palestinian areas, some speakers called for its elimination and led chants including, "Palestine Shall Be Free - From the River to the Sea."
Last Monday, tens of thousands of pro-Israeli demonstrators rallied here in front of the Capitol. On Saturday, protesters swirled around parks on both sides of the White House, but President Bush did not witness the scene. He was spending the weekend at Camp David.
On the other side of the Washington Monument, anti-war activists gathered to protest U.S. intervention in countries including Afghanistan, Colombia and the Philippines. Among the loose coalition of demonstrators was a group from Houston that included Nathalie Paravicini, Green Party candidate for Texas lieutenant governor. About 100 people from Houston rode all day and all night Friday in a pair of buses to get to the anti-war protest, said Maureen Haver, a University of Houston student.
Haver said she was moved to attend the protest by her anger over the U.S. military response to the terror attacks on New York and the Pentagon last Sept. 11, favoring instead an examination of policies that motivated the hijackers. The anti-war group joined with the pro-Palestinian crowd and anti-globalization groups for the march along Pennsylvania Avenue.
A Houston version of the anti-war protest took place in a Montrose-area park Saturday. A sign attached to a fence at the rally explained the message of the gathering: "Killing Innocent People Is The Problem, Not The Solution." About 60 people applauded as speakers applied the message to U.S. attacks aimed against the Taliban and al-Qaeda in Afghanistan, and Israeli attacks aimed against Palestinian terrorists in the West Bank. Both military operations resulted in the death of innocent civilians, the speakers said.
Poetry readings and folk singers augmented the speeches at the Montrose event, which was organized by the Houston Coalition for Justice Not War.
Richard Wahl drew attention by wearing a President Bush mask and a name tag that said "W." Wahl said Bush promised as a candidate to refrain from "nation-building" and then did the opposite as president by influencing the development of a new government in Afghanistan. Wahl said Bush is using the Sept. 11 attacks as an excuse to overbuild the U.S. military and intervene in countries that have economic interest to the U.S. He said the United States wants control over Afghanistan because it will serve as a crossroads for pipelines moving oil from former Soviet republics.
Alan Bernstein of the Chronicle staff contributed to this report from Houston.
 World Fact Book (CIA)]
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