Protest capital of the U.S.

Mideast issue rises above other topics

The Washington Post; and, alongside, the Los Angeles Times

Protest capital of the U.S. — The Daily Herald, 21 April 2002 — The Daily Herald · 21 April 2002

Transcribed from the clipping

“Protest capital of the U.S. · Mideast issue rises above other topics WASHINGTON — Tens of thousands converged on downtown Washington Saturday to demonstrate for a variety of causes, but it was the numbers and passion of busloads of Arab Americans and their supporters that dominated the streets.

Eager to make their presence felt and their voices heard in the nation’s capital as never before, Arab and Muslim families marched and chanted for an end to U.S. military aid to Israel, overwhelming the messages of those with causes in a peaceful day of downtown rallies and marches. Young men wore the Palestinian flag around their necks like a cape.

Arabic was heard nearly as often as English, and cardboard signs held by women and children denounced Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and President Bush.

Protesters rallying against corporate wrongs and the global economy found themselves tweaking Vietnam War-era chants to the Palestinian cause, shouting, ‘One, two, three, four: We don’t want no Mideast war!’

‘The message here is we must support the Palestinian people against a military occupation and an apartheid state,’ said Randa Jamal, a graduate student at New York’s Columbia University who joined thousands at a pro-Palestinian rally near the White House.

She said her cousins were killed in Ramallah, and her 16-year-old sister has been unable to attend school because of the Israeli occupation. ‘What they are going through,’ she said, ‘is crimes against humanity.’

Palestinian rights was the theme of two of four permitted marches that merged on Pennsylvania Avenue in a loud and colorful procession to the Capitol. The host of other issues — anti-corporate globalization, antiwar and anti-U.S. policies in several areas — were boiled down to an essence visible on banners, placards and T-shirts.

Banners read: ‘Drop debt, not bombs’ and ‘Peace treaty in Korea now.’ Bumper stickers on T-shirts declared: ‘No blank check for endless war’ and ‘We are all Palestinian.’

It was possible to stand on the Washington Monument grounds and hear simultaneous speeches from three rallies nearby, antiwar demonstrators, counter-demonstrators and pro-Palestinian activists, in a mind-boggling surround-sound mix.

Israel pulling out of West Bank cities

Israeli officials say they will cooperate with a U.N. probe of the army’s attack on Jenin. JERUSALEM — Israel began pulling forces out of the West Bank cities of Nablus and Ramallah Saturday night, and officials said they will cooperate with a United Nations probe into the army’s devastating attack on the Jenin refugee camp.

The Israeli moves, however, did not include ending the siege of Palestinian Authority President Yasser Arafat’s compound in Ramallah. They came as President Bush was meeting at Camp David with members of his national security team, including Secretary of State Colin Powell, to discuss what peace efforts the U.S. might make next.

Powell, who on Wednesday ended a 10-day overseas trip focused on the Mideast conflict, failed either to persuade Israel to immediately withdraw from all Palestinian-controlled areas or to induce Arafat to declare a cease-fire. U.S. Middle East envoy William Burns toured the wrecked Jenin camp Saturday as refugees and aid workers continued to search for bodies in the rubble.

He declared it the site of ‘terrible human tragedy.’ But Israeli officials said they are confident the United Nations will determine that no massacre of civilians took place during the eight-day military offensive, as Palestinians have charged.

Hospital officials in Jenin reported Saturday that 42 bodies had been pulled from the remains of homes and other buildings bulldozed during the furious Israeli assault. Twenty-three Israeli soldiers also were killed during the fighting in the camp, which Israel said it conquered because nearly two dozen suicide bombers came from its warren of homes.

Rescue efforts continued to be hampered by the presence of explosives left behind during the battle. A Palestinian medic who had volunteered his services suffered severe injuries to a foot Saturday when he stepped on what local doctors said was a mine. It was unclear whether the device was left behind by Israeli or Palestinian fighters.

The Israeli army reported that a suspected Palestinian suicide bomber exploded at a checkpoint on the western side of the West Bank town of Kalkilya on Saturday afternoon, after soldiers there called on him to halt as he walked through. There was no immediate claim of responsibility by any group.

And in Gaza, a lone Palestinian gunman opened fire at the Erez checkpoint between Israel and Gaza, killing a border policeman before he was shot dead by an Israeli tank, both the army and Palestinian sources reported. The Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigade militia, an offshoot of Arafat’s mainstream Fatah faction, claimed responsibility for the attack.”

Context added by this archive

Two dispatches set side by side on one page. On the left a march in Washington, where the person the Washington Post chooses to quote is a named Palestinian graduate student — Randa Jamal — who says her cousins were killed in Ramallah and her 16-year-old sister cannot get to school.

On the right, Jenin: 42 bodies pulled from bulldozed buildings, 23 Israeli soldiers killed, and Israeli officials saying they are confident the United Nations will find that no massacre took place. The two headlines never touch each other.

Cite this item

"Protest capital of the U.S.," The Daily Herald, 21 April 2002. Covering Palestine archive, CP-2002-028. https://coveringpalestine.org/archive/cp-2002-028