[Seattle-editorial] Article on today's rally downtown

[sheelanagig at juno.com]

Proposed article -

SUMMARY -

<P>A gathering of approximately 200 people met at Westlake Park today to
protest the wall Israel is building in Palestine. Families are being
locked out of land they farmed for thousands of years, and this wall is
being funded by U.S. dollars. On the date that the Berlin Wall came down,
today's protests were coordinated in 40 cities, and were meant to send a
strong message to the U.S. Government that we, the taxpayers of America,
agree with the rest of the world on this one. The Israeli wall in
Palestine must be stopped.

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<P>STOP THE WALL
<BR>by Kirsten Anderberg Copyright 2003

<P>In Seattle, on November 9, approximately 200 people gathered at
Westlake Park to take part in the International Day of Action to STOP THE
WALL being built by Israel in Palestine. Organizers chose November 9 for
this action as it was on November 9, 1989, that the Berlin Wall came
down. 40 cities participated in the protest, including Seattle and San
Francisco (<a href="http://www.stopthewall.org">www.stopthewall.org</A>).
At one point, a man carrying an Israel flag and an American flag that
said "Proud to be an American" on it, as well as a man with three flags
for the Navy, Army, and Marines maybe, lined the street on the Westlake
Mall side, along with many protesters with signs, yet no robocops were to
be seen. Very few cops were present at all, which is very odd. I would
estimate seeing two cop cars on site, and about 10 cops in regular
uniforms hovered about. I have enclosed several shots of the police
working hard sucking down Starbucks' on taxpayer dollars at the rally
today. In the park, a model of the wall was held up on stage and chanted
down. Banners were draped over the stage area (see picture). The rally
was nonviolent, due to the lack of violent Seattle riot police.

<P>The protest addressed the 400 mile-long barrier through the Occupied
West Bank that Israel is building. At $2 million a mile, this complex
series of walls, trenches, armed turrets, barbed wire and electrified
fences, cameras and infrared sensors, every  30 to100 yards, will cost a
total of $1.5 billion when completed. On Sept. 16, 2003, the U.N.
Security Council voted on a resolution regarding the wall, but the U.S.
vetoed it. On Oct 21, 2003, the U.N.General Assembly voted 144 to 4 to
stop the wall, the 4 for voting for the wall were the U.S., Israel,
Micronesia and the Marshall Islands! Out of the whole U.N., that was the
totality of worldwide support for this wall. This wall will be much
taller and longer than the Berlin Wall was. Palestinian families are
being cut off from their 100,000 olive groves, 50,000 fruit trees, and
family farms. 30 wells that watered Palestinian farms, have been taken on
the Israeli side of the wall now. Israel is forcing Palestinians who
lived and farmed here for over a thousand years, to get a permit to cross
these zones around the wall now. A World Bank report says the wall has
already affected 115,000 Palestinians by cutting them off from water,
farms, schools, businesses, etc. Israeli military let these people in and
out through guarded gates, and Palestinian kids sometimes wait 3 hours or
more, to be let through the gate, to go home from school. Without
American tax dollars, the wall could not be built. This protest was about
OUR tax dollars being used to build Israel's aparteid wall. And our
desire, as American taxpayers, to let our government know that we do not
support this wall.


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For near-daily political ramblings from Kirsten, visit her blog at
www.kanderberg.blogspot.com 
or go to her writing website at www.kirstenanderberg.com
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