Springfield's "Israel Solidarity Week" infiltrated by peace activists

A ceasefire may hover on the horizon, but the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is far from ended.

It's hard to know what role the nearly universal horror of Israel's invasion of Gaza, and the intense political activity that's followed, has had on moving the conflict closer to peace. But speaking out is simply what people of conscience have felt compelled to do.

On Friday, a group of peace activists brought their message to an event at the Jewish Community Center in Springfield, MA. The following is a report from one of those activists.

A lot of people have been asking for a report of our direct action at the Jewish Community Center yesterday evening in Springfield so here it is.

A group of 28 of us went to -- essentially infiltrated -- the "Israel Solidarity Week" rally at the Jewish Community Center (JCC)/Jewish Federation in Springfield. A series of these events were held all over the U.S. over the last two weeks. The rallies are sponsored and coordinated by the national organization United Jewish Communities (UJC). UJC's webpage defines the organization's mission as:

"Unifying North American Jewry: United Jewish Communities represents and serves 157 Jewish federations and 400 independent Jewish communities across North America. It reflects the values of social justice and human rights that define the Jewish people." [Emphasis mine.]

We planned our action very carefully so as to ensure the safety of all participants. Our goal was to get the media that was inevitably going to be at the event, as it always is for Israel solidarity rallies, to get footage of our protest that made clear to a broader public that the rally did not represent the sentiment about Israel's actions and policies of all Jews, Israelis, and other people of conscience. (As part of our group we had three Israelis and several Jews.) We didn't for a minute think we'd be changing the minds of the Israel supporters in the room.

We organized into "affinity groups" and drove to Springfield in six cars. The JCC auditorium was packed with over 200 people. Our group sat throughout the auditorium. After a welcome speech by the JCC's president; a short, sycophantish speech by the Springfield mayor in support of Israel; and the singing of the U.S. national anthem and the Israeli anthem, "Hatikva;" all the members of our group rose and went and stood at the sides of the auditorium. We unfurled three large banners and held up signs condemning Israel's actions in Gaza and calling for solidarity with the Palestinian people.

Audience members all looked at our signs and started to "get" what was going on. Immediately the verbal abuse from the audience began with calls of: "get the garbage out of here," "ANIMALS!!!" and "TERRORISTS!!!"

Within a matter of a minute or two, about ten Springfield police who were there doing security for the event approached us and started physically pushing and pulling us out of the auditorum to the hallways on both sides of the space. As soon as we were pushed out of the range of the news cameras' view, the police became physically and verbally aggressive and abusive. They herded us like cattle smashing us one into the other, dragging some of us by our clothing and scarves around our necks, screaming at us abusively all the while, and ultimately beating a few of the members of the group with batons.

Meanwhile, one policeman radioed for additional units to come to the JCC and requested a K-9 (canine) unit as well. Members of the group reported that at least one policeman had his gun drawn and ready to shoot. Their verbal abuse was tremendous, extremely loud and often shouted into our faces literally just inches away from our heads. They demanded that we get into our cars and threatened repeatedly to arrest the entire group. Approximately 10 squad cars arrive on the scene and cops swarmed us pushing us into our cars all the while screaming and physically pushing and pulling us.

One policeman slammed the car door on my leg as I was getting into the car. I got back out of the car and yelled at him that he has slammed the door on my leg and that that was not acceptable. He responded by putting his face right up to mine and screaming, "No I didn't! You're Lying."

A night to remember.

Unfortunately, the news media did not follow us out into the hallways or into the parking lot to record the abuses wreaked upon us. There was short clip of our demo on the 10 p.m. Fox News program (Channel 6) and ABC's channel 40 at 11 p.m.

I saw a cop writing down my license plate number. They probably recorded those of our other cars as well. What will happen to that information? Will it go to the FBI and Homeland Security? I recently heard an interview with Naomi Wolf about her book Give Me Liberty: A Handbook for American Revolutionaries in which she talked about the increasing force with which local police forces are responding to civil society's protests and political actions. She discussed how police are intimidating people calling for social change with such brutality that protesters are becoming more and more scared to participate in actions.

I don't know if we achieved the goal we had set for ourselves. The media coverage was fairly marginal and some of us sustained bruises and increased rage. We continue to struggle with questions about what our next steps should be toward ending the current carnage and cruelty in Gaza; ending Israel's occupation, siege, blockades, and dehumanization of Palestinians for the longterm. How can we, here in little Western Massachusetts, influence the hearts and minds of our fellow citizens and the politicians who are supposed to represent us? For those of you who are local, I'll send out just one more email today with ideas some of us are working on. We'd like to solicit your participation and support.

I am attaching a copy of the flier we dispersed as we were being pushed out of the JCC

We are an ad-hoc, multi-generational coalition of students, members of academia, Israelis, Americans, internationals, Jews, and people of conscience in Western Massachusetts who are speaking out against the policies and actions of the Israeli government and military.

We are deeply troubled by and outraged at Israel’s war on Gaza and its aggressive violence against the Palestinian people.

To date:

Over 1,100 Palestinians have been killed and over 4,600 have been wounded. Over 90 percent of those killed and injured are civilians. Almost half are children.

• The 1.5 million Palestinian people in Gaza have been under Israeli-imposed siege and blockade for the past 18 months without adequate food, water, medicine, or fuel
• The Palestinians in Gaza have suffered collective punishment for resisting an unjust and illegal occupation
• Israel continues to perpetrate massive violations of international and humanitarian law against the Gazans
• Israel’s murderous and unjust campaign in Gaza is being funded misguidedly by the U.S. and carried out with U.S.-made weapons and U.S. approval

We call on Israel to:

Stop the killing! Stop the siege! Stop the blockade! Stop the war crimes! Allow humanitarian goods and other commodities to flow into and out of Gaza freely! Allow the people of Gaza their human dignity, legal rights under international law, and freedom!

While the end of the current war, siege and blockade on Gaza is our most immediate priority, we call for an end to Israel’s ongoing occupation, ethnic cleansing and oppression of Palestinians. Israel’s current policies and actions will not bring safety to Israelis nor peace to anyone in the Middle East.

We call on the United States to: Stop funding and supporting Israel’s war crimes, occupation, and unjust assault on Palestinians!

Israelis, Jews all over the world, and people from all over the world are speaking out against the Israeli war on Gaza. We mourn the carnage Israel has wreaked in Gaza and the loss of life on both sides. AIPAC and this rally do not represent our views.

Image from Makaristos,Wikimedia.org