Jewish Voice for Peace Protests AIPAC in Seattle

Wednesday November 18, 2009 14:32 by Saed Bannoura - IMEMC News

On Sunday November 15th, a group of Jewish activists held a protest using street theatre and a brass band to challenge a meeting of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, which is the largest and most influential Zionist lobbying organization in the US.

Police harass protesters (photo Seattle Indymedia)

One protester said, "What's wrong with AIPAC, and the reason we're protesting here today, is because of their wholesale, wholehearted support for Israeli policies -- such as the occupation of Palestinian territory, and the brutal assault on Gaza that took place during much of January, in which Israeli forces managed to kill 1300 Palestinians, mainly civilians, and destroyed infrastructure including mosques, schools and UN facilities. I also think that AIPAC has way too much control in the US government."

Protesters held cloth shaped dirty laundry that had written on the items some of Israel's war crimes against the Palestinian people, that were documented in the Goldstone report. The 'laundry' contained words like "Attacking civilians", "Using civilians as human shields" and "Attacking civilians who were holding white flags".

A protester holding one of the 'laundry' signs said, "We're here to air AIPAC's dirty laundry. They have just worked to censure the Goldstone Report in Congress - they got the US Congress to censure it. The Goldstone Report was written by Richard Goldstone, who is a South African Jew, and it documents both Israel's and Hamas' war crimes."

Protesters said that they were acting in solidarity with both Palestinians and Jews around the world who challenge Israel's policies of occupation and pre-emptive invasion.

international | non-violent action | news report saed at imemc dot org