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NEWS & LETTERS, May 2002
100,000 march for peace, Palestine
Washington, D.C.—I joined
with 100,000 people in Washington, D.C. on April 20 for one of the largest and
most diverse marches in recent memory. Originally called months ago by an
anti-war youth coalition to oppose Bush's war in Afghanistan, anti-Arab racism,
and attacks on civil liberties in the name of "fighting terrorism,"
the day became a convergence of many movements, eliciting a confrontation of
ideas between the general concept of "peace" and the struggle of the
Palestinian people for self-determination. The contention over the meaning
of the march occasionally expressed itself practically, as when a contingent of
mostly young white activists took their place at the front of the march
chanting, "What do we want? Peace! When do we want it? Now!" competing
with the Palestinian lead chant of "Free-Free Palestine" and
"Long Live the Intifada." People from all over the
country and all over the world came to speak out against Bush's permanent war,
oppose the World Bank and globalization, protest U.S. military aid to Colombia,
abolish nuclear weapons, and fight racism and the attacks on our civil liberties
here at home. I met Arabs from many different
countries, retired workers from South Jersey who came to support a Palestinian
state and Japanese students who traveled to D.C. to stop nuclear weapons. Though
at least three major national coalitions helped organize the march, many people
came on their own, not as members of any established organization. At least 10,000 of the
participants were Palestinian or from the Middle East and the march was defined
by hundreds of Palestinian flags and militant and emotional chants. Some signs
and chants equated Israeli Prime Minister Sharon with Hitler and signs featuring
Nazi swastikas on Israeli flags were scattered throughout the march. Chants of
"Jewish People Yes! Occupation no!" were lead by Palestinians
throughout the day. Many Jewish organizations carried banners proclaiming their
opposition to the occupation. Many young Palestinian women led chants and
carried bullhorns. A strong element of humanism
emerged here in the face of the brutal attacks that the Israeli state has
perpetrated on the Palestinians in the last several weeks and the murder of
civilians in Israel by Palestinian suicide bombers. However, the explicit
anti-capitalist message of the mass anti-globalization mobilizations of the last
several years was not as evident. A Syrian man told me: "I
am not originally Palestinian, but now I am. Aren't Palestinians human
too?" Many U.S. activists carried signs and wore T-shirts proclaiming,
"We are all Palestinians." A Palestinian man holding a sign that said
"News Flash: Arabs are Semites Too!" said, "We are not trying to
alienate anyone—we're trying to show that we are all the same. We're all
humans, but people cling to this whole idea of race and racial identity. We're
not just Arabs, we're people." A man holding an Algerian flag
said he was there to "support the right of Palestinians to live in dignity
and peace among Israelis or anyone else. Today it's Israel, tomorrow it could be
anyone else. As an Arab Muslim I'm not against Jews, it has nothing to do with
religion; it's about human rights. We went through that in the Algerian
revolution. "Land has never been
cheap. This Israel-Palestine war has been going on for quite some decades. We
have seen quite a bit of back stabbing against Palestinians by some Arab
states...this time I think that we all have to do something about it—all of
us, all Arabs, all Muslims, all human beings." The Humanism I experienced in
D.C. has really been a missing element in the anti-capitalist movement that has
emerged over the last several years. The world of Bush/bin Laden/Sharon wants to
crush it through permanent war. Another world is possible, but all the
contradictions that swirled at this march must not be swept under the rug. I'd
like to see this discussion continue in the pages of News & Letters. —Tom Parsons |
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