Quite predictably, as soon as any event occurs within Israel or Gaza, we see demonstrations from pro Palestinian groups.
Now I support freedom of speech, and I definitely believe they have a right to protest peacefully.
Lets have a look
at the official text promoting the protests in Auckland:
Global Peace and Justice Auckland is organising a march this Saturday to protest Israel’s assassination of a Palestinian leader in the Gaza strip and the deadly rocket attacks in which many Palestinians have lost their lives.
Global "Peace" and Justice. Most would assume this means rejecting violence
The protest will gather at Aotea Square from 2pm and march to the US Consulate in Customs Street
What has the US Consulate got to do with any of this? Nothing. But
they don't have anywhere else better to protest, so how about the "Great
Satan".
where a protest rally, including the throwing of old shoes will take place. (Throwing shoes is a traditional way of showing disgust at US/Israeli policies in the Middle East following the Iraqi journalist who threw his shoes at the then US President George Bush in a 2008 media conference)
Throw shoes. Fine. But why flag burning? This comment is from the public facebook page of the event:
No - burning flags symbolises Violence. You are symbolising burning a country, and it's people. It is not a peaceful symbol. See also the comment regarding media.
These latest Israeli attacks continue the brutal victimisation of the Palestinian people of Gaza who are effectively locked in the largest open air prison in the world and treated like animals through an inhuman Israeli blockade.
Remember that one border of Gaza is actually on Egypt's side. Hamas has total control of Gaza, and even state that it is no longer occupied. I would have thought dragging bodies through the streets of Gaza from motorbikes is the most inhuman thing we will see
Israeli justifications for the attacks are hollow. It is Israel’s racist policies and vicious mistreatment of Palestinians which are at the heart of this conflict. Israel policies alone pose the greatest threat to peace in the Middle East and in the world.
The "greatest" threat. This is an unmeasurable and unjustifiable position. It is code for "Israel is a demon and must be destroyed". If you are talking about bad threats, how about Syria - 38,000 people killed there!
One of the posters on the even facebook page agrees:
Actually the hippies are hardly in attendance any more. Just the extreme left. Hippies that want peace have realised how pro-war these rallies are. I talk more on the facebook page below
As well and blockading Palestinians in Gaza Israel maintain a military occupation of the West Bank while destroying Palestinian homes and farms to make way for Jewish-only settlements - all in defiance of international law and numerous UN resolutions.
The organisers do not need to justify this with any facts or links. No need to define "International law" or remind us that the resolutions are from the defunct UNHRC. It's also interesting to note that no other organisations are brought to account by this group, such as Hamas' abuse on civilians and use of civilian areas for military purposes.
Israel still tries to use the Holocaust as some sort of justification for their brutal treatment of the Palestinian people and in doing so the Palestinian people have become the second victims of the Holocaust.
There is no reference to the "justification" they refer to, and in doing so they make an offensive comparison. There are no gas chambers or concentration camps. The only ones using this imagery is the protesters
GPJA applauds the Palestinian fighters who organise to resist the destruction of their right to self determination.
This is a clear support call to violence. Clearly acknowledging that offensive missile attacks beyond the borders of Gaza are not just condoned, but are applauded.
Saturday’s protest will focus on the US consulate because the US has supported Israel every step of the way in its brutality towards Palestinians.
Now, back to the facebook page. Up front the protesters state that "racism" will not be tolerated. I think they may have been embarrassed by comments like these:
Promoting the destruction of all Israel, is of course, OK:
This is why so many of the protesters hold Union "approved" billboards. Too often the blatant anti-semitism shows through, which is highly embarrassing to the organisers.
Back to Syria, Joe Carolan was not so happy - calling the Syrian Guy "Mossad" and "Mysogynist"
But he has a point. Does Joe support Hezbollah or FSA? Apparently both. And now they are calling Assad an Israel supporter!
Then it starts getting quite confusing. This poster is determined that supporting Iran, Hezbollah and Assad is a bad thing (at least I think that is what he is saying).
He goes on to say that Palestine needs an "Islamic" solution:
This conveniently ignores the plight of Christian Palestinians (or other denominations), that are being pushed out or persecuted by hardline Muslims like Hamas.
I find it interesting that the protesters also have complaints about the media. The "Zionist controlled" media:
That's interesting when you consider the dominance of left wing journalists.
At the end of the day, I support the rights of the protesters to free speech. Ironically it is much more than the rights that Hamas give to those they are protesting for. I do get concerned when they are promoting violence, not just in Israel, but to would be terrorists throughout the world, such as we have seen in the UK, France, Turkey, Argentina, USA, Thailand, etc etc etc.
I'm very glad the numbers were small, and they can hardly muster any support from MPs who are seeing through their insane obsessions.
