[Propaganda Lalaland] Protesting Bibi

Protest Report
by Julia

Our attempt to protest Benyamin Netanyahu in Washington DC yesterday was very productive. I was able to take a $70 flight from Boston to DC early, early Sunday morning. When I got to the hotel in which Netanyahu's speech was to take place (it was part of a larger assembly of pro-Israel organizations) I met up with the other activists who were participating. Three of them were high school kids from northern Virginia who are part of a progressive group at their high school. They were very enthusiastic about getting out there. We started "engaging" the people driving up to the event, many of whom gave us dirty looks. One of them told us to protest at the Saudi consulate, which is funny because I don't recall the Saudis ever occupying Palestinian lands or dropping white phosphorus bombs on Gaza (if anything, the entire Arab League supports the two-state settlement). Our one "counter protester" held a sign saying, "Obama Is A Muslim" or something to that extent. It really is funny though, how one would somehow think that is a valid response to "No War. Free Palestine". One of our members was able to get into the hotel. He said it was "full of zionists" and had extremely tight security. Then all hell broke loose. Two women and a few children from the Westboro Baptist Church (the "god hates fags" group that pickets everything) showed up with signs saying "Israel Is Doomed" and "Jews Killed Jesus". They're pretty much against anyone who isn't in their church. Luckily, they were on the other side of the street, and we seemed to deal with them fairly well. We decided, though, that these WBC people were too annoying and took our protest to the corner of the street. As people from the conference passed us by, Eric (the man who co-organized this with me) kept shouting, "Stop the genocide in Palestine! The Israeli war criminals will hang just like the Nazi war criminals hanged at Nuremberg!" That got us lots of attention. By the time we wrapped up, the WBC nutjobs were long gone and the conference in which Bibi was attending seemed like it was slowing down for the day. I left with two of the high school activists (Alan and Keith) who told me all about their school and how many elites send their children there. I was able to take another cheap flight back to Boston to get home at the very end of the day. Next time there's something going down in DC, I'll definitely come back.

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