The Reut Institute considers the Bay Area one of the hubs of the delegitimization of Israel, but increasingly it appears that those attempting to marginalize Israel have become, well....marginalized. A widely promoted anti-Israel rally in front of the Israel Consulate in San Francisco last week attracted only a handful of people. Attempts to bolster attendance at Bay Area anti-Israel events are beginning to reek of desperation.
This email is making the rounds.
On WED MARCH 13 at 5:30 PM we will be marching to PARATRANSIT headquarters in Downtown Oakland from Oscar Grant Plaza.
The contract for Paratransit in Oakland is held by a company called Veolia, who also holds the contract for segregated, settler only bus lines that run inside the Occupied Palestinian Territories. We will march to Paratransit not with the intention of shutting them down or disrupting services for the day, but more to air their dirty laundry and pressure them to pull out of the West Bank.
This march is part of a larger day of happenings beginning at 4pm and going till about 9 that we are calling "A Feast to the Global Resistance" where we will gather at Oscar Grant Plaza for food, films, community, etc. The day marks the 4th anniversary of the shooting of Oakland activist TRISTAN ANDERSON by Israeli Border Police. Tristan survived (he was shot in the head with a tear gas grenade during a protest in Palestine in 2009) and will be leading the march from his wheelchair.
**We hope that others from the disability community will support the day's events and join Tristan in the march on the anniversary of his shooting.**
This march is being called by Justice 4 Tristan, a small loose group of friends of Tristan, who are also folks from Occupy Oakland. We do not expect any kind of confrontation or problems. Our intentions are towards a positive, community gathering type of vibe for the day. Also, we are definitely activists who don't take out permits and don't march on the sidewalk.
Wed March 13
4:00- Feast and Gather [at Oscar Grant Plaza]
5:30- March
6:30- 9:00- Film Clips and Skype Calls
from Resistance Movements around the World [back at Oscar Grant Plaza]
The anti-Israel movement has been attempting and failing to gather the loose change from the tattered remains of the Occupy movement for sometime. Attempting to lure participants with the offer of a free "feast" is a new touch, however.
UPDATE:
Emerging clips from tonights rally and march in Oakland once again point to the increasingly irrelevancy of the local anti-Israel movement. About an hour into the event, the plaza was still quite empty:
Several young pro-Israel peace activists showed up, and were viciously assaulted by the rally organizers. Their crime- writing "Am Yisroel Chai"- the Jewish people live- on the sidewalk
This clip has been updated to include a brief interview with Hannah, the young woman repeatedly assaulted by the purported "peace activist"
Update  |
