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| Photo: Liza Béar
July 18, 2014--This morning, a somber procession of New Yorkers from a wide range of political stripes and religious/humanist persuasions marched on 42nd Street in the blazing noonday sun from Bryant Square and Sixth Avenue to the Israeli Consulate at 800 Second Avenue to mourn the deaths of Palestinian Gaza inhabitants (264 at time of departure and counting), most of whom were civilians and including 56 children, as a result of what the international community recognizes as a "disproportionate" response to Hamas rocket attacks, which so far have resulted in one Israeli death.
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At 3:58pm yesterday the IDF launched their ground offensive ( the third since 2008) to support the ongoing air and naval attacks, which tragically have spared neither young children playing soccer on the beach nor a hospital which had to be evacuated prior to being reduced to rubble.
Today's NYC protesters, though confined to a long narrow strip like a miniature replica of Gaza fenced with interlocking NYPD barricades on the west side of the Avenue across the street from the Consulate, refused to let their chants be drowned out by the heavy truck traffic rumbling down the Avenue, which brought to mind the much more insidious and threatening rumbling of Israeli armored tanks that Palestinians have to contend with daily. As well as Palestinians and other Arab-Americans, significant among the protesters were contingents from the Hassid community who oppose Zionism and the state of "Israel", which they do not recognize, and the Jewish Voice for Peace, who oppose the occupation of Gaza.
July 19--The reported number of Gaza casualties is now 334.
Today's NYC protesters, though confined to a long narrow strip like a miniature replica of Gaza fenced with interlocking NYPD barricades on the west side of the Avenue across the street from the Consulate, refused to let their chants be drowned out by the heavy truck traffic rumbling down the Avenue, which brought to mind the much more insidious and threatening rumbling of Israeli armored tanks that Palestinians have to contend with daily. As well as Palestinians and other Arab-Americans, significant among the protesters were contingents from the Hassid community who oppose Zionism and the state of "Israel", which they do not recognize, and the Jewish Voice for Peace, who oppose the occupation of Gaza.
July 19--The reported number of Gaza casualties is now 334.
