Berman Post: Protest Against Israel in Union Square (NYC)

Monday, January 5, 2009

Protest Against Israel in Union Square (NYC)

As I was returning to my appartment after being dismissed from jury duty, I came across this anti-Israel protest in Union Square (NYC). The special theme of this one seemed to be that the protesters were predominantly Jewish. There were a few dozen people around, and it looked like around 20 people were actually part of the protest. Still, it was enough to get some media attention. Below are a few pictures taken at the protest.

I stuck around for a bit after to talk to some of the people and got pretty much the answers I expected. One of my favorites was a lady who said something along the lines of, "Why do people assume I am a fountain of information just because I am holding this banner". Well, maybe it is because people expect you to have some knowledge about what you are protesting. I also had a little bit of fun with some of them. I walked into a group discussion some of the protesters were having about if they should bring their banners to the next protest. I said (paraphrasing now) (this was before they knew my position), "Maybe we should bring some banners that offer some sort of advice / constructive criticism instead of just accusing Israel of committing genocide. You know, like 'Israel, sit there and take it; the dozens of daily rockets rarely kill anyone'.".

They were not as amused as I was, but I got a nice chuckle out of it. No one I talked to had an any real answer or alternative to what Israel was doing to stop the rockets. Except of course, for the people that advocated giving in to all of Hamas' demands, and stop being a "racist, bigoted, genocidal... country".

Pictures embedded below.