Gaza War Protest

and Anti-Israel Rally

San Francisco, January 10, 2009

On Saturday, January 10, 2009, a large rally and march took place in San
Francisco to protest Israel's invasion of Gaza. The event was one of a series of
similar events held in various cities around the country on the same day, and
was organized by ANSWER along with several other far-left, Arab and Muslim
groups.

The photos in this report represent what I personally saw that day in San
Francisco. Because there were thousands of people in attendance, with
innumerable signs, vignettes and scenes playing out every minute in many
different locations, I can vouch only for what I myself witnessed.
While the event was advertised as being specifically a protest against the
invasion of Gaza, there seemed to me to be an undercurrent of unabashed anti-
Semitism. This woman, for example, carried a sign that said "Jews Are
Terroist!" ("terrorists," one assumes she meant), and dressed her very cute
daughters in matching Palestinian flag outfits.
This fellow, who has made appearances before on zombietime, held a sign
saying "SMASH the Jewish State," held together by his trademark binder clips.
Another repeat offender showed up: a protester who claims to be Jewish yet
who inevitably displays the most blatantly anti-Semitic handwritten signs. On
this day, his placards declared, "Every Zionazi Is a Legitimate Military Target"
and "Target All Zionist Businesses." I wouldn't want to be that guy's therapist.
She may condemn Israel as a "monster nation," but at least she concedes it is a
nation at all: Many of the speakers at the rally did not even acknowledge
Israel's political existence. Nothing more than a temporary occupying force,
soon to be brushed away.
"Globalize the Intifada." This is the fundamental message underlying all of
these anti-Israel rallies organized by far-left radical groups: They see the
Palestinian Intifada as the first wave of attack in a global revolution. Which, in
their delusional fantasies, will usher in a secular communist utopia. This goes a
long way toward explaining how left-wing groups can possibly give their support
to Hamas, which is after all a repressive theocratic regime. (The Bookworm
Room blog has now written an interesting essay about this one particular photo
and the mindset behind the sign.)
Standing shoulder to shoulder with these leftists at the rally were more
traditional Hamas (and Hizbullah) supporters: Muslims (presumably) who
support Hamas and Hizbullah because they are Islamic theocracies. Here, this
woman shows her sign to the hundreds of Israel supporters rallying on the other
side of the street, in front of City Hall.

Later, I encountered Mr. Binder Clips again, and this time I saw the other side
of his sign: "The Jewish State Is a Criminal Entity."
[Photo by juklux]
During the march, several of the protesters began burning and then stomping
on Israeli flags. While I was trying to photograph some of the stomping (which
you'll see below), I managed to just miss getting any pictures of the burning.
Luckily, a reader who goes by the name "juklux" sent in three photos, which I
present here.
[Photo by juklux]
This one's pretty blurry, but I think it's very clear what's going on.
[Photo by juklux]
I'm not quite sure who "juklux" is, but he or she seems to have been one of the
people actually participating in the flag burning, from the angle and close-in
position of these photos.

[Video by juklux]
This video of Israeli flag burning and stomping was also taken by juklux and
uploaded to YouTube. A must watch!

[Video by juklux]
Another excellent video from juklux which seems to show dancing and (from
the looks of it) some more flag-stomping.
Meanwhile, I managed to get just two snapshots of what I think was a separate
instance of Israeli flag-stomping. The flag abuse went on for quite a while.

Somewhere there at the bottom under all those feet, barely visible, is an
Israeli flag.
After the rally, a few thousand people joined the march through downtown San
Francisco; because the counter-protesting Israel supporters decided to not go
on the march, every single one of the marchers was anti-Israel -- except for
this one guy, who tailed along on the sidewalk carrying what I thought was the
most interesting sign of the day.
And yet, with all the flag burning and screaming and traffic-blocking and
menacing chants, can you guess who was the only protester to be stopped by
police and ordered to leave? That's right -- the single anti-Hamas protester.
Figures. The police's given reason, naturally, was that he should leave "for his
own protection" and that he shouldn't incite the crowd by expressing a
reasonable opinion. Nothing so enrages an unreasonable crowd as a reasonable
opinion!
The police gave him a warning and then escorted him away from the march
down a side street, as the anti-Israel protesters cheered his departure.
Meanwhile, protesters who openly supported the terrorist organization Hamas
and waved the Hamas flag (as seen here) received no warnings at all about
inciting the crowd. Which sharply highlights a depressing truth: If you express
an opinion, no matter how wrongheaded, you are safe from criticism if enough
people share it with you; but if you express an opinion, no matter how
insightful, you will be penalized if you stand all alone.
The crowd was pretty hardcore, but there was a contingent of left-wing
"progressive" peaceniks who were there in all sincerity protesting for "peace,"
asking Israel to stop its hostilities. And while some of the more sophisticated
extremists pretended to go along with them, posing as more mainstream and
also pretending that "peace" was the goal, other pro-Palestinian protesters
were more honest about what they seek, such as this group leader who
promised "War for ever" against Israel. (I couldn't decide which picture was
better, so I've presented two views of the same guy.)
Remember the woman in our first photo? Well, in case you think she couldn't
really have been in the thick of the rally with a sign like that, or that she only
displayed it briefly out of embarrassment, think again: She proudly showed it
off and even posed with her entire family along with the sign for souvenir
shapshots.

Meanwhile, "Terroists for Peace," possibly the most naive group of useful idiots
you will ever encounter, marched right alongside her and her fellow anti-
Semites, oblivious to reality.
The number of self-proclaimed Jews in the crowd marching in support of
Hamas was truly astonishing. Because in a conflict like this, there is no middle
group: if you actively oppose one side (Israel), you are helping the other side
(Hamas), whether you admit it to yourself or not. What's so bad about Jews
supporting Hamas? Well, for starters, here are some quotes from the Hamas
charter:
Our struggle against the Jews is very great and very serious.
...
The Islamic Resistance Movement aspires to the realisation of Allah's promise,
no matter how long that should take. The Prophet, Allah bless him and grant
him salvation, has said:
"The Day of Judgement will not come about until Muslims fight the Jews (killing
the Jews), when the Jew will hide behind stones and trees. The stones and
trees will say O Muslims, O Abdulla, there is a Jew behind me, come and kill
him. Only the Gharkad tree, would not do that because it is one of the trees of
the Jews."
Is that clear enough for you?

And no, it's not possible that the non-Palestinians in the crowd were simply
unaware of what their fellow protesters felt. They knew. How else can you
explain this video, in which apparently middle-class Americans are willingly
chanting "Long live the Intifada! Intifada, Intifada!"
By "Free Palestine" he means of course a Palestine extending over the entirety
of the territory currently known as "Israel."
Another terroist for justice! This guy was unafraid to wear his yarmulke in the
crowd.
Israel's actions not in your name? So, you'd rather that Hamas impose an Islamic
police state on the people of Gaza in your name, and wage incessant low-level
war against Israel in your name?

This guy is taking the Neturei Karta postion -- that the existence of Israel
delegitimizes all of Judaism. Nice.
But if you think the pro-Hamas Jews were naive, what about the gay protesters
who were there opposing Israel (and by default thereby aiding Hamas)? Are
they even aware that under the Hamas regime, gay Palestinians, should any be
foolish anough to make themselves known, are executed?
Yeah, full democratic rights for gays, lesbians, bisexuals, transgenders. Right.
Oh wait, silly me, there is a country involved in this conflict where gays,
lesbians, bisexuals and transgenders have full democratic rights: it's called
Israel. And if you truly wanted freedom and equality for gays and lesbians in
the region, you'd be protesting against the harsh shari'a regime of Hamas,
under which homosexuality or "gender transgression" of any kind brings an
immediate death sentence.

"Just another queer Jew to end the occupation." This is satire -- right? Please
tell me you're joking.
Let's ask some of your fellow protesters what they think about queer Jews.
Some of the rowdier Palestinian youths rode on each others' shoulders and
chanted things in Arabic through bullhorns.
"Hizbullah beat you ya kilab," says this disturbing sign. "Kilab" means "dogs" in
Arabic. In other words, he's calling the Israelis dogs. The rest of the message
conveys a sentiment that is currently popular among pundits in the Arab world,
that Israel is invading Gaza to regain its manhood after being crushed and
humiliated by Hizbullah in 2006.
I've purposely not yet shown any of the Nazi comparisons on display at the rally,
because I thought I'd group them all together here for more impact. Swastikas
were everywhere.
I'm not quite grasping what you mean, sir. Could you express yourself more
clearly?

This is "Ant," a local cartoonist who specializes in making intentionally

offensive protest signs that usually flirt with anti-Semitism.
This, actually, was the main message of the rally, taking the Israelis=Nazis
correlation to its logical conclusion: If Israelis are Nazis, then the invasion of
Gaza is the new Holocaust! How can you argue with logic like that?
Hmmmmm, 800 casualties in the war (as of this writing), 75% of which were
Hamas militant enemy combatants, and the remainder being unavoidable
civilian casualties caused in nearly every instance by Hamas using women and
children as human shields. That's definitely a new Holocaust, no doubt.
Some people didn't want to take it quite that far, and instead compared Gaza
to Warsaw. (I can only assume they mean the Warsaw Ghetto during World War
II. These days, Warsaw is quite a nice place!)
There must have been a pre-rally call for people to make the "Warsaw"
comparison, because I saw dozens of signs saying essentially the same thing.
And now, the final step in the progression: Israel (or the Jews or Judaism) isn't
just equal to Nazism -- it's actually worse than Nazism, as this equation
indicates.

And yes, we had our minor celebrities. Cindy Sheehan showed up sporting a
kaffiyeh, and spouted the most ill-informed inanities about Israel you've ever
heard. She's still stinging from her overwhelming loss to Nancy Pelosi in the
most recent congressional election, and is looking to regain some relevance.
And then there was Paul Larudee (on the right) of the International Solidarity
Movement and his fellow anti-Israel activists announcing that they were going
to repeat their attempt to sail a ship from Cyprus to Gaza during wartime.
(Their first five journeys, before the current hostilities, arrived unopposed, but
Israel rebuffed their most recent attempt, not allowing the civilian ship to
enter a war zone.)
He popped up later at the ISM booth, which was raking in the cash from willing
donors seeking to fund the ISM's aggressive anti-Israeli militancy.
"AmerIsrael" is the name of the combined Zionist entity.
"Fuck Isreal" said this guy's shirt (which unfortunately was covered up by his
kaffiyeh).
For the record: Here's the front of the march, with all the ANSWER organizers
in neon green vests. As I mentioned earlier, I'm no good at estimating crowd
size, but if forced I'd have to guess somewhere around two or three thousand
grand total.
And also for the record: Here are the pro-Israel counter-protesters across the
street from the main rally. They too had a larger-than-normal crowd,
numbering into the hundreds. I didn't venture over there, so I don't have any
close-up shots of that side of the action.
A pile of dolls splattered with red paint proved to the world that Israel was
committing war crimes.
I've heard of anarchism before. And I've heard of National Socialism before. But
"National Anarchism"??? That's a new one on me. And I have this sneaking
suspicion that I don't want to know anything more about it.

(OK, I couldn't resist. According to the wikipedia article about National

Anarchism, "Green Anarchist published an article accusing National-Anarchists
of being state-backed fascist infiltrators with the goal of discrediting
mainstream anarchism. Antifa, a militant anti-fascist network, advocates
violent physical confrontation with National-Anarchists, whom it considers to
be part of the far right." Splendid. Far-right creeps protesting against the Jews
alongside far-left creeps. I'm getting this deja vu feeling.)
Remember Che Guevara? Well, he's a Palestinian now.
Earlier, we had "AmerIsrael." Now, it's "Nazisrael." Make up your minds already!
And it wouldn't be a decent protest without an I 卐 rael sign.
A quintet of Palestine advocates.
I wonder: Will this new mask design begin to replace the standard kaffiyeh/bandanna
mask?
Throughout the rally, there was a new name that cropped up all over: Oscar
Grant. He was the unfortunate victim of a New Year's Day shooting by a local
BART (subway system) policemen (which was either intentional or accidental,
depending on whom you ask). Just a few days before this rally, there had been
a protest against Oscar Grant's shooting in Oakland that had degenerated into a
riot. That protest, unsurprisingly, had been co-organized by ANSWER as well.
Almost overnight, Grant has become the new icon of the far left, the poster
child for police brutality, and comparisons between Oakland and Palestine and
Grant and the Palestinians were commonplace throughout this protest, which
theoretically had nothing to do with Oscar Grant or his shooting. This sign was
a prime example: "End Government Sponsored Murder in the Ghettos of
Oakland and Palestine."

This one lays out the comparison very clearly: The police shooting Oscar Grant
is equivalent to the Israelis shooting at Gazans.
All the communist and socialist groups jumped on the bandwagon.
An interesting aspect of this picture is the banner on the right which calls for a
"Democratic secular Palestine." Under Hamas, Gaza was turned from a secular
society into a theocracy governed by shari'a law. And yet these socialist groups
still support Hamas -- the very Hamas which destroyed secularism in Gaza --
believing in the insane pipe dream that, once freed from Israeli influence,
Palestine will become a communist nation. It is my opinion that this impossible
communist fantasy is what drives the Left's support for Palestine. In the early
'70s, the Palestinians began using socialist buzzwords and phraseology, and the
American (and European) left fell for it like a ton of bricks, and have been
falling ever since.
"Fruitvale" is the name of the BART station where Oscar Grant was shot. And
you'd think that the "Gray Panters" would know how to spell their own name
correctly. Truly pathetic. Also notice the Birkenstocks.
Even "Ant" joined in with the Oscar Grant comparisons (it is theorized that the
policeman who shot Grant thought he was drawing his tazer instead of his gun,
and shot Grant accidentally thinking he was just going to give him an electrical
shock). Also notice his "Same War -- different Gook" shirt.
Now, people from conservative "middle America" not familiar with the San
Francisco political landscape might dismiss everyone at this rally as "a bunch of
Obama voters" -- such as this drummer with a truly spooky deified sinister
Obama shirt. But...
...in truth, most people there were anti-Obama. Why? Because he's not left-
wing enough! In particular, Obama's campaign appearance at a meeting of
AIPAC (the pro-Israel lobbying group) infuriated many potential far-left voters
who hoped that he would change U.S. policy and be pro-Palestinian and anti-
Israel once elected.

So, Obama has already failed the socialist litmus test in their eyes, and now
"Zionists Love Obama."
Worse than that -- he's the "enemy of world's working people!"
And the ultimate condemnation: Obama is nothing but a "fascist lackey."

After the march, the rally sort of fizzled out; the counter-protesters were
already gone, the hangers-on drifted away, and only a few hardcore radicals
listened to the rest of the speeches.

I suspect ANSWER had hoped that this protest would have grown into something
larger -- a mass movement, or perhaps a riot at least -- but there was no
violence, no confrontations, and the vast majority of San Franciscans just
continued shopping and sipping cappuccino, unaware that a rally had even
happened.
If you would like to leave a comment about this report, you may do so here at
zomblog.

(Click here to return to the main zombietime page.)