1,500 Attend Pro-Israel Rally, Largest Demonstration In Country
It was a rather unprecedented event. 1,500 people turn out in the Capitol Hill neighborhood, rallying in support of Israel and the small nation's efforts to defend itself from terrorists and Muslim extremists.
The Temple De Hirsch Sinai was packed to the ner tamid as not just Seattle's Jewish community, but also Arabs and Christians were on hand in a show of inter-faith solidarity.
The rally was sponsored by the Jewish Federation of Greater Seattle.
Federation President Richard Fruchter addressed the crowd saying, "We are here today, to tell... the over 7 million residents of Israel, 'We are your brothers and sisters. We are your family. Our thoughts and prayers are with you."
Outside the Temple hundreds of supporters waited in line to enter, while casting sidewise glances at the six counter-protestors waving signs asking "Who Would Moses Bomb?"
Kirkland resident David Zohar, above, an Israeli-American who has been in this country for eight years said that he was there on Sunday to support Israel's right to defend itself.
"When someone is outside of your house with a gun, shooting into the windows, you aren't going to wait until they kill one of your children," Zohar explained. "This is about genocide. And what people don't understand is that Hamas wants to genocide Jews. It's not about land. And it's not about Muslims and Jews."
During the rally, videos were played showing the aftermath of some of the 4,000 rockets that Hamas has fired into Israel from the Gaza Strip in this latest round of fighting.
Nevet Basker, an Israeli immigrant who now chairs StandWithUs Northwest, an Israeli advocacy group, recounted a little history stating that in 2005, 8,000 Jewish settlers in the Gaza strip were removed from their homes, farms and settlements in exchange for a guarantee of peace with Hamas.
"Leaving Gaza was not good enough for the terrorists; they want to destroy Israel," Basker said, reading from a prepared statement. "This war is not about occupation. It's not about settlements. It's not about a Palestinian state. This is a proxy war for Iran. Like so many wars we've faced before, this war with Hamas is about Israel's right ot exist."
Speaking with one of the event coordinators after the rally, Kim Greenhall of the Jewish Federation of Greater Seattle, she said that she was informed by the Israeli Deputy Consul Ismail Khaldi, who also spoke, that the rally was the largest of its kind in the country so far.
On Saturday, a Pro-Palestine rally was held at the Federal Courthouse in downtown Seattle. And on Thursday at the Univeristy of Washington, Students for Justice in Palestine held a demonstration that drew around a hundred or so sign-wavers.
Counter-Demonstrators square off, asking "Who Would Moses Bomb?" Answer: Iran?
Children at the rally carrying signs asking Hamas not use children as human shields.
A Pro-Israel participant being interviewed by a local reporter.
One of the six Anti-Israel demonstrators being interviewed of course.
Deputy Consul Ismael Khaldi: "Israel isn't fighting the Palestinian people. Israel is fighting Hamas and its poisonous hatred." Khaldi went on to say later that his country was saddened by the deaths of innocent civilians being used by Hamas as human shields to mask rocket launchers, mortars and tunnels used to smuggle arms and munitions.
1 comment(s)
nirav says:
http://www.alternet.org/audits/119372
The headline is false, this was not even close to the biggest in the country (see link).
Posted On: Tuesday, Jan. 13 2009 @ 9:37AM