Sabeel Conference and Demo Photos
It’s been busy, and things won’t really ease up until sometime next week. All I can do now is list things I haven’t had time to blog about, and throw in a few photos to replace a few thousand words.
1. Across the street from last weekend’s Sabeel Conference at Boston’s Old South Church were Zionist counter-protestors organized by the Jewish Community Relations Council and other groups. Some recognized and harangued Jeff Halper of Israel Committee Against House Demolitions when he went to see what they were up to. The guy with the camera in the second and third photos is Hillel Stavis. He was pretty obnoxious, even cutting off people on his own side, who he clearly doesn’t think know as much as he thinks he knows.
2. Inside the conference, Halper spoke, as did Noam Chomsky, Archibishop Desmond Tutu, and others. I don’t relate well to religious worldviews, but the strong opposition to Israeli occupation policy was good to see. There’s already been a lot written about the conference, so I’m not going to go into any detail.
When I have more time I will try to mull over the pragmatics of the apartheid terminology. It does seem clear that the occupation is worse than apartheid in many ways. In response to a question, Halper said Israel is “on its way to apartheid,” while others thought the term is already accurate. Halper says it may become accurate if the Annapolis peace conference formalizes a powerless Palestinian state, which seems to be the US and Israeli plan.
On a personal note, I was glad to see 8 or 9 my photos used in this display set up by the Boston Committee for Palestinian Rights:
3. The Sabeel conference’s anti-occupation agenda didn’t go far enough for another set of protestors, who I think are among those who consider any acceptance of a two-state solution to be a Zionist plot:
The cops separated the two sets of counter-protestors from each other and from the conference:
One of the Zionist protestors (I think that’s this guy’s crowd) took my picture.
4. As the conference ended, Desmond Tutu led us to the anti-Occupation demonstration organized by Jewish Voice for Peace.
4. A few minutes later, the larger anti-war demo that had rallied on the Boston Common marched around Copley Square, led by Iraq Veterans Against the War. Impressive. And sad.
Some people drew connections:
During World Series week, some drew other connections:
Technorati Tags: Boston Committee for Palestinian Rights, Desmond Tutu, Hillel Stavis, Iraq Veterans Against the War, Israel, JCRC, Jewish Voice for Peace, Palestine, Red Sox, Sabeel, Zionism
May 30th, 2008 at 1:16 pm
[...] of the apartheid terminology. It does seem clear that the occupation is worse than apartheid in …http://blog.dennisfox.net/index.php/archives/2007/11/02/sabeel-conference-and-demo-photos/Allegations of Israeli apartheid – Wikipedia, the free encyclopediaAllegations of Israeli apartheid [...]