Flash Mob in Westlake, Ohio, to Support Palestinians
August 4, 2014 | Revolution Newspaper | revcom.us
From a reader:
Thanks go out to the young Palestinian leaders who organized the “flash mob” at Crocker Park (an upscale shopping village in Westlake, a suburb of Cleveland) yesterday, July 25. Four hundred Palestinians, many wearing keffiyehs, Free Palestine T-shirts, or traditional garb, jammed the sidewalk and tree lawn along the motorcade that borders the mall. We non-Palestinians were made welcome with “thanks for supporting us in Palestine.” Motorists honked back at signs which called out “Honk to Free Gaza.” The Palestinian flag was everywhere. And the police presence was heavy with snipers on the rooftops.
The most remarkable thing: from the beginning the protest was led by young people. No one over 25 handled the microphone until toward the end of the protest. College-age Palestinians, young women and men, told us all “to be respectful to the police,” they led the chants, and carried out a “die-in” by sounding sirens. They were the primary speakers to the media! (They did give Don Bryant a moment of TV time—Channel 19—to explain Al-Awda, the Right of Return Coalition, which sponsored the event.)
Oh, the biggest contingent protesting may have been mothers with children, and babies in strollers. The die-in found young people striking poses on the sidewalks as imagined Israeli bombs rained down. There was certainly lots of anger, understandably, against Israel, but I heard no anti-Jewish words whatsoever.
I spoke repeatedly to small groups of young people, showing them two New York Times front- page photo spreads, one with a dead Palestinian boy on the beach, and a van full of crying children being driven away from Israeli bombs. I said we were starting to win the battle in the media against Israel’s hasbara [propaganda], that they must stay strong and keep speaking out against our corrupted political leaders in our badly flawed American democracy. That it is up to them to make sure that the 800 Palestinians who have died have not died in vain. (I once taught high school civics classes.)
[As Revolution/revcom.us goes to press, the Palestinian death toll stands at more than 1,600.]
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