On Saturday, October 5th at 2PM, a group of 15+ community organizations are coming together for a rally and march to commemorate one year since the genocide in Gaza began. There have been verified deaths of more than 40,000 people in Gaza at the hands of the Israeli military.
The rally will take place Saturday, October 5, 2:00 PM, at the County Administration Building, 1600 Pacific Highway. Speakers will include international law expert Marjorie Cohn and popular Egyptian-American comedian and television host Bassem Yousef.
This action is part of a larger international day of action marking one year of genocide.
The organizing group includes the following local organizations: American Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee, Anakbayan San Diego, BDS San Diego, CAIR, Code Pink, Jewish Voice for Peace, KARAMA, Malaya, National Lawyers Guild San Diego ,Network of Arab American Professionals, North County for Palestine, Palestinian Feminist Collective, Palestinian Youth Movement,Peace Resource Center, San Diego Labor for Palestine.
While Israel’s actions have been overzealous, let’s not forget why things are happening the way they are:
You say “overzealous” others say “genocidal.”
Hey, we’ve repeatedly asked commenters not to leave extremely long links as it messes up the comment, the post, the entire home page.
Ok Frank. For future reference, how do I shorten the link?
I’m not certain a commenter can shorten a link. You could give me a headsup that one is coming I guess. Did you see how they screw up the page?
“Overzealous”?
The population of Gaza is about 2,100,000. According to the Health Ministry there, 42,000 Gazans have been killed and 96,000 wounded by Israeli military action. This calculates to 6.5% of the entire population killed or wounded. That’s WAY more than “overzealous.” That percentage of casualties would calculate out to 21,500,000 dead/wounded if applied to the U.S. population.
And THAT’s a serious undercount. Tens of thousands of Gazans are simply missing. And we all know where most of them are: buried unrecovered and uncounted under the rubble of buildings (including apartment buildings, mosques, schools, and businesses) collapsed by Israeli bombardment.
And even THAT doesn’t account for the many thousands of Gazans who have died in the last year as a result of Israel’s destruction of hospitals and medical clinics, triggering the breakdown of public health standards. And then, in parts of Gaza, there is . . . starvation.
So are Israel’s actions merely “overzealous”? Or genocidal?
Some more to consider:
https://apple.news/AuyWaHFp4TT2pnR42-vq3Ew
Truth is, there ARE two sides. The fact that one side has done far more damage than the other doesn’t change that:
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/preserving-the-stories-of-the-israel-gaza-conflict-through-art/?
Chris, sure it does matter how many have died and why. The terrible events of Oct 7th were done by a small number of radical Hamas terrorists who were terribly wrong but who did not represent the 2.1 million Gazans. Then Israel attacked Gaza as if each Gaza was the enemy. Israel has lost the world support it had on Oct 8th the same way the US lost its world wide support on 9/12/2001 by its overzealous attacks on Afghanistan and Iraq.
So yes, numbers do matter.
Gilbert, numbers matter but again that doesn’t change the fact both sides share blame.
Since you brought up 9/12, U.S. military action didn’t start until Oct 7 2001 (I was stationed onboard the USS Peleliu), so a bit too early for the U.S. to “lose world wide support”. Loss of that came later, especially after attacking Iraq and news leaking that U.S. military personnel were intentionally murdering civilians in both countries.
Sorry for the late comment but as I’ve resided in France for the past 5 years, I’m a bit more lax in reading my favorite SD journals. ‘Two-sidesism’ and references to 10/7 entirely miss the point. International law long-ag0 de-linked war crimes by one side from war crimes from another side. The law is that war crimes are prohibited, regardless of ‘who started it’ or who has what grievances. All international organizations with a connection to Gaza have confirmed that war crimes are being perpetrated systematically and on a massive scale by the IDF. These war crimes continue on a daily basis with full U.S. complicity in the murder of tens of thousands (or according to Lancet Med, 100s of thousands) of non-combantants, 75% of whom are the elderly, children, and women. It must stop and the war criminals (including those in the Biden admin) must be held criminally accountable.
Whoever wrote this doesn’t know what genocide is.
Today’s U-T:
Amid widening violence in the Middle East, more than 15 community organizations held a pro-Palestinian rally in downtown San Diego Saturday afternoon.
The rally was peaceful, without incident or counter-protests. Organizers estimated the crowd at about 1,000.
The protest lasted a little more than three hours and included a march that snarled traffic for a time. Chanting and waving flags behind a slow-moving truck, demonstrators marched past locales such as the Star of India and the USS Midway Museum, with some passersby gawking from sidewalks and others staring from hotels along Harbor Drive.
San Diego Police Department personnel in SUVs monitored the rally, which started and ended at the County Administration Center, from a discreet distance.
The Palestinians “really need to know that there are people around the world who remember them and have solidarity with them,” said Larry Christian, president of KARAMA, a San Diego nonprofit that focuses on issues of the Arab and Islamic world. “We also want to hold leaders here (in the U.S.) accountable.”
Saturday’s protest was part of a series of similar events in what organizers called an “international day of action” that saw protesters take to the streets in cities such as Los Angeles, New York and Seattle. Pro-Israeli demonstrations are expected to be held Sunday because Jews across the world are still observing Rosh Hashana, or the Jewish new year.
https://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/2024/10/05/an-estimated-crowd-of-1000-march-in-pro-palestine-rally-in-downtown-san-diego/
I have strong feelings about the on-going wars in the Middle East and the rights of the people who live there, for the wars mirror our own failings in the United States, as well as our neighbors in Canada, Mexico and other North and South American nations.
Sadly, humans have always invaded and driven-out the people who lived on land with the un-dying belief their gods gave them the right to be there. Sound familiar? The primary difference is how long this has been going on. Europeans invaded North America and displaced, killed or inadvertently spread diseases that killed off enormous segments of the people who were here before the Europeans. The same cam be said of the Middle East and whatever you call Palestine, Israel, etc. Invading land and justifying the invasion based on historical former occupation many generations ago is just wrong in my book. Terrorism is also wrong and should be policed by nations, but the extent of killing innocent civilians, bombing hospitals, and shuffling innocent people around the landscape is wrong in my book.
Should the United States get involved in Middle East wars? Well, the barn doors are opened and we are already involved. I believe our moral responsibility is to protect our interests balanced by protecting innocent people. I do not believe we have a role in those wars, except to protect the people of the United States. If that means we are cut-off from their oil, then so be it. There is enough lithium under the Salton Sea in Imperial County to power all the existing automobiles in the United States, according to a recent report that 18,000,000 tons of lithium is beneath the Salton Basin.
Israel has the right to exist … and so does Palestine.
Very true. Unpopular opinion, but no matter the actions of a particular group (and there does need to be consequences), that does not justify attacking and bulldozing over innocents. Collective punishment is a war-crime. An eye for an eye makes the world go blind!
Frank – why was my post censored(not posted)? I did not use profanity, insult anyone personally, or call for anything violent. I simply called out the complete void of true caring about senseless violence for having this protest the weekend of the anniversary of the 10/7 massacre and not even recognizing it. Particularly given the terrorist group that did it was the whole catalyst for the most recent nightmare occurring. As your post said – both peoples deserve their own nation. We cannot get even remotely move forward with sides not being able to acknowledge the horrible wrongs being caused by fundamentalists on both sides.
Start reading about the Middle East from the Balfour Declaration & finish up tomorrow.
Looks to me as though religion just might be the bane of man’s existence.
Not only that, but all the main religions in the Middle East believe in the same god — they’re all Abrahamic religions – they all believe in Abraham and in Moses.