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Demonstrators Protest Sharon During White House Meeting
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Anti-Sharon protestors gather across the street from White House as Bush and Sharon held meetings.
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By Ayesha Ahmad, IOL Washington Correspondent
WASHINGTON,
May 8 (IslamOnline) - As Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon met with
U.S. President George W. Bush on Tuesday afternoon, May 7, protestors
gathered again outside the White House - as they had the day before -
to let passersby know exactly how they felt about Sharon’s fifth
visit to the Bush White House.
"Hey
ho, Hey ho, Sharon must go!" "Fund education, not
occupation!" "Sharon and Hitler are the same, the only
difference is the name!" They were the same rally shouts that
have echoed time and again in the streets of the nation's capital
since Sharon was elected last February, five months after the
intifada, or Palestinian uprising against Israeli occupation, erupted
in September 2000.
Vowing
swift and strong revenge, Sharon left the White House during the rally
after receiving news of a bomb attack just outside Tel Aviv that
killed 16 and wounded 55, according to a report by Agence
France-Presse (AFP). He was escorted by heavy security and traveled
from the eastern side of Pennsylvania Avenue opposite the rally, which
was limited to the west corner of Pennsylvania Ave. and 17th Street.
During
his talks with the U.S. president, Sharon said that discussion of a
Palestinian state was "premature" in light of the reforms in
the Palestinian Authority he insisted were necessary. Bush agreed that
the PA needed reforming, but said that he still envisioned an
independent Palestinian state as part of the solution.
More
than 100 demonstrators outside the White House, however, were more
interested in the fact that Sharon and Bush were meeting at all.
"We
truly feel that George W. Bush has given aid and welcomed a murderer
into the White House," said the Reverend Graylan Hagler, of
Washington's Plymouth Congregational Church. "And obviously that
is an affront to people who had families die in Palestine… and to
those of us who are just outraged" and see Israeli actions as
something to be denounced, he said.
Hagler
is a frequent and fiery speaker at many demonstrations in the
Washington area; he has added his voice to the Palestinian cause, but
came to this rally as a participant, he said.
"We
are out here to say, Sharon is not a man of peace, but a man of
war," he told IslamOnline. "And not only a man of war, but
an exterminator of human life, of the Palestinian people."
Protestors
held banners, homemade signs, poster-sized pictures of Palestinian
civilians killed or maimed by Israeli soldiers - including children -
and several Palestinian flags. They faced the intersection of streets,
drawing attention from passersby; many cars driving by honked their
horns in appreciation, eliciting cheers from the demonstrators. About
halfway through the late afternoon rally, a group of young men arrived
with drums to add rhythm to the chants.
As
with many of the rallies - especially the memorable April 20
demonstration that brought more than 75,000 people from all over the
country together - the crowd was diverse, with Muslims and
non-Muslims, Arabs, students, elderly, men wearing suits and women
wearing tie-dye.
One
student, Maddie Javaheri, told IslamOnline she wanted to send the
message that "funding a state that violates the Geneva Convention
violates everything America stands for."
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Demonstrators received encouragement from passing motorists honking their horns in support of Palestinian rights. |
Javaheri
lent her voice to the rally cries with fervor. A Muslim student from
the nearby University of Maryland at College Park, said that the rally
was "good, effective and productive."
Another
demonstrator told IslamOnline he had been lobbying for the Palestinian
cause for more than two decades. Brent Riley, white-bearded and
bearing a homemade sign proclaiming that Palestinians are human
beings, too, said that he wanted the Israeli media that had come to
cover Sharon's meeting to see the rally and get the message.
"It
is in the American interest that this issue be resolved," said
Riley, who drove up from Roanoke, Va., to protest against Sharon's
visit. "It is central to the well-being of the world that this
issue be resolved."
Riley
said that over the 24 years he had been lobbying Congress and writing
letters, he had come to see that the Arabs and Muslims supporting the
Palestinian cause here needed to learn coalition-building because
"America is a system of competing special interests… if you
don't compete well, you lose."
Sharon
had no vision of or plan for peace, he said; the Palestinians needed
to "step back and be creative about resisting."
Near
the end of the rally, Revered Hagler took protestors in groups of 25
across the barrier to pray directly in front of the White House - with
people to lead Christians and Muslims in separate prayers - saying
that he wanted to make sure the protestors were seen and understood.
D.C.
law prohibits more than 25 people at any one time from protesting on
Pennsylvania Ave. in front of the White House without a permit.
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