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Tens of Thousands of Americans Protest Washington’s Iraq Policy
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A makshift memorial of Iraqi children killed as a result of U.S. Aggressions
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By
Neveen A. Salem, IOL Washington Correspondent
CENTRAL
PARK, New York, October 6 (IslamOnline) - By 9:30 A.M. Sunday morning,
thousands of civil rights supporters, anti-war activists and famous
personalities had gathered on the East Meadow of New York’s famous
Central Park to send a unified and clear message to U.S. President
George W. Bush.
“The
order of the day is to tell our leaders that they can no longer bomb,
kill and destroy the lives of innocent people in our name,” Suhaila
Suroor a dentist and mother of two told IslamOnline as she watched her
two children play on the lawn of New York’s most famous land mass.
Each
child was wearing a shirt that sent a message: “Palestinian Lives
are Just as Valuable as Yours” and “Iraqis Are Not U.S.
Scapegoats”, Suhaila was holding a banner that read “U.S. Civil
Rights = U.S. Police State.”
The
massive rally has been set to voice strong American protest to
aggressions against Iraq, Palestine, and American Muslims, Arabs and
Asians and has been in the works for almost a year. The day was
specifically chosen as it marks the one-year anniversary of the U.S.
offensive on Afghanistan.
The
nationwide movement will see hundreds of thousands of Americans in New
York, North Carolina, Wisconsin, Los Angeles and San Francisco
(California), Corvalis, Oregon, and Seattle, Washington taking a
“Pledge of Resistance” against government repression both
internationally and domestically and to defend the civil rights of
American Arabs and Muslims.
“This
will be a stand against the government roundup and secret detention of
immigrants, the racial-profiling and hate-mongering against Muslims
and people from the Middle East and South Asia, and the massive
deportations,” the pledge reads.
The
event has at least 16,000 supporters from all walks of American life
and religions, including former Arab-American U.S. Senator James
Abourezk (who also founded the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination
Committee in Washington D.C.), legendary Hollywood writer, producer
and director Oliver Stone (of “Evita”, “JFK” and “Born on
the Fourth of July fame).
Also,
academician and author Noam Chomsky, civil rights lawyer and professor
at Georgetown University David Cole, actor Ed Asner, former Secretary
of State Ramsey Clark, Ben Cohen (co-founder of Ben and Jerry’ ice
cream), singer and songwriter Ani DeFranco, author Janet Abu Loghud,
and famous feminist Gloria Steinem.
The
event was arranged by the “Not in My Name” (NIMN), a Jewish peace
group based in Evanston, Illinois that was formed in November 2000, a
month after the current Palestinian Intifada, to work for a lasting
peace for Palestinians and Israelis.
“We
believe that the first step toward attaining peace must be for Israel
to end its occupation of the West Bank, Gaza Strip and East
Jerusalem,” a member of the group told IslamOnline, reciting the
pledge on the group’s site.
“
We call ourselves ‘Not in My Name’ because we feel that the State
of Israel often claims to act in the name and interests of world Jews,
but that these actions do not reflect our Jewish values and
beliefs,” the statement continued.
New
York City police officers told IslamOnline that they are anticipating
tens of thousands of people, although they have no doubts the numbers
may swell to significantly more. They also said they expected the
rally to be peaceful.
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Thousands
of protestors gather in
Central Park
to say "Not in my name".
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Many
protestors and organizers were busy setting up the display tables that
would host many of the organizational co-sponsors of the event and
would serve as bases for literature on everything from immigration
laws to statistics of Palestinian deaths as a result of Israeli
aggressions and Iraqi deaths as a result of U.S. bombings and
twelve-year-long sanctions.
The
event succeeds Friday’s anti-war rally, also held in New York and
precedes the international rally scheduled for October 26. Billed the
“National March to Stop the War Against Iraq”, the event will take
place across the United States in New York, California and Washington
D.C., as well as seeing supporting rallies taking place
internationally.
“Not
in My Name” is also hosting Jeff Halper of the Israeli Committee
Against House Demolitions and Salim Shawamreh, a Palestinian peace
activist whose home was razed three times by U.S.-made Israeli
bulldozers, on their annual U.S. tour comprised of speaking
engagements educated the American public of atrocities being committed
against the Palestinian people.
The
rally’s mission statement was also being circulated en masse on the
Central Park grounds and even across town in Subway stations and on
street corners as a way to spread the word to New Yorkers going about
their days.
The
statement reads in part as follows:
“The
signers of this statement call on the people of the U.S. to resist the
policies and overall political direction that have emerged since
September 11, 2001, and which pose grave dangers to the people of the
world.
“We
believe that peoples and nations have the right to determine their own
destiny, free from military coercion by great powers. We believe that
all persons detained or prosecuted by the United States government
should have the same rights of due process. We believe that
questioning, criticism, and dissent must be valued and protected. We
understand that such rights and values are always contested and must
be fought for.
“We
believe that people of conscience must take responsibility for what
their own governments do -- we must first of all oppose the injustice
that is done in our own name. Thus we call on all Americans to RESIST
the war and repression that has been loosed on the world by the Bush
administration. It is unjust, immoral, and illegitimate.
“In
our name, within the U.S., the government has created two classes of
people: those to whom the basic rights of the U.S. legal system are at
least promised, and those who now seem to have no rights at all. The
government rounded up over 1,000 immigrants and detained them in
secret and indefinitely. Hundreds have been deported and hundreds of
others still languish today in prison. This smacks of the infamous
concentration camps for Japanese-Americans in World War 2. For the
first time in decades, immigration procedures single out certain
nationalities for unequal treatment.
“President
Bush has declared: ‘you’re either with us or against us.’ Here
is our answer: We refuse to allow you to speak for all the American
people. We will not give up our right to question. We will not hand
over our consciences in return for a hollow promise of safety. We say
NOT IN OUR NAME. We refuse to be party to these wars and we repudiate
any inference that they are being waged in our name or for our
welfare. We extend a hand to those around the world suffering from
these policies; we will show our solidarity in word and deed.
“We
who sign this statement call on all Americans to join together to rise
to this challenge. We applaud and support the questioning and protest
now going on, even as we recognize the need for much, much more to
actually stop this juggernaut. We draw inspiration from the Israeli
reservists who, at great personal risk, declare “there IS a limit”
and refuse to serve in the occupation of the West Bank and Gaza.
“Let
us not allow the watching world today to despair of our silence and
our failure to act. Instead, let the world hear our pledge: we will
resist the machinery of war and repression and rally others to do
everything possible to stop it.
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