Stop the Wall Protest in Seattle, Nov 9

STOP THE WALL
by Kirsten Anderberg Copyright 2003

In Seattle, on November 9, approximately 200 people gathered at Westlake Park to take part in the International Day of Action to STOP THE WALL being built by Israel in Palestine. Organizers chose November 9 for this action as it was on November 9, 1989, that the Berlin Wall came down. 40 cities participated in the protest, including Seattle and San Francisco (http://www.stopthewall.org). At one point, a man carrying an Israel flag and an American flag that said "Proud to be an American" on it, as well as a man with three flags for the Navy, Army, and Marines maybe, lined the street on the Westlake Mall side, along with many protesters with signs, yet no robocops were to be seen. Very few cops were present at all, which is very odd. I would estimate seeing two cop cars on site, and about 10 cops in regular uniforms hovered about. I have enclosed several shots of the police working hard sucking down Starbucks' on taxpayer dollars at the rally today. In the park, a model of the wall was held up on stage and chanted down. Banners were draped over the stage area (see picture). The rally was nonviolent, due to the lack of violent Seattle riot police.

The protest addressed the 400 mile-long barrier through the Occupied West Bank that Israel is building. At $2 million a mile, this complex series of walls, trenches, armed turrets, barbed wire and electrified fences, cameras and infrared sensors, every 30 to100 yards, will cost a total of $1.5 billion when completed. On Sept. 16, 2003, the U.N. Security Council voted on a resolution regarding the wall, but the U.S. vetoed it. On Oct 21, 2003, the U.N.General Assembly voted 144 to 4 to stop the wall, the 4 for voting for the wall were the U.S., Israel, Micronesia and the Marshall Islands! Out of the whole U.N., that was the totality of worldwide support for this wall. This wall will be much taller and longer than the Berlin Wall was. Palestinian families are being cut off from their 100,000 olive groves, 50,000 fruit trees, and family farms. 30 wells that watered Palestinian farms, have been taken on the Israeli side of the wall now. Israel is forcing Palestinians who lived and farmed here for over a thousand years, to get a permit to cross these zones around the wall now. A World Bank report says the wall has already affected 115,000 Palestinians by cutting them off from water, farms, schools, businesses, etc. Israeli military let these people in and out through guarded gates, and Palestinian kids sometimes wait 3 hours or more, to be let through the gate, to go home from school. Without American tax dollars, the wall could not be built. This protest was about OUR tax dollars being used to build Israel's aparteid wall. And our desire, as American taxpayers, to let our government know that we do not support this wall.