Interfaith Pilgrimage From Oakland City Hall to Airport to Protest Israeli Crimes.

Photos: Leon Kunstenaar

(Oakland, May 9) - History, as the saying goes, rhymes. But it also performs an obscene square dance where victims and victimizers trade places.

Thus the Zionists, a sect created in 1897 by Hungarian writers Herzl and Russian Jabotinsky, decided that they spoke for all Jews. The Zionist movement, with its extreme nationalism, militarism and racism, has morphed into today's perpetrator of genocide.

The German Nazi holocaust perpetrated on Jews is now repeated by its victims, the current holocaust being perpetrated by Israel on the Palestinians.

People of all faiths came together in Oakland to object. They created a pilgrimage that wound down the East Bay seashore ending up in the terminal and baggage areas of Oakland Airport. The pilgrimage paused at end of each of five legs, held rallies and addresses by some of the many participating faith leaders.

The action was organized by the Interfaith Movement for Human Integrity (IM4HI) with active participation by Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP). Many Jews, some only one or two generations away from the Holocaust took the occasion to discuss the emotional conflicts caused by witnessing yet another Holocaust.

David Solnit as he often does, provided many of the signs and also built the props used in a witty skit about the corporations profiting off Israel's US enabled crimes.

The ribbon scarves bearing slogans and invocations for a better world were distributed and worn by all and provided a strong unifying element among the activists.

At the end of leg number three there were tables set up showing attache cases full of "cash" representing several of the Corporations benefiting from the US enabled wars, as in FedEx, Palantir, Amazon, Google, etc. Executing the plan to "turn the tables" on the war profiteers, demonstrator pounded on the tables and then overturned them, spilling all the cash.

The next leg was to FedEx, which ships arms from Oakland airport.

There is a myth that holding a cross up to a vampire will cause the vampire to shrivel up and die. Not wanting to take the risk of exposure to any religious objects, FedEx locked the gates and had police guard the barbed wire topped entrance to their section of the airport. Also, the demonstrators were told that they could not park cars in front of the gate due to reasons of "aviation safety." Yeah, right.

With Oakland's aviation now protected from the faithful, the protesters held prayers and a powerful rally. They ordered a bus to take those not wishing to walk the additional miles to the airport terminal.

With the price of jet fuel soaring and the fact that most foreigners now hate the US and won't visit, the airport was almost deserted. The sight of rows of automatic check-in screens with no one to check in combined with what seemed like miles of empty airline counters gave perhaps a glimpse of what a fossil free future might look like. All due to Trump the environmentalist!

The pilgrimage held its final march for the day, marching and singing through the check-in area, the central concourse and past the baggage pickup carousels. The police, though numerous. did not interfere.

Back outside, all gathered behind the huge "Stop Arming Israel!" banner for a few more words and the end of a very effective day.

See all high resolution photos here.