I didn't know this was happening here.


Hundreds in Mich., NYC protest strikes on Gaza


By BEN LEUBSDORF, Associated Press Writer Ben Leubsdorf, Associated Press Writer – Tue Dec 30, 11:11 pm ET

DEARBORN, Mich. – Close to 1,000 Arab-Americans and others marched through the Detroit suburb of Dearborn on Tuesday evening, waving Palestinian flags and shouting slogans to protest Israeli military strikes against the Gaza Strip.

Protesters braving 30-degree weather filled eight blocks of a major thoroughfare in Dearborn, widely seen as the heart of Arab America. Hundreds more gathered in New York City and Los Angeles outside the Israeli consulate, with rallies also reported in two cities in Florida.

Since Saturday, 374 Palestinians have died in the Israeli air onslaught against Gaza's Islamic Hamas rulers. Most of the dead were members of Hamas security forces but the United Nations says at least 64 civilians have been killed.

The offensive came shortly after a rocky six-month truce expired. Hamas has fired hundreds of rockets and mortars at Israel before and during the Israeli offensive.

Marchers in Dearborn waved flags and carried signs condemning Israel and showing pictures of casualties of the fighting. One group of protesters carried a mock coffin decorated with pictures of dead and injured children and labeled "U.S. Tax Dollars at Work" and "Victims of Zionism."

Some marchers chanted in English, "Gaza, Gaza don't cry, Palestine will never die" and "Israel is a terrorist state."

Others chanted, in Arabic, "God is Great" and "a martyr is beloved of God."

One protester carried a sign saying "Dearborn, take your shoes off!" a reference to the action of an Iraqi protester who threw shoes at President George W. Bush during his recent visit to Iraq.

Southeastern Michigan is home to around 300,000 people with roots in the Arab world, the result of more than a century of immigration.

About 50 people gathered Tuesday on the University of Michigan-Flint campus to protest the Israeli attacks, The Flint Journal reported.

The Tampa Tribune reported that University of South Florida sophomore Jehad Saleh, 19, started a group on social networking site Facebook on Sunday, encouraging Palestinian supporters to gather for the protest.

Demonstrators lined a Tampa highway Tuesday, waving Palestinian and American flags and yelling through megaphones.

"I've had cousins in the Gaza Strip who died," Saleh told the newspaper. "If their voice can't be heard, mine will."

Further south in Fort Lauderdale, at least 200 pro-Palestinian demonstrators and a smaller group of pro-Israel protesters lobbed charges at each other Tuesday evening at an intersection, according to the Miami Herald.

Palestinian supporters yelled: "You kill our children!"

"No! You kill your own children!" Israel supporters responded.

Outside the Israeli consulates in Manhattan and Los Angeles, protesters Tuesday waved Palestinian flags and chanted "Free Palestine."

New York demonstrator Dalia Mahmoud said she was "shocked" at Israel's actions and that it was "punishing an entire population for the actions of a few."

Police barricades separated the protesters from a smaller pro-Israel rally across the street, where one demonstrator carried a sign reading "Israel must defend itself."

A few miles south at City Hall, Israeli Consul General Asaf Shariv met with Mayor Michael Bloomberg, displaying for reporters an exploded rocket that killed an Israeli woman out for a walk.

"We are obligated to defend our people, and that is what we are doing," Shariv said.

Bloomberg voiced his support.

"I can only think what would happen in this country if somebody was lobbing missiles onto our shores or across the border," he said.

On Wilshire Boulevard in Los Angeles on Tuesday evening, one pro-Israel sign read, "Hamas, stop using children as human shields." A Palestinian supporter's sign declared, "End the siege, end the bloodshed."

The Dearborn protest was organized by the Congress of Arab American Organizations. Group spokesman Osama Siblani, who is also publisher of the Arab American News, said it was the first in a series of actions being planned in response to the Gaza fighting, including a candlelight vigil for peace and a petition calling for a cease-fire.

"There is disappointment and anger in our community and we need to express it toward the current U.S. administration that has given a blank check to the Israelis," Siblani said.

A memorial service for victims of the fighting scheduled for Tuesday was delayed because the reception hall could not fit all the protesters.

I've been hearing about it on the news

Did you hear about this one Winx?

http://news.infoshop.org/article.php?story=20081221232833457

Dearborn is the Muslim capital of America.Hardly a surprise they are protesting.During 9/11 they were throwing parties right and left.

Go Isreal!Bomb em back to the stone age!

No, I didn't. Were they mostly walking and handing out flyers?

It sounds like that to me. If so, why did the police have to start up like that?

My child's home on break. I'm getting out of the loop now.

No idea. Just remembered seeing it on the news a while ago.

Funny that they called it a yuppie area. Do you see it that way? I always thought of it as a place that had all kinds of people.

I think with Wash U right there it should stay pretty diverse but I wouldnt be all that surprised if it did turn in to more of a yuppie sector. I dont really care either way as long as they have The Pageant, Big Shark, and most of the bars and eateries lol.

Naww...not yuppie. It's more diverse to me. The shops are that way too.

I haven't been to the Big Shark.

The owner of the Pageant gave my dad a comic book of the Archies and my dad gave it to me. The owner of the Pageant is in it and it shows pics of the Loop too. Archie and friends are driving thru it.

Ha! Thats awesome!

I have that with my Corky the Clown stuff.

Yum...I just ate some banana bread.

So you got a bunch of idiots saying "F*** the police!"Passing out flyers encouraging rioting and killing police and a bank window getting smashed(of course somehow it got smashed...wonder how that happened).And you are upset that the police arrested someone?As someone who saw the start and the end of Seattle infamous WTC riots(one of the biggest in American history)I can tell you that the riot started exactly the way these idiots were planning.Get a bunch of stupid people,yell f*** the police,and start trashing the neighborhood.Come on get real.These people were trying to start a riot.You wouldn't be too happy if people were throwing bricks through your business window.

If I was the police I wouldn't only be arresting them I would be taking them behind a building and kicking them in the head several times.

Ummm....who said that they were upset that the police arrested someone?

Where does it say that people were throwing bricks through windows?

Wow, you would to like to kick people in the head several times.

You have such Christian love in your heart.

Noooo my bread!

I like your teeth.

Yum.

Tomorrow I'll have the Boston Brown Bread (raisin bread).

Did you see anything in the article about people throwing bricks through windows?

from the article...


It all happened within 20 minutes, and somehow a bank window a few blocks down was busted before the night was over

Sooo window got busted turned into people throwing bricks through windows. Interesting.