I decided to take a walk down to the weekly protest in Sheikh Jarrah, at a small park on Dalman St., not far from the American Colony Hotel to see for myself the “resistance” against – as the protest website puts it – “settler take-over of their homes, and the ongoing struggle against settlements, racism, oppression and injustice. “
The first thing I noticed about the crowd (of maybe 150) was that though the demonstrators seemed to be somewhat equally split between Jews and Arabs, and Palestinian flags were ubiquitous, there was a noticeable absence of Israeli flags, which contrasts with the undeniable proud Zionism of most of the Israeli activist left represented by groups such as Peace Now and Meretz. Also, the only Kippah wearing Jew I saw was Rabbi Arik Ascherman of the NGO, Rabbis for Human Rights.
To get a sense of the sentiments of the crowd, here are the photos I took today.
Israeli “Apartheide”
My guess is that the woman seen below, as with the Guardian’s Harriet Sherwood, can’t be bothered with dry Israeli population statistics demonstrating a continuing increase in the percentage (and total numbers) of Arabs and Muslims in Jerusalem since ’67.
The woman holding this sign no doubt has read Mya Guarnieri.
Subtelty is not one of the anti-Zionist crowd’s strengths.
One of the four or five counter-protesters.