Link
By Greta Berlin
Over five hundred supporters of Gaza marched across San Francisco’s famous Golden Gate Bridge today, New Year’s Eve. We filled the walkway from San Francisco to Marin County. People in wheel chairs, children, students, and senior citizens lined up single file, taking an hour to walk across the 1.5 miles.Several of us walked with huge letters that said, “FREE GAZA”, then, on cue, we would flip them to say, “FREE PALESTINE.” The bridge was windy and sometimes we had to hang on to each other to make sure the letters didn’t become kites sailing over the edge.
About halfway across, many of us heard a whining sound, sort of like a knat. We looked up and there was a plane with the huge banner on the back that said, ISRAELI SECURITY = FREEDOM = PEACE with a big Israeli flag on it. The pilot circled dozens of times, amusing us since someone spent a great deal of money on the wrong audience. Otherwise there were no counter demonstrations, and the police were helpful. One whispered under his breath, “I can’t say anything, but I’m on your side.”
At the end of the march, a young girl from Gaza read a poem to us. Her eye had been blown out during Cast Lead last year, and Palestine Relief had brought her to stay with a sponsoring family in the Bay area. She eloquently thanked all of us standing there and said the people of Gaza would not forget our support.
As we all turned around to march back across the 1.5 miles, we hoped that 2010 would be a better year, a more peaceful year, a year of hope, and the terrible ‘zero’ decade was, at last, behind us.
If you liked this post, then…
- Share it with others using this button:
- You may click on the little blue comments icon below
each post to comment. - Subscribe to my blog via email or RSS to get “new post” alerts.
- Follow me on Twitter (@eliasfarhud).
River to Sea
Uprooted Palestinian
No comments:
Post a Comment