Report It: Protest at Northampton City Hall

NORTHAMPTON, Mass. (WWLP) - Video submitted by Kenny Lumpkin of civilians protesting outside Northampton's city hall to draw attention to the ongoing war in Palestine. Video sent to Report It on Sunday, November 18, 2012.

• Photos: Israel, Gaza trade fire

Press Release:

November 17, 2012

CONTACT: Alisa Klein - (413) 561-3744

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Local coalition to hold protest against Israel’s assault on Gaza
 
The Western Massachusetts Coalition for Palestine, together with over 10 additional community and student organizations from the area, will hold a rally and speak-out on the steps of Northampton City Hall on Sunday, November 18th at 12:30 noon. After a 12:00 noon march from Lampron Park, activists and other concerned community members will converge at City Hall to express their outrage over Israel’s attacks on Gaza and call for a stop to U.S. support for Israel’s military actions. The current assault on Gaza has killed over 40 people, including innocent civilians, women and children; numbers injured exceed 350. Israel’s four-year illegal blockade of Gaza means that medical supplies to treat the dying and wounded are in short supply.  The rally is also a response to the US media’s unbalanced reporting on the current assault, which ranges from silence to unconcealed support for the Israeli state.
 
A brutal history is repeating itself. Launched on November 8th, Israel’s current “Operation Pillar of Defense,” mirrors its 23-day 2008 “Operation Cast Lead” massacre of Gaza in which 1,179 Palestinians -- 82 percent civilians -- were killed. The 2009 report of the United Nations Fact Finding Mission on the Gaza Conflict found that in “Operation Cast Lead,” Israel employed a "deliberate policy of disproportionate force," and committed “serious violations of international human rights and humanitarian law.” Israel is perpetrating these same violations in its current incursion into the Gaza Strip. Likened to an open-air prison, Gaza holds 1.7 million Palestinians, two thirds of whom are refugees from past wars, and is considered to be one of the most crowded places on earth. Despite withdrawing its troops from the Gaza Strip in 2005, Israel continues to control Gaza’s airspace and territorial waters.
 
In addition to calling attention to this escalating human rights tragedy, the rally will also express solidarity with the people of Gaza and the right of the Palestinian people to self-determination; call for participation in the international campaign of boycott, divestment, and sanctions against the apartheid state of Israel; and demand an end to U.S. military aid to Israel, expected to total $3.075 billion this fiscal year alone. The Obama administration’s requested amount for Israeli aid in 2013 is the largest foreign assistance request ever in U.S. history.
 
The Western Massachusetts Coalition for Palestine is a group of organizations and community members who have come together to advocate for justice for the people of Palestine in the West Bank and Gaza and in the Arab and global diaspora.