Flotilla Protest in Images

[ajnabieh]

Freedom Flotilla protest in Times Square, New York, 31 May 2010. The CNN electronic billboard reads "9 dead as Israeli forces storm Gaza aid convoy." The activist sign in front reads "Arrest Netanyahu for Piracy and Murder."

I'm certain by now everyone's heard about the Israeli Defense Forces boarding the ships of the Free Gaza Flotilla, killing at least nine, and as many as nineteen, of the activists bringing humanitarian aid to Gaza, as well as the diplomatic and political aftermath that's ongoing. It'll be a while before observers (like me and my ilk in the discipline of political science) have a real idea of what the political effects of this incident are going to be. But from my perspective as someone engaged in ongoing research on Palestine activism in New York, this is a time where things are in flux for these movements, and when politics could change for the better or worse.

I was shocked when I woke up Monday morning to a long stretch of emails and Facebook updates about the boarding and deaths. It wasn't that I didn't expect the IDF to stop the flotilla; it was that I didn't expect there to be violence of this magnitude. In particular, what's shocking about this raid is that it is internationals, and not Palestinians, who were killed; the reaction to these 20 deaths looks like the reaction to the Gaza bombardment, which killed over a thousand Palestinians and injured more. (There are shades here of Rachel Corrie's death, made more apparent by the fact that one of the boats in the Flotilla is named after her.) The different political value of different lives is never more apparent than at moments like this, no matter that the human value might be identical.

When I woke up Monday, New York's activist community was already mobilizing to organize an immediate response. A pro-flotilla demonstration had been planned for Tuesday afternoon, no matter what, but the issue was too urgent, and another was scheduled for Monday afternoon. Because this was a holiday in the US, people were able to attend an afternoon event. Because of the short notice, a parade permit couldn't be gotten; therefore, this was a 'sidewalk protest,' meaning that protesters had to stay on sidewalks, and could not obstruct the flow of traffic. Sidewalk protests are easier to run, because they don't require advanced police approval; however, they do run the slight risk of arrest for obstructing traffic or, really, annoying the police at all. But nothing of that type happened at this demo. Mostly, there was standing around with signs, passing out flyers (including this cartoon by Adalah-NY member Ethan Heitner) to passersby, and then a march to the Israeli Consulate.

I attended the protest in Times Square, along with at least eight hundred other people (the highest estimate I heard was 1200). This was a mass rally, drawing from all the diverse constituencies that make up the pro-Palestine, anti-occupation, anti-war and social justice movements in New York. In particular, it drew from both sides of the divide between borough-dwelling Arab immigrants, who tend to mobilize in mass organizations with explicitly Arab and/or Muslim identity politics, particularly in the organization Al-Awda, whose protests and events I've been attending for my research, and the more ideological Arab, Jewish, and other American activists, who organize in smaller social justice groups, such as Adalah-NY, the group where I've done the majority of my fieldwork. At moments of crisis like these, all members of these communities show up. However, as the week is progressing, different groups are diverging and starting to plan individual actions; it's only at the first moment of crisis that the pan-group unity can occur.

As always, I took my camera to the demonstration. Normally, most of my research photos are crap: I take them to judge the size of the crowd, and to record slogans on photographs, or remind me of important moments I want to document later. But this time, I managed to get some that strike me as worth sharing. So below, under the cuts, I'm going to do some analysis of the demo, and of some images I took there. Warning: photo-heavy.




Members of Neturei Karta, an Orthodox anti-Zionist organization, are photographed by attenders and passersby


Stephen Colbert made a very smart joke in the wake of the recent Times Square bombing attempt: that whoever did it couldn't have hated New York, because the bomb was planted in the one single location in the city that contains no New Yorkers. It's funny because it's true. I hate Times Square; I hate the entirety of 42nd Street, actually. It's crowded and loud and impossible to walk and just--just awful. Oh god, and the lights. Ugh. I avoid it when at all possible.



The Palestinian flag flies in front of the billboard for Disney's Prince of Persia, starring Jake Gyllenhall.


The only time I can't avoid it is...when there are protests there. Times Square is a convenient location to get to; for pro-Palestine protests, it's also reasonably near the Israeli consulate (42nd and 2nd Ave), but far enough away that you feel like you marched somewhere. However, I've never liked protesting there, because Times Square is such a spectacle, and I feel as if I'm part of the spectacle when I'm there protesting. Rather than being an intervention into the political life of the city, I feel like a tourist attraction. And I'm not sure tourist attractions are politically relevant.



The Al-Awda sign, next to a neon McDonald's logo.






Deeply apparent in the messaging for this protest was the fact that it was a coalition protest; that is, that multiple different groups came together to hold it. There were three classes of written signs in evidence. The smallest number were homemade signs, which participants brought. But most of the signs fell into the next two categories.





The first were black signs with white lettering, two-sided, handheld. These signs are visually identical to those used by a coalition of groups protesting the Friends of the IDF dinner in March. They are also similar to those used at the Gaza Freedom March demonstrations in December. This common visual language ties together those groups I described as the smaller, more ethnically diverse social justice groups that mobilize for Palestine: groups like Jewish Voice for Peace, Jews Against the Occupation, Adalah-NY, Palestine Education Project, and others.




The second were, for lack of a better word, signs on sticks, like the ones in these photos and in the photos above. They came from two specific organizations that I saw--Al-Awda and the International Socialist Movement. I've talked about Al-Awda signs before, and these don't deviate much from that pattern. I do find the trilinguality of the ISM sign interesting--English, Arabic, and I'm guessing Urdu (would love confirmation of that if anyone reads it). I'd argue, though, that rather than representing the membership of the group, it represents an outreach effort.

As I said above, this was a protest that was an amalgamation of different groups. I'm already seeing differentiation in later protests in the emails in my inbox. But for early days for a protest, there's a necessary cacophany of voices that can be difficult to overcome.







As I got dressed Monday for the protest, my clothing choices were determined by two factors: that it was a million degrees (something like 85F), and that I was going to Manhattan, and therefore didn't want to look like a schlub. I wore khaki shorts and a blue knit tank-top, and looked just fine.

However, it struck me while I was there that I wasn't really dressed for a protest. Most of the people around me were wearing clothes that weren't just functional (for weather and general location) or generally-significant (of social group, ethnicity, or religion) but had political meaning. These fell into a number of categories. First, there's the political t-shirt: "We will not be silent" was quite common, as were shirts that were explicitly about Palestine: "Salaam/Shalom/Peace," "Falasteen," "Free Palestine," "I (heart) Gaza," and others. (I don't have many good shots of these, because I generally didn't take good photos of the front of people.)



Demonstrators in Free Palestine t-shirts and kuffiyehs

The other option were Palestinian nationalist symbols, in particular the kuffiyeh and the Palestinian flag. I've noticed a trend of Palestinian flags worn as capes by young activists ; I think it's amusing.


Kuffiyehs, flag-capes, and Palestine t-shirts.

All this got me thinking about what it means to dress appropriately for an event. Wearing these signs indicate clearly that the person who is there is in support, is a member of the community. I've been to demonstrations where people are passing out kuffiyehs or wristbands saying Palestine--there's an offer inherent in that, to make yourself part of the group. Wear our signs, become one of us.





After milling around Times Square and for an hour and a half, we began slowly marching, on the sidewalk, with police protection, to the Israeli Consulate. I didn't make it all the way there, but I did witness something interesting along the way. As we marched down 42nd Street, three teenage boys began chanting something in Arabic; I couldn't follow it, but the first line ended with "ya al-yahud," Oh Jews, and I'm guessing from context the rest of the chant wasn't something like "make clear the Zionist state does not act in your name" or "rise up in the name of justice to support your Palestinian brethren." (I mean, it's possible.) As the chant began, a few of the people around me perked up and began to look worried. (Two little Arab girls behind me, who had been leading chants, began to follow them, but their parents shushed them.) Three women, in jilbabs with Palestinian embroidery and hijab, were walking behind the teenage boys. One of them, looking annoyed, began tapping the boys on the shoulder with her water bottle. They didn't turn around or acknowledge her. She exchanged looks with her friends around her. Then they began chanting, louder than the boys, "Free, free Palestine." Those around her, Anglophone and Arabic-speaking, all joined in, and drowned out the boys' chant.

Demonstrations really do have a life of their own.





The central sign reads: "This Is News."

There was a protest on Tuesday I wasn't able to go to. There are others scheduled for this week, though I'm not sure how many I'll be able to get to. It's a bit odd to be a researcher at a time like this, thinking about a big picture that isn't on the table for most participants. But there's this feeling you get when you realize you've stumbled into a data goldmine, and I'm getting it right now.

More photos (really!) at my flickr set.