Children’s Suffering in GAZA Memorialized on Black Friday

SAN FRANCISCO (11-29) – As Black Friday descended on San Francisco today and Christmas shoppers invaded downtown stores for the beginning of the holiday shopping season, a group of human rights and anti-war activists from RACCOON (Radical Anti-Capitalist Collective of Outrageous Noise) and CODEPINK demonstrated to mourn the continuing deaths and suffering of the children of Gaza in Israel’s war. On this International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People, similar demonstrations took place in other cities around the globe.

CODEPINK organizer Cynthia Papermaster said, “This gathering is to mark this day and express our deep sorrow and anger that the genocide in Gaza is continuing despite the majority of people in the U.S. wanting it to stop and wanting the U.S. to stop sending weapons that are killing innocent children.”

Today’s demonstration took place in front of the building housing the Israeli Consulate where activists created several memorials dedicated to the memory of children killed in Israel’s war during the past 13 months. One memorial contained 17 pairs of children’s shoes with each pair representing 500 children of the more than an estimated 16,750 killed thus far. Behind the shoe display, blocking the entry to the building were the names and ages of some of the children killed, written on white cloth ribbons placed over a blood red banner supported by a barricade.

The banners were accompanied by signs reminding passersby that the children’s deaths were paid for with U.S. tax dollars, and horrifically that one child is killed in Gaza every ten minutes.

Activists also called for the U.S. to “enable aid to enter Gaza, enact an arms embargo on Israel, and restore funding to UNRWA.”

Sidewalk chalk art called for an end to the war, for the sanctioning of Israel, and an end to arms transfers along with the occupation. Speakers called for Netanyahu’s arrest as a war criminal based on the warrant recently issued by the International Criminal Court (ICC). Activists also called for peace in the region for all people.

Speaking to the crowd, Steve Zeltzer, a union labor news and radio journalist, remarked on how the AFL-CIO and national unions around the world have been opposed to a boycott on shipping arms to Israel. This, even though longshoremen at many ports have refused to load arms destined to be used in the war on Gaza.

One speaker, Leslie Angeline, who was in her 11th day of a solidarity hunger strike, spoke of her distress regarding the killings, destruction and starvation inflicted by Israel against the residents in Gaza. Angeline joined the hunger strike started on November 1st by the Free Youth Movement in Amman, Jordan, that has now gained global momentum with members of Veterans for Peace in Washington, DC, Doctors Against Genocide in New York and one woman who has been present outside of the White House.

Angeline welcomed the arrest warrant by the ICC of Netanyahu and former Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant and said that a warrant should be issued for Biden and Secretary of State Antony Blinken for their part in the ongoing genocide.

Accompanying the action, activists from RACCOON created lots of loud noise that echoed through the canyons of the Financial District bringing attention to the memorial while cars passing by used their horns to support and encourage those assembled.

Report and photos by Phil Pasquini

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