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Jan

12

Cleveland rallies for solidarity with Israel


Image from the Plain Dealer

From a comment left by a reader:

BTW, I just returned from that rally. It was a very civil demonstration, mostly calling for peace for all. There were christian clergy and several rabbis who prayed together with everyone for peace.

In contrast, there was a counter demonstration and they were screaming “death to the Jews”, “death to Israel”, waving swastika’s etc. Such a shame…

From the PD’s blog post on the rally:

A Solidarity With Israel rally drew about 600 people to downtown Cleveland at noon. Participants cheered speakers who condemned terrorism and argued in favor of Israel’s right to defend itself against terrorist attacks.

A hastily arranged counter-demonstration mustered about 75 people. Some participants in this effort marched around the square carrying black boxes — symbolizing coffins for the hundreds of Palestinians killed in the 17-day war in the Middle East — and accused Israel of murder.

The two groups came close enough to exchange shouts, but police kept them apart. The demonstrations ended peacefully about 1:15 p.m.

I did not attend the rally but hope to speak to people later this evening who did.

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By Jill Miller Zimon at 2:42 pm January 12th, 2009 in Cleveland+, Gaza, Israel, activism 

Comments

2 Responses to “Cleveland rallies for solidarity with Israel”

  1. 1 Avrohom Adler on January 12th, 2009 3:47 pm

    People there told me that there were between 1000 and 1500

  2. 2 Max on January 12th, 2009 7:14 pm

    There were well over 1000 people there, and it was very peaceful. The speakers acknowledged the tragic loss of life from both sides, and our hope that Hamas can change its aspirations to wipe Israel from the map and accept a two state solution. Sad that the protesters on the outside are not willing or open to consider what they would do if subjected to random hourly rocket attacks by Hamas.

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