Thousands descend on White House to protest Gaza war
6 hours ago

WASHINGTON (AFP) — Several thousand protesters descended on the White House Saturday in support of Palestinians in war-ravaged Gaza, as other protests took place across Canada and in the Mexican capital.

As many as 10,000 people, according to organizers, gathered from about 1:00 pm (1800 GMT) in Washington's Lafayette Park, across from the White House, chanting "free Palestine" as protest leaders and activists spoke from a podium.

The protests came as Israel vowed to escalate its war in Gaza that has left at least 825 Palestinians dead as troops battled fighters from the Islamist movement Hamas into a third week, in defiance of a United Nations truce call.

"There are many young people. We feel it's one of the most important demonstrations for Palestine ever in the US," said Eugene Puryear, a coordinator of the Washington protest, which was organized by the ANSWER (Act Now to Stop War and End Racism) coalition.

Protesters waived Palestinian flags, wore keffiyeh -- a traditional Palestinian headdress -- and waived signs, some of which read "Stop the Gaza holocaust" and "Free Palestine, let Gaza live."

They then led a march passing in front of the headquarters of The Washington Post newspaper to protest "its hard pro-Israeli line," Puryear said, before heading to the offices of construction equipment giant Caterpillar and military contractor Lockheed Martin.

"I came because there are innocent children dying daily in Palestine. The American people need to know the truth," said 13-year-old Razan Ali, a Palestinian-American who bused in from New York.

A dozen buses filled with protesters came from New Jersey and another seven buses drove in from New York.

Yasmina Farej, a 54-year-old who came from Brooklyn dressed in conservative Muslim garb, said she was motivated to join the protest because of "the war in Gaza; they bomb the innocent children."

Thousands more protested across several Canadian cities, calling for an "immediate ceasefire" and especially targeting conservative Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper for his support of Israel.

In Montreal, some 2,000 pro-Palestinian demonstrators chanted "Israel the assassin" and called for a ceasefire in the impoverished Gaza Strip. Some brandished dolls spattered with red paint that they said represented children killed by the Israeli army.

Several hundred protesters also gathered in front of the US embassy in Mexico City in opposition to what they called the "criminal aggression" in Gaza. Some protesters set shoes ablaze and hurled them against the embassy gates.

Demonstrators against the Israeli offensive also rallied in major cities across Europe, with the largest protests in Paris and London, where largely peaceful demonstrations turned violent as the day wore on.

http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5hHtZbqUhNlFeWc1O22Twb29vZ5_g

Free Palestine

Free America and give us Indians back our lands oh white suppressors!!



Get real.

Oh my God!

what??

ZOMG THE WHITE DEVILS ARE TAKING LANDS AGAIN! DAMN THE WHITE MAN!

it was sarcasm.I mean if we are going to protest land grabs let's start at home.

I was being sarcastic too. Its fun to hate the white devils...oh wait I AM WHITE AHHHHH

I'm half white but i want a casino dammit!!

If you let hot hookers in than i will stay there!

Just liking the thunderous sound of the phrase:-"Thousands descend on White House!"

This will be really nice, if anyone in the white house actually gave a sh!t.

There is no humor in babies being burned. I am not able to protest in Washington but I will be writing my Senators tomorrow. If Obama doesn't do something to stop this terrorism, he is not a fk'n man, just like Bush has to look himself in the mirrow everyday and can only see a bought puppet failure.

Ive been writing mine!

You go girl!

With all my lower than low expectations for Obama, I simply can not stay quiet, and let this to be done to him.

This is simply unfair.

Obama should do "something" to stop the terrorism?

How about doing "something" to stop the cheating, or lies, or aggression?

Those are things that can not be stopped. It is not like a war, that can be stopped. It is simply a method, which can't be stopped.

It is unfair to expect Obama to stop these (unless, of course, he himself promises to do just that.)

i'd write to my senators, but everyone knows they won't care. One has been in the senate for 22 years, and the other only votes on baseball bills. Great. O_O

The biggest cheater and liar we have ever had is Bush and Cheney and they gave the cheating, lying American Jews more control, they orchestrated and fully supported the war on Iraq and bankrupted America. It has been known that American Jews were running the politics of Washington for a long time. They don't care about America all they care about is their own and they need to pack their bags and go live in Israel. Now American's reputation is ruined in the world, our economy is suffering the worst since the Great Depression. I do realize that Obama was left with a big mess. I refer to Israel as terrorist and I pray that the world will do something to stop them soon. It is obvious that Israel wants to destoy Palestine and chose this time to do it.

This crap has been going on for thousands of years. Almost every war in history has been fought over religion. Do you really think it will stop now? As long as you have religion and greedy people, there will be war.

It's the terrorist fault, not the Israelis, that innocent people die.
If terrorist hide (and hide weapons) among the people then they are the ones responsible for civilians death.

They should have thrown shoes