[News] Citizens arrest, disruption of Olmert in San Francisco

[Anti-Imperialist News]

VIDEO: Citizens arrest, disruption of Olmert in San Francisco

Press release, Northern California Palestine justice groups, 23 October 2009
http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article10851.shtml

Video  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=491GOKwrN1s&feature=player_embedded

Twenty-two activists were arrested at Israeli Prime Minister Ehud 
Olmert's speech to the World Affairs Council on 22 October between 
6:30 and 7:30pm at the Westin St. Francis Hotel at Union Square in 
San Francisco. Inside the auditorium, activists began disrupting the 
event by placing Olmert under citizens arrest. Every couple of 
minutes, more activists disrupted his speech, barely allowing him to 
speak, by reading the names of the children killed in Gaza last 
winter, reading from the recently published Goldstone report and 
displaying banners that read "Lift the Siege on Gaza" and "War Crimes 
are Not Free Expression!" Activists were removed from the auditorium 
chanting "war criminal!" and taken to the Tenderloin Police Station 
where they are being held for citation. Ten additional persons 
participated in the action but were not arrested.

Olmert ordered Israel's brutal attacks on Gaza beginning in late 
December 2008, code-named Operation Cast Lead. Last week, the UN 
Human Rights Council passed a resolution endorsing the Goldstone 
report, an independent investigation into the Gaza operation, which 
found that Israel violated international law and possibly committed 
crimes against humanity.

"Israel is an apartheid state guilty of war crimes and its leaders 
should not be welcome in San Francisco," said Lisa Nessan, a Jewish 
resident of Oakland, who has traveled several times to Israel and 
Palestine, most recently in May. "For the past 60 years, under 
leadership like Olmert's, Israel has denied Palestinians their basic 
human rights, built settlements on their lands, and killed civilians 
-- all to force them from their homeland."

A lively protest also gathered across from the hotel in Union Square, 
where about 150 persons carried signs bearing the names and pictures 
of children killed during Operation Cast Lead. Olmert is making 
several appearances in the US this month, and has been met with 
strong protests at locations including the University of Chicago and 
Tulane University in New Orleans. "We join with people around the 
world who believe that Israel and its leaders must be held 
accountable for their actions. Israel killed 1,400 people during its 
attacks on Gaza last winter alone, and many more have died or 
suffered from the effects of siege, occupation, and apartheid on 
their daily lives," said Monadel Herzallah, a Palestinian activist 
who lives in Fairfield and whose 21-year-old cousin was killed in 
Gaza in January.

Organizers also expressed outrage that US President Barack Obama has 
ignored the findings of the Goldstone report. The US has pledged more 
than $3 billion each year in unrestricted aid to Israel. "Israel's 
use of US aid and military equipment violates our own laws," said Rae 
Abileah, an organizer with CODEPINK whose father is Israeli. "Why are 
we giving aid to a country that is destroying people's homes and 
attacking civilians, while our own nation is struggling with 
unemployment and underfunded social services?"

Eduardo Cohen of San Francisco sums up the sentiment: "The war crimes 
in the Goldstone Report are not an exception, but a reminder that 
Israel's apartheid law is itself criminal. We must not only hold 
Olmert accountable, but all of Israel's leaders, our own elected 
officials, and other companies and individuals that profit from these 
crimes. Only then can true justice be reached."

The protest was sponsored by: Arab Resource & Organizing Center 
(AROC), Bay Area Campaign to End Israeli Apartheid (BACEIA), CODEPINK 
Women for Peace, Friends of Deiribzi'a, Northern California 
International Solidarity Movement, Middle East Children's Alliance 
(MECA), South Bay Mobilization, Stop AIPAC, CAL Students for Justice 
in Palestine, US Palestine Communities Network (USPCN), Bay Area 
Women in Black.

Video produced by The Electronic Intifada.



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415 863-9977

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