For nearly every day of the last week, San Francisco has seen street protests about the fighting in Gaza between Israel and Hamas. Hundreds of Palestinians, as well as left-wing activists organized by ANSWER, have marched and chanted in and around downtown San Francisco starting on December 30, and continuing (with a break on New Year’s Day) every day since, with no end in sight.
I have been unable to attend and document these protests in person, but KTVU Channel 2 filmed the protest on January 2, 2009 and made some of the raw video available on its site. Because the KTVU video page does not display or load properly on many computers, I have downloaded the raw video and, after editing out a section at the beginning where not much happens, uploaded it to YouTube so more people can get a flavor of what these protests are like.
Here is the YouTube version of the KTVU video of the January 2 protest:
Note in particular the moment at the 0.22 mark in the video when the Palestinian protesters reach across the barricades to attack the five pro-Israel protesters, and have to be restrained by police. At the end, one of the pro-Israel protesters, who were vastly outnumbered, declined to be interviewed by the cameraman, saying, “I’m a little spooked.” After watching this video, I think we’re all a little spooked! It’s as if the battle in Gaza has come to San Francisco.
If you want to watch the full five-minute video, you can see it either here on the KTVU site, or (if that doesn’t work) here directly on its own page (which may display more easily for most users).
This full KTVU video shows how, after this incident, the police were forced to escort the pro-Israel protesters inside a building — to keep them safe from the Palestinian protesters, who could not be controlled.
(Thanks to Joo-Liz and Eclectic Infidel for technical help with this video.)
Meanwhile, at an earlier San Francisco Gaza protest on December 30, the Palestinian protesters (according to this post at the “At the Back of the Hill” blog) chanted the following slogans in Arabic:
“Itbach al Yahud” (slaughter the Jews)
“Falastin balad’na w’al Yahud qalab’na” (Palestine is our land and the Jews are our dogs)
“ba ruh, ba dam, nafdeek ya Falastin” (with our soul, with our blood, we will cleanse you oh Palestine),
“al mawt al Yahud” (death to the Jews),
“Khaybar Khaybar ya Yahud, jaish-Muhammad saya’ud” (Khaybar Khaybar oh Jews, the army of Muhammad will return).
At the Back of the Hill noted,
While the Arabs screamed their desire to exterminate Jews, the English-monolingualists simply stood there happily smiling their approbation.
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