Portland, Maine International Wave Of Solidarity With Palestine #SolidarityWaveBDS

On October 23 during my lunch hour I found an old friend newly arrived in windy Portland, Maine. The nicest things can happen when you stand for justice in Palestine, where not nice things are happening every day. One of the posters not visible in these photos: 

Palestinian Children Killed by Israel Since 2000: 

Age 0-8, 549; Age 9-12, 512; Age 13-15, 350

In a week when PM Netanyahu drew international scorn for his claim that the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem gave Hitler the idea for the Holocaust, it was good to be with some sane people for a while.



What can you do to object to taxpayers in your area sending big bucks to fund violence and other human rights abuses in Palestine? Find out here on the U.S. Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation website. (I was going to link directly to the aidtoisrael.org informational site but, alas, it has been hacked. It's a sign of doing something right when you draw the attention of Israel's cyberbullies.)

There was a small counter protest by four young men with a sign, visible on the right. Their message "Peace and L ♥ Support Israel" with drawings of six stars of David and the Israeli flag. 



It is my fervent that Israel and its peaceful supporters can turn back from the path of violent occupation that may be leading to a third intifada. 

But overnight came this news reported by Alison Deger on Mondoweiss:

Peace activist Rabbi Arik Ascherman attacked by knife-wielding settler in West Bank A masked Israeli settler attacked an Israeli-American rabbi and co-founder of the group Rabbis for Human Rights, taking a knife to the religious leader and peace activist’s neck, this afternoon following an annual olive harvest in the West Bank village of Awarta outside of Nablus.