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By Bruce S. Ticker
June 23, 2004
Jews were kicked out of Spain, murdered in Germany, turned back from Cuba and even America and under siege in Israel for 56 years. Now where are Jews under siege? Try San Francisco.
Huh? San Francisco elected a Jewish mayor who went on to become one of California's two senators. This beautiful town has a thriving Jewish community.
San Francisco's Jewish community could not escape anti-Semitic hounding when they gathered at SBC Park, the city's new baseball stadium, to hold a festival on June 6 observing Israel's 56th anniversary.
As a loyal attendee of New York City's annual Salute to Israel parade, I deeply resent these pro-Arab demonstrations at annual Israeli celebrations. Their very presence sends this message: They want Israel destroyed.
Those attendees who happened to look upwards at one point would have spotted a small airplane which circled the stadium, trailing a banner reading "56 years of ethnic cleansing," according to The Jewish News Weekly of Northern California.
The newspaper also reported that hundreds of protesters gathered in Willie Mays Plaza - the entrance to the stadium - shouting slogans such as "Down, down Israel, long live Palestine" and "Long live intifada" through megaphones. Palestinian flags were displayed and large banners were held up calling for an end to Israeli apartheid, oppression and ethnic cleansing.
Shlomi Ravid, executive director of the Israel Center, one of the festival's sponsoring groups, characterized this scene perfectly. Those protesters "didn't come to seek peace, but came to get in the community's face," he said.
There was nothing subtle about the San Francisco protesters, but even if they were more subdued their very presence would speak volumes of the most base motive in this conflict.
Certainly, they have every right to demonstrate wherever they please and I suppose they even have the right to occupy air space directly above the stadium.
However, when they protest these annual Israeli celebrations they are not objecting to the Israeli government's policies but the very existence of Israel.
After all, what is the point of these festivals? The local Jewish community is celebrating the existence, survival and prosperity of the Jewish state. These events are in no way, or at least should not be, held to support the specific policies of any Israeli government whether left, right or center.
If they object to Israeli policies, the advocates for the Arabs should protest in front of the office of the local Israeli consulate or that of any organization which publicly supports said policies. They could also demonstrate in front of the Federal Building or the offices of members of Congress if they believe the federal government favors Israel.
New York's protest on May 23 was limited to one block with a minimal number of demonstrators, some of them Jewish. In Philadelphia in 2001, a Muslim protester told a reporter that Israel had stolen Arab land. He did not explain what that meant.
They may think they are advocating the Palestinian cause, if there is such an animal, but what they are doing is telling the local Jewish community that they oppose Israel's right to exist.
In the case of San Francisco, the very intensity of the protest makes clear that those jerks want Israel destroyed. Down with Israel? What else can be made of that? Accusing Israel of ethnic cleansing? How do they characterize the genocide bombings?
Incidentally, that airplane should have been prevented from flying over the stadium. That's for security purposes, not to restrict freedom of speech. The stadium is a fat target. It would have been a unique opportunity to drop an explosive device on the festival or crash a plane into it.
Again, the demonstrators have freedom of speech, but their hounding of San Francisco's Jewish community amounted to nothing less than collective harassment.
Views expressed by the author do not
necessarily reflect those of israelinsider.
 
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