Thursday, January 15 - Day of Conscience to Act Against U.S. role in Supporting the War Crime going on in Gaza

Report from Jan. 15th NYC Day of Conscience:
Act Against U.S. Support of Israeli War Crimes

From the Emergency Town Hall Meeting (see previous emails) a DAY OF CONSCIENCE Against the U.S. support for war crimes was called on two day's notice, of which World Can't Wait was an initiator and one of the organizers. Here is a brief report:

FIRST ACT: Noon In front of U.S. Consulate to the United Nations

70 people turned out, the majority high-school students. This display of youthful defiance was very important and encouraging, and needs to multiply exponentially in the weeks and months to come! During a spirited rally in front of the Consulate, chants included "If you see something/say something/stop the war crimes now!" Some of us brought shoes, pacifie rs, and baby bottles and laid them on the street to symbolize Israel's horrific massacre of children in Gaza.

SECOND ACT: Grand Central Station

We saw a photo of the Samouni family, who had lost 30 members, including 3 infants, when the Israeli's bombed their homes during the assault on Gaza. The funeral procession photo became what we wanted to present to the public. Artists from PriceTagsArt helped design the action, which included dozens of people holding shrouds of infants. Others held signs.

When we arrived, there were dozens of police. The commander told us we could not do the action, because people coming through the terminal were upset about the airplane that had landed that afternoon in the Hudson River. By that time all the passengers had been reported safe, but we knew that people in Gaza were not. We said we were going ahead, as there is the right to freedom of assembly and speech. People going by were mixed; this being New York, some called us names. Others said, thanks for doing this.

After an hour, the police told us we had to finish up. But more people were arriving, including students from Hunter College, and the police backed off and didn't act to stop the protest, others joined back in, chanted some, and the whole thing went on, with more joining in, for two hours.