Local Editor

As United States continue giving billions of dollars to "Israel" in military aid every year, money which has been used to kill at least 6,439 Palestinians (1,328 children) since 2000, hundreds of protesters from Occupy AIPAC protested outside AIPAC's annual policy conference in Washington DC.

During speeches by US President Barack Obama and "Israeli" President Shimon Peres, the group spelled out "NO WAR ON IRAN" in giant letters and set up mock checkpoints and an "Annexation Wall."
"Last year we galvanized the Palestine crowd but no one else seemed very interested," says 24-year-old student Sasha Gelzin, one of the coordinators of Occupy AIPAC.
 
"This year you've had the Arab uprisings and Occupy, you've had the thousands of activists making connections between domestic policy and foreign policy," she added.
Though having adopted the "Occupy" title, the group was the brainchild of Code Pink, Women for Peace, and other peace, faith, and solidarity groups.
 Activist and author Chris Hedges spoke outside the AIPAC conference.
"The battle for justice in the Middle East is our battle," said Hedges to the crowd, adding that "the struggle for justice is part of the global battle against the one percent."
Considering that "what is being done in Gaza, the world's largest open-air prison, is a pale reflection of what is slowly happening to the rest of us," Hedges confirmed that "those in Washington who advocate attacking Iran, knowing as little about the limitations and chaos of war as they do about the Middle East, believe they can cripple nuclear production and neutralize the 850,000-man Iranian army."

"They should look closely at the 2006 "Israeli" air campaign in southern Lebanon, which saw Hizbullah victorious and united most Lebanese behind the militant Islamic group," Hodges affirmed wondering:
"If the massive "Israeli" bombing of Lebanon failed to pacify 4 million Lebanese, how can we expect to pacify a country of 70 million people?"

While Chris Hedges and company protested outside AIPAC, one young activist decided to take her message inside the conference. Liza Behrendt, 22, from Young, Jewish, and Proud (the youth wing of Jewish Voices for Peace) stood up during the conference in a breakout session called "The Struggle to Secure Israel on Campus" to call attention to the silencing of Palestinians.




Source: News Agencies, Edited by moqawama.org