I joined the Free Gaza demonstration outside the Israeli consulate at 180 Bloor on Saturday.
A couple things stood out to me at the demo:
1. There were lots of young men and women(and I'm talking young men and women of colour! not just white, do-gooder activists!). It was so refreshing to see high-schoolers passionately yelling, "Free, free Palestine!" and "From Gaza to Iraq, occupation is a crime!" It was inspiring and so wonderful to be able to share demonstration space with people in their teens.
2. There were so many kaffiyehs! What was powerful was that most of the people, I'm sure, knew what they signified in the Palestinian struggle for freedom and dignity. It wasn't a parade of fashionable hipsters who simply thought the traditional patterns were "cool."
end.
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2 comments:
cool. i haven't been to a protest for a while. mostly because the last few i've been to haven't filled me with hope, or inspire me, but rather left me feeling like the activist community was more about quoting shit other people said to sound smart (and many more annoying things), it all left a bad taste in my mouth instead of filling me with new passion and all that shit. i'm glad you had a positive experience!
yo teresa,
my partner and i just went to a Free Gaza rally here in guelph this afternooon. we were really struck by the kaffiyehs too. we were thinking about how outrageous and ironic it is that they're worn without any frame of knowledge while all this is going on. but i think we were reminded, like you, that they actually have a LOT of meaning. anyway, we wanted to write about that, so i'm glad you brought it up. there's obviously a lot there to be discussed.
p.s. i like reading your blog. i hope that's all right. hehe.
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