Two speakers who spoke Saturday, Feb. 24, at the pro-Palestine rally were from Students for Justice in Palestine-CSULB and the Palestinian Youth Movement.
Feb. 24, Bixby Park; Photo by Barry Saks.
The CSULB student representing SJP, said, “I’m here today standing in solidarity with Palestinians that are being displaced and murdered as we speak. Days keep passing by and the biggest powers in the world continue to choose to stay silent. Suppression of student activism on colleges around the country is a huge problem. CSULB is one of those institutions who is responsible for the suppression….Cal State Long Beach chooses not to recognize the ongoing genocide and criminalizes its students for being pro-Palestine…Just because it is not happening in your backyard does not give you the right not to care.”
Feb. 24, Bixby Park; Photo by Barry Saks.
The PYM speaker, who is a 16-year-old Palestinian-American, said, “When my father was a child, his family was forcibly removed from the West Bank and then fled to Kuwait….What is happening in Gaza is not a new problem. It has been 75 years of occupation, …75 years of ethnic cleansing, 75 years of international inaction, 75 years of dehumanization,…and 75 years of longing for freedom, justice and liberty.”
About three hundred people marched from Bixby Park to the Long Beach City Hall and back to the park, on Saturday, February 24, to protest the Israeli invasion of Gaza and to call for a ceasefire.
Before marching at Bixby Park, February 24; Photo by Barry Saks.
One protester, a veteran of the U.S. Army was Juan. Juan, 51, took public transportation, wearing his black-and-white keffiyeh, from Los Angeles to the park. On the bus to Bixby Park, he said, “I support Palestine. It’s not right what Israel is doing. No one has the right to steal someone else’s land.” He added he thought Zionism is a racist ideology.
February 24, boy with his sign, before the march; Photo by Barry Saks.
Another protester was Mallory, 27. She said she thought the demonstrations were raising awareness. She added she was also there to make friends and help build community.
At the park, the protesters heard speakers from the local Palestine solidarity movement.
About 40 people protested outside Long Beach World Trade Center on Friday, Jan.12; Photo by Barry Saks.
About 40 people, outside the Long Beach World Trade Center (1 World Trade Center), on Ocean Blvd., east of North Golden Ave.,on Friday, Jan. 12, protested the U.S. and British airstrikes against the Houthis in Yemen.
While on the sidewalk, they chanted using call-and-response. They chanted: Hands off Yemen; Resistance is justified when people are occupied; Israel, Israel, we charge you with genocide; Israel bombs, USA pays, How many kids have you killed today?; Free, Free Palestine.
Photo by Barry Saks.
Many of the protesters wore a keffiyeh, a head scarf signifying Palestinian resistance, while some carried Palestinian flags or their signs.
Hundreds of people protested, rallied and marched on Thursday, Nov. 9, in Long Beach on the south end of Bixby Park (Annex) in solidarity with Palestinians and called for a a cease-fire in Gaza.
Tanya, 30, a student at Long Beach City College Long Beach and Tanya’s friend Farah called and organized the protest.
Farah said the demonstration was organized in five days with help from Orange County, Voices for Palestine and the CORE (Communities Organized for Revolutionary Equality) movement.
Tanya thanked the protesters for showing up, “showing community and for showing solidarity” and said,”Safety is our number one priority here. Like I already said, we are not interacting with counter protesters. We are not giving our attention to counter protesters. We are here for peace. We are here for the people of Palestine. We are here for solidarity and that is it.”
Tanya introduced Josh and characterized him, as a “strong Filipino voice of solidarity.” Two other speakers were Ted, who said he was from the Long Beach Chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America and Jewish Voice for Peace, and Anthony, who said he was from “the CORE movement and in coalition with SoCal Uprising..”
In the park, the protesters carried signs and chanted. Some of the call-and-response chants were: Palestine will be free; Long live Palestine; Biden Biden you can’t hide we charge you with genocide; Ha ha, ho ho the occupation has got to go; What do we want? Ceasefires! When do we want it? hn Now; Gaza, Gaza, don’t you cry Palestine will never die; Intifada, intifada (from Arabic, meaning shivering or shaking off, refers to 1987-93 uprising against the Israeli occupation).
About 200 people, supporters of Palestinian rights, mostly of college age, on Saturday, April 8, gathered outside the Consulate General of Israel, at 11766 Wilshire Blvd., Los Angeles, and marched to the Los Angeles Federal Building, at 11000 Wilshire Blvd., a distance of about 1.1 miles and then back to the consulate to protest the most recent attacks on worshipers by Israeli police in the Al Aqsa Mosque.
About 200 supporters, Saturday, April 8, returning from the Los Angeles from the Los Angeles Federal Building arrive at the Consulate General of Israel; Video by Barry Saks.
An emailed digital flyer from Jewish Voice for Peace – Los Angeles, a self-identified ally of Palestinian rights, on Friday, April 7, the day before the protest listed the sponsoring organizations as the Palestinian Youth Movement, American Muslims for Palestine and Al-Awda: The Palestine Right to Return Coalition.
The same flyer said, “Israeli police raided the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound in occupied East Jerusalem for a second straight night on Wednesday, attacking and forcibly removing Palestinians who were praying during the holy month of Ramadan. Police deployed stun grenades and fired rubber-coated steel bullets at worshipers. On Thursday, Israeli police escorted dozens of Israeli settlers into the Al-Aqsa courtyards. Meanwhile, witnesses say Palestinian men under the age of 40 were being barred from entering the mosque.
Yesterday the Israeli military launched air strikes in the Gaza Strip, hours after rockets were fired from Lebanon into Israel this afternoon.”
Hundreds of people, on Sunday, Feb. 26, attended the Afro-Latinx Festival at the Museum of Latin American Art, where beside art, there were crafts, food and musical performances. Of the performances, I had the pleasure of recording some snippets of video with my iPhone SE of performers from the Garifuna American Heritage Foundation United, also known as GAHFU.
The website of GAHFU says its mission is “to serve the Garifuna-American, Caribbean-American and Central American community in the greater Los Angeles and Long Beach area, the United States and abroad through cultural education programs, outreach, advocacy and social services programs.”
The UNESCO website describes the Garifuna, as “a population of mixed origin incorporating cultural elements of indigenous Caribbean and African groups, the Garifuna settled along the Atlantic coast of Central America after being forced to flee from the Caribbean island of Saint Vincent in the eighteenth century. Today, Garifuna communities mainly live in Honduras, Guatemala, Nicaragua and Belize.
The Garifuna language belongs to the Arawakan group of languages and has survived centuries of discrimination and linguistic domination. It is rich in tales (úraga) originally recited during wakes or large gatherings. The melodies bring together African and Amerindian elements, and the texts are a veritable repository of the history and traditional knowledge of the Garifuna, such as cassava-growing, fishing, canoe-building and the construction of baked mud houses. There is also a considerable amount of satire in these songs, which are accompanied by various drums and dances, which the spectators may join in.”
About 50 people protested,. on Wednesday, November 1, outside the Long Beach office of Congressman Robert Garcia to show solidarity with the Palestinian population in Gaza and to demand an immediate ceasefire in the Israel-Hamas war.
Protesters outside Congressman Robert Garcia’s Long Beach office on Wensday, Nov. 1; photo by Barry S
The organizers of the protest included a large contingent of queer, transgender people of color, the Long Beach Chapter of Democratic Socialist of America and Long Beach Forward and individuals from Justice for Palestine, Long Beach.
Some of the call-and-response chants included: Robert, Robert, you can’t hide we charge you with genocide; from Palestine to Mexico border walls have got to go; no pride in genocide; queer and trans. hear us roar, cease-fire now, and stop the war.
The protesters marched from a church about three blocks from Congressman Garcia‘s Long Beach office, and began chanting about a block from the congressman’s office.
Photo by Barry Saks, Nov 1.Protesters outside Congressman Robert Garcia‘s office, on Nov. 1, in Long Beach; photo by Barry Saks.
I regularly in the mornings walk a little more than two miles every other day. Over the many years I’ve been walking in Long Beach, I’ve traveled many different paths, however, lately I’ve been walking south from Third Street on the Promenade toward Ocean Boulevard. I especially like walking down the Promenade because of all the trees and green growth generally on both sides of it and because for some unexplained reason, it reminds me of Copenhagen, Denmark. At Ocean I turn left toward Alamitos Avenue. Even on a cold winter morning some times the sun will pierce through the clouds and I can feel the sun’s rays on my shoulders.
While I walk regularly, I irregularly take online journalism classes. My latest is a mobile journalism class, which relies heavily on photography, videography and social media skills all of which I would characterize myself as woefully lacking. The upshot is I’m learning by doing, like so many other things we do in life; so, be patient with me. A few days back, I used me iPhone SE camera to shoot this view near the corner of Alamitos Ave. and Ocean Blvd., looking southeast toward the ocean.
Barry Saks 