Zionists, cops start trouble at huge Gaza march on White House, Washington Post

On the 2nd of August, organizers estimated 30,000 people took to the streets in solidarity with the hard-pressed residents of occupied Gaza, Palestine. There were at least three ugly incidents,one involving Zionist provocateurs, one involving the US Park Police, and one involving both. On the other hand, the massive march went from the White House to the lying, deceiving Washington Post, demanding they stop printing Israeli propaganda and tell the truth about Gaza. Upon arrival, coffins were stacked against the windows of the Washington Post's building. We shall see if that makes it into tomorrow's print edition.

The first incident was a noisy, Israeli-flag waving counterdemonstration of maybe a dozen people in a fenced-off protest pit in front of the White House, before the start of the march The cops went out of their way to protect them in a way that would never have been offered to a dozen Palestinians protesting a Zionist rally of 10,000+. Foolishly, the Israel supporters brought three young children to a situation where they knew they were seeking to provoke a far larger crowd. They found themselves under siege, with the roles reversed from Gaza except that protesters did not invade their protest pit in a frenzy of physical violence. In the end, the cops loaded these Zionists into vans and extracted them, just like they did for the Neo-Nazi "Traditional Youth Alliance" on Mayday this year.The extraction was just before the migrant march arrived along their extraction route, and just before the main march would also have sealed them in.

As the march headed towards the Post, police vehicles attempted to closely hug the lead of the march and the sound truck, only to get entangled in the Ride for Liberation, a bike bloc that started from the earlier migrant march. Circling bikes effectively managed to eject the cops from the lead of the march!

The march was so huge that as the back of the march was passing McPherson Square, the lead of the march had passed the Washington Post, stacked the coffins against their windows, marched up to M street and all the way back to K st and 17th, then 16th sts! At this point there was confusion about the route, and a spectacular flying of the flag of Palestine from a street light. This flag flyer was not bothered by police, unlike the arrest of someone for doing the exact same thing in Lafayette Park maybe an hour later that nearly sparked a riot.

When the march returned to the White House, things got nasty. First, a small groups of Zionists, including a young man with a huge Israeli flag who had almost solo-counterprotested the march before started getting pushy with pro-Palestine activists. The result was a swirling fight, with some of the Palestinian activists yelling for the cops. I didn't see any arrests at that incident, though cops seemed to be in discussions with people for a while.

Shorty therafter, US Park Police arrested one man for allegedly climbing one of the Lafayette Park lamp posts to fly the flag of Palestine, something MPD had paid no mind to when someone else did it near K street. A large crowd charged the police, driving them back to a defensive position near the White House sidewalk. Park Police on horses countercharged from the left-only to find they could not maneuver in such tight quarters. The Park cops refused to release their prisoner but retreated horses and all behind waist-high bicycle rack fence. I did not see any further arrests from this situation, which came from a totally unnecessary provocation by the US Park Police. Wonder if this stemmed from pro-Israel bias by one cop, making a decision that then bound all the others?

Video-police help Zionist provocateurs escape prior to march

Video- Pro Gaza protesters lay siege to the Washington Post

Video of confrontation with police over arrest

The march sets out

Cops extract Zionist counterprotesters from a beseiged "protest pit" and spirit them away-just like they did for the neo-Nazis on Mayday

This Bike Bloc (the Ride for Liberation) effectively ejected police vehicles from the area around the lead of the march,

Laying coffins at the headquarters of the lying Washington Post

The march near K Street

A cop with an M16 during the showdown over arresting someone for allegedly climbing a lamp post with the flag of Palestine

Police horses push into the crowd before retreating behind barricades at the arrest confrontation

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Comments

i saw luke riding his bicycle during the protest

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