Power in the Streets of Berkeley

Greetings,

Berkeley students and community activists yesterday successfully
staged an impressive show of defiance to yet another Zionist from
Israel. The State of Israel is at the present doing all it can to save 
face in the US by sending high profile Zionists like Barak, Sharon,
and Netanyahu.  But their endeavours have been met with a spirited
resistance by Palestinian-Americans and other progressive groups
who have demonstrated the sinister side of this Apartheid regime.
Below are two accounts of the event that took place in Berkeley, the 
first is a quick summary and the second a more detailed, and fascinating,
eyewitness account.

KS
------------------------------------

PRESS RELEASE   
PRESS RELEASE

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact:  ADC San Francisco Chapter, Senan Khairie:  650-799-8472

There's Power on the Streets

The Arab and Progressive Communities of the San Francisco Bay
Area Blocked Benjamin Netanyahu from Speaking

Benjamin Netanyahu is a leader in the Likud Party.  For Palestinian
people, he represents the building of settlements, expansion,
an iron fist policy, death squads and massacres. For much of the 
progressive community, Benjamin Netanyahu represents the "peace 
process" that has given the license to kill.  Despite the fact that 
activists heard about his showing at the Berkeley Community Theater 
yesterday, November 28th, in the last minute, they were still able to 
get a huge turnout of 500+ people.  Before the event, the 500+ 
demonstrators blocked the fences and did not allow attendees to 
enter the event.  While police were pushed to hide behind the fences, 
the theater remained empty as attendees were stuck outside.  Activists 
were confident that Netanyahu got their message since he was left to 
wait in the auditorium alone to wait and wait and wait while none of the 
attendees showed up!  

The protest culminated in the cancellation of the Benjamin Netanyahu
event within a short 45 minutes! No one was arrested because
the demonstrators were united in blocking the entrance, and because
they overcame the unprepared police.  People were so empowered
that they took over the streets of Berkeley for a march around
the community theater.

This success story sent a strong message to Bibi that he is evil
and therefore, he is not welcome in Berkeley.  It also sent a
strong message to the general public that there is power on the
street. WE stopped the event.  WE did it.  
WE had a huge victory. 

Thousands of people witnessed our success and we intend to do
the same thing in Marin County where Bibi will speak on Thursday.
They can mobilize all the police in the world to try and stop
us--but we will still be out there to stop him from speaking.
 

Bibi's next showing is Thursday--November 30th at 7:00 pm in
San Rafael Veterans Memorial Auditorium--we'll be out there--please
be there too.

Take n. Pedro Road exist off of 101 let on Civic Center Drive,
go 1/2 mile and turn right after the laggoon.



*******************************************************     
Senan Khairie                       408-525-4876 w          
               

Test Development Engineer II 408-308 8802 p               
skhairie@cisco.com          
Cisco Systems      
*******************************************************   
An Eye Witness Account:

Well, Bibi had three Bay Area appearances planned this week.  If the next two 
are anything like the first, he might as well go home now.

The event was to start at 7:30.  We started at 6:30.  As I arrived, the scene 
was bedlam.  There were about 100 cops dispersed all around the block and 
flashing police lights in every direction.  Some said they saw secret service 
on the roofs of adjacent buildings, but I did not witness any myself.

About 1,000 protestors converged on the Berkeley theatre.  Since we weren't 
sure on which road Bibi was to arrive, we split up, about 500 on either side 
of the theater.   

At about 7 pm the audience formed a large orderly line in front of the 
entrance.  At that point all the protestors converged around the entrance.  
There was about 500 prospective audience members.  They formed a straight 
line that went for about a block, but left a gap about 30 feet between them 
and the entrance.  The protestors lined both sides of the gap and created a 
loud and raucous gauntlet.  One by one, the audience passed through the 
gauntlet to a loud chorus of "shame, shame, shame..." [there were a great 
number of Jewish protestors, which made the chant all the more effective].  

After about 50 had passed through the gauntlet, things got out of hand.  
Barbara Lubin of the Middle East Children's Alliance made a dash to enter the 
theater.  Two cops picked her up by the elbows and proceeded to physically 
remove her from the premises.  At that point, the crowd really became 
restless.  We stood shoulder to shoulder and formed a semicircle around the 
entrance.  The only things between us and the entrance were four baby-faced 
cops and a chain-linked fence. 

Hatem Bazian took the loud speaker and starting repeating, "No Justice, No 
Peace".  With each refrain, the entire crowd moved in unison a half step 
closer to the cops.  I will never forget the look in the cops' eyes.  With 
each step forward we took, they took one step back.  The semi-circle kept 
tightening around the cops until the poor guys finally made a run for it, hid 
behind the chain-linked fence and locked it behind them.  Believe it or not, 
it was as easy as that.  Tactically, the battle was over at that point.  
There were now 1,000 protestors between the audience and the entrance, and 
there was no way anyone was going to get in.  

You have to give the audience credit.  Apparently, they paid $150 each for 
their tickets, and they simply refused to accept reality and go home.  They 
continued to stand in their perfectly straight line for 45 minutes on the 
arrogant assumption that we would somehow be dispersed so they could attend 
this wonderful presentation by their favorite war criminal.  

To add insult to injury, Joe Webb had a sign of a swastika inside a Star of 
David and couldn't resist going up and down the line with a blow-horn 
taunting the mild-mannered Zionists waiting to get in.  You know how Zionists 
tend to go nuts when you confront them with the reality that Zionism is 
somewhat akin to fascism.  Now imagine that magnified by the fact that they 
had gotten all decked out for nothing thanks to us.  Have you ever seen a 
woman in a fur coat, diamond earings and make-up to the hilt blow her stack.  
Quite charming.

At about 8:15 an announcement was made that the event had been cancelled and 
the audience began to disperse.  This brought about absolute jubilation 
amongst the protestors.  We stayed and mulled around for a while, then all of 
us did a victory lap and carried our anti-Zionist signs in a march around 
Berkeley.

As we were marching, I noticed a policeman carrying a bicycle helmet and 
dragging a bicycle behind him.  He looked totally demoralized.  As people 
know, I am a very compassionate guy and could not help myself from consoling 
him.  "Hey!  What the hell happened!" I yelled at him, mustering up all my 
energy to keep a self-satisfied smirk off my face.  He just looked to the 
ground and shook his head.

"I mean there were so many of you!  But it just looked so easy how the crowd 
just came in and took over.  Why did you let that happen?"

"Man," he said, "there were about 100 of us around the corner.  But no one 
ever listens to me."

At this point I really should have stopped.  I mean he looked so pathetic.  

"But there were only four of you at the entrance.  You guys looked totally 
unprepared and disorganized.  I mean you let a few protestors ruin the entire 
event!  How did that happen?" I asked.

"You're preaching to the choir man," he responded glumly [an odd allusion to 
my last GNAA posting I thought].  "Why don't you write a letter to the Police 
Chief!  Just tell him what you're telling me!"

I smiled and said, "I'll be sure to do that!" and left him dragging his bike 
behind him, shaking his head and mumbling, "No one ever listens to me.  No 
one ever listens to me."

Really...it doesn't get any better than this.  

The ADC-SF is hosting an event on Wednesday, so we can't protest his 
appearance in San Mateo, but all the protestors agreed to welcome Bibi in 
Marin on Thursday.

Maad Abu-Ghazalah