I The picture above was taken last Saturday outside the public library in Castro Valley, CA, where Rep. Barbara Lee was due to get an award from some Democratic Party club. Castro Valley, which is around 15 miles southeast of Oakland, is about as plain-vanilla as you can get in the East Bay, and in truth most of us demonstrating were from Berkeley and Oakland. But there were at least a few local people participating, too, and we handed out leaflets to hundreds of regular library patrons.
A number of us were the usual old fogies, but the leadership and the energy came from young people – largely Palestinian-Americans and other people of color. (One of the leaders is of Eritrean origin, another I think is Afghan-American; both of them grew up here). And they really think we can win. To my mind they seriously underestimate the grip of the Zionists, but most of the time I force myself to keep my mouth shut so as not to discourage them.
Bottom line: At this point, whenever Barbara Lee makes a public appearance in her district, there’s a good chance she’ll be picketed over her votes for aid to Israel. Considering where we were at 10, 5, or even 3 years ago, it’s pretty amazing!
