(The counterprotest, above)
Report from Robinson Block, a student at University of Houston:
I was worried about how the candle light vigil would come together when my friend Julia called me 10 minutes before it was scheduled to start, and asked me whether it was happening–no one was there. The Houston Israeli Consulate is in a very nondescript, gray metallic office building, at the corner of Weslayan and Highway 59, in a high traffic area.
When I walked down Weslayan to the consulate, I was pleased to see that more than just my friend Julia had arrived, probably 20 or 25 people were there. I was also surprised to see a dozen or so folks with Israeli flags on the west side of Weslayan.
I started going to protests against Israeli aggression with the 2006 invasion of Lebanon. I don’t remember more than half a dozen Israel supporters coming to counter protest. For a long time, the Palestine solidarity activism I saw and participated in went forward with little local visible opposition. But it was during Operation Cast Lead that I began to notice organized Zionist responses. Part of this Zionist effort seems to be organized through BRIDGE Houston, which started in 2008.
This time, I counted about 35 people with Israeli flags, with signs saying, “Support Israel.” Other signs called for the US and Obama to stand with Israel. By the height of the protest, there were probably 60 or so Israel supporters, which is one of the biggest turn outs I can remember at a Houston protest.
The crowd attending the vigil for the people killed on the flotilla eventually swelled to more than a hundred. We were just much less punctual than the Israel supporters.
During Operation Cast Lead, more than a year ago, there were frequent Palestinian solidarity protests for weeks through December and January, with as many as 500 people in attendance.
My friend Nasser interpreted the large numbers of Zionists as a sign of anxiety and desperation on their behalf. He attended the Monday vigil that took place at Postoak and Westheimer, where more than a hundred Palestine Solidarity Activists gathered, and were meet by 2 or 3 Zionist counter protesters.
Nasser thought that this large turn out by Zionists for the Friday vigil was largely a reaction to the international condemnation of the piracy of the Gaza flotilla, and murder of activists on the open seas. He also pointed out that it has been playing poorly even in the American news media.
There was a brief period of tension, as Pro-Israel activists came from the south side of the building to the west side, where our vigil was taking place and attempted to take up most of the block. Organizers with HCJPP spoke with Houston Police, who had gathered a large number of officers on the east side of the building, but seemed reluctant to have to actually police the event. They did move in to separate the groups eventually, and asked the Pro-Israel activists to either move to the south side of the building, or across to the other side of Weslayan.
My friend Alvaro observed that the Pro-Israel crowd was the whitest crowd he had ever seen. Somehow, I had not thought about that much, but it is true that I did not see one single person of color in the pro- Israel crowd. About 75% of Houston’s population under 25 are people of color, and to see a completely mono-racial group in Houston is kind of unusual.
Alvaro also noticed one guy carrying a book called Muslim Mafia (which I since learned describes how CAIR is a front for the Muslim Brotherhood and a scheme to Islamize the United States). He seemed to be carrying the book in a way that everyone could see it, as though it would keep away muslim vampires or something. We later learned that he was a Christian Zionist.
In contrast, our rally had Arabs, Anglos, some Christians, Mexicans, Latinos, African Americans, South Asians, a Native American guy, and even a couple Jewish folks. The vigil itself consisted of holding candles, and Palestinian, American and Turkish flags. Some were carrying placards with a name and face for each murdered activist.
One person at the Zionist group had a hand painted sign that read "Save Bethlehem." My friend Sally, who has been to the West Bank with a humanitarian and academic program yelled across the street that Bethlehem is encircled by a wall. About 10 minutes later, wearing her keffiyah and coonskin cap, she had made it past HPD to the other side to talk to the person.
When Sally returned, she informed us that the person with the sign was a Christian Zionist, and that their grievance was that there is a growing Muslim population in Bethlehem and that it should "remain" Christian and Jewish. Sally is an amazing patient person, a devout Christian, and felt that the conversation was somewhat postive, in that she was able to share some of her experiences being in occupied Bethlehem and telling these Christian Zionists a lot that they did not know about the situation on the groud before being interupted by the organizer that had her removed to our side of the street.
Hopefully, Nasser is right, that this upsurge of Zionist activism in Houston is an act of desperation, and that the brave acts of the Free Gaza movement and the activists who were killed will help create positive changes and force governments to demand an end the siege of Gaza and the occupation. I certainly hope so, but I worry there will be many more protests at the gray metallic office building, off of highway 59, before we get there.
