When we heard a lot of noise downstairs from our offices yesterday, we decided to go see what it was about and found small, but fiery protests for and against Israel.
Caterpillar held it's annual shareholders meeting next door from our offices, and for the seventh year in a row, it attracted peace activists protesting bulldozer sales to Israel. These activists, an interfaith group, allege that the bulldozers are used to destroy Palestinian homes. In response, Jewish groups held a counter-protest, claiming that the bulldozers destroy Hamas infrastructure and that the "peace activists" are supporters of Hamas.
Here are my interviews with activists from both sides (sorry for the delay in posting. YouTube was cooperating yesterday): UPDATE for facts: I looked up the story about the Mavi Marmara flotilla having 40 Al Qaeda fighters on it, and I could only find the Schumer's call for an investigation, based on the links between IHH and Al Qaeda. It looks like we don't know for sure yet.
Here are photos by Meghan Murphy-Gill:
The image of the two groups on opposites of the streets yelling at each other strikes me. If Americans cannot agree to sit down and try to see the situation from each others' perspectives, how can we expect Israelis and Palestinians to do so?
