By TwoCircles.net special correspondent,
Washington, DC: At various points in the march, the organizers, traveling ahead in a slow-moving truck, announced that they could not see the end of the column of marchers – such were the numbers it seemed who had turned out. At one point though, one spotted from between buildings into the street on the other side what seemed like the tail of the marching column – such was the length, that it had filled one long street and was trailing into half the other, parallel to it.
Fifty thousand people,was one estimate of the organizers of the march (The Answer Coalition) which was part of the Let Gaza Live rally in the Lafayette Park in downtown Washington DC on Aug 2, 2014. Even if 50,000 seemed a slightly improbable number, still, it was a march that filled city blocks, and crowds holding a variety of signs and banners could be seen, literally, “as far as eye could see.”
This was surely a worthy event, a massive show of solidarity and protest towards what is a major tragic event unfolding in front of our eyes every day. The US, one of the main supporters of the aggressors in this conflict, has held on to a standard party line, not expressing any outrage publicly over the continuous deaths, especially of children. So it was especially salient that the people of this country were coming together, many of them traveling from far distances, to express their voices condemning what was going on in Gaza. To the organizers and the participants, this was a momentous occasion, this coming together of thousands of ordinary people – including many mothers and children.
Yet, for much of the mainstream media, this was not anything near earth-shattering. While some of them did mention that the “demonstration drew thousands,” others simply called it “large.” The Washington Post did quote a police spokesman who said – “It’s an exceptionally large number of protesters.” But, quite obviously, that “exceptionally large number” was not seen – or projected – as an expression of a pressing popular will. Surely no newspaper sent out newspaper boys screaming down thoroughfares about a “historic rally” that the nation should sit up and take notice of. It was just another event, just another protest in the capital, just another bunch of people marching and yelling for something they seemed upset about – so the mainstream media made it seem. This of course has been the case with rallies held throughout the US which have received hardly any attention and coverage (both Chicago and San Francisco have recorded big turnouts as well.)
What some news reports did pick up on were the tone of the messaging (“anti-Israel”) and even the fact that there was a brief confrontation between supporters of Palestine and Israel. Talk about distorting the messaging and changing the focus of any report.
It is this irony – and reality – of the sidelining of people’s voices that hits one when one is confronted by it in first person. One could be immersed in this great surge of people, chanting and rallying around an horrific injustice being perpetrated in Gaza, one could hear wave upon wave of chants and cries ringing out for justice, one could be uplifted by every manner of a sign or banner being held aloft by abaya-clad women which call for peace and justice – and yet at the end of it all, it could mean nothing to the wider world, all those chants and cries seem to have gone up into thin air.
Or as Aljazeera put it dispassionately at the end of their reports – “But despite the massive turnout, government officials did not see or hear them. Congress recessed for the summer this past week, and President Obama was at Camp David celebrating his birthday.”
And yet, for all those came and chanted and marched, it held special meaning, the coming together in solidarity and registering protest. As one sign said, “To Gaza With Love – You Are Not Alone.”
[Photos courtesy: dreamscapes66]