Occupiers in the lobby of the Israeli Consulate in Boston
by Daniel Schneider
At 4:30pm on Friday, November 4th, a splinter group of about 20 people from Occupy Boston marched from Dewey Square to the Israeli Consulate at Park Plaza in downtown Boston. On arrival, the protesters sat in the main lobby of the consulate, chanting ‘Israeli apartheid’s got to go’ and ‘viva viva Palestina’, hoisting handmade signs and banging on drums.
A short speech was given about abject living conditions in Gaza, which has an unemployment rate of approximately 40% and relies heavily on humanitarian aid to sustain itself. After about twenty minutes, police gave demonstrators a ten minute warning to disperse or be subject to arrest. “So a lot of us took out our phones and counted down until the time came, and then we marched out,” said one participant.
The action came as a result of the 23 activists who were halted in their attempt to deliver aid to Gaza via two flotillas earlier this week. They were taken into custody roughly fifty miles from shore by soldiers in the Israeli Defense Force’s naval blockade of the region. Earlier today, the Israeli government announced that the activists would be deported back to their home countries within a few days.
A video of yesterday’s occupation of the Israeli Consulate:
A video of the IDF boarding the flotilla:
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