(Chronwatch) Cinnamon Stillwell - On March 20, members of the anti-war movement came out to mark the one-year anniversary of the war in Iraq with a ''global day of action.'' In San Francisco, the rally was endorsed by various Arab and Muslim groups such as Al-Awda (the Palestine Right to Return Coalition), the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), and the Muslim Students Association - ties to terrorism being the common denominator among them. The issue of Iraq seemed almost peripheral to the main thrust of the event, which was virulently anti-Israel. Even some of the peaceniks were a bit perplexed by the dominance of Palestinian groups. In San Francisco, members of the Russian-Jewish community, joined by others sympathetic to their politics, turned out for a ''March for Israel.'' Around 200 waved American and Israeli flags and held signs that said, ''Stop Glorifying Murder,'' ''Suicide Bombings are Crimes Against Humanity,'' and ''We Mourn Madrid 3/11, New York 9/11, Jerusalem Daily.'' At one point, a large group of Muslim youth wearing keffiyehs, hajibs, and waving Palestinian flags and Arabic banners, confronted the pro-Israel crowd. A woman in a headscarf hurled insults at them only to be answered by sarcastic cries of ''Can you vote?'' and ''Liberate oppressed Arab women!''
2004-03-25 00:00:00Full ArticleBACK Visit the Daily Alert Archive