TBO.com - TBO is Tampa Bay Online

Protesters Gather At BayWalk To Denounce Gaza Fighting

News Channel 8 photo by ANTHONY ALLRED

Dozens of protesters gathered at BayWalk on Saturday night in response to Israel's military action in the Gaza Strip.

ADVERTISEMENT

By LISA A. DAVIS

ldavis@tampatrib.com

Published: January 3, 2009

ST. PETERSBURG - On the eighth day of Israel's air assault on Hamas, Israeli ground troops – as many as 10,000 – began moving into in Gaza. Meanwhile closer to home, protesters took to the streets Saturday night in front of BayWalk denouncing the attacks.

It's the second large-scale protest in the Tampa Bay area since the attacks began a week ago. On Tuesday around 4 p.m. about 400 demonstrators, most Palestinian-American and most waving Palestinian and American flags and carrying homemade signs, gathered at the busy intersection at West Spruce Street and North Dale Mabry.

About 120 people – many Palestinian-Americans and several supporters of other backgrounds - stood on the BayWalk sidewalk between First Street Northeast and Second Street North speaking out against the Israeli attacks.

Many carried signs reading with messages such as "Gaza is today's Warsaw Ghetto," "Stop the Genocide. Free Gaza," and "The real terrorists: Israel & the USA."

In the crowd, 14-year-old Raisa Salhav of Palm Harbor stood holding a Palestinian flag with her family nearby. The teen was born outside Jerusalem and visits the area with her family every couple of years.

"We call it Palestine," she said. "It's in our hearts."

She says she has seen violence first hand, including two years ago when she was traveling to a hospital in Jerusalem when gunfire erupted at an Israeli Defense Forces checkpoint.

"We seriously got scared. We started hiding in the car."

Her family wasn't injured but she has been reading the headlines and watching the video feeds out of Israel near tears. It was she and her two siblings who urged her parents to take them to the protest Saturday night.

"How would you feel if you saw your own people murdered for no reason?" she asked.

On the other side of the street stood about Israel supporters held signs reading: "You're either with Israel or terrorists" and "Stop rocket attacks from Gaza."

"Even during the cease fire Hamas is throwing rockets into Israel," said Alan Kornman, executive director of the United American Committee of Central Florida, a group educating the public about threats against the U.S. "Israel has a right to defend itself."

The protests Saturday lasted about an hour and concluded as the group marched out of the area as one around 8:30 p.m. St. Petersburg police Lt. Dennis Bolender said no arrests had been made by its conclusion.

"Everyone's behaved," he said.

Protests have been worldwide with tens of thousands of demonstrators in European cities rallying this week to stop the violence.

Israeli leaders have said they could no longer allow Gaza militants to fire rockets into Israel which has killed at least seven Israelis in the past two years. Israel's airstrikes have seriously damaged Gaza''s infrastructure, knocking out power and water in many areas. Israeli officials have said their attacks are designed to wipe out the threat from Hamas which holds political power in the Gaza territory.

At least 460 Palestinians have been killed in the offensive and some estimates say about a quarter of them have been civilians.

Information from wire services was used in this report. Reporter Lisa A. Davis can be reached at (727) 815-1083.

Share this:

Loading Comments...

Email Print

ADVERTISEMENT