Dueling Demonstrations in San Francisco, one pro-Hezbollah and one pro-Israel

[Woodmonkey]

A march in San Francisco today is expected to draw thousands of protesters against the Israeli military actions in Lebanon and the Palestinian territories, blocking traffic for a couple of hours at the busy Fifth and Market streets shopping corridor at midday.

Similar protests are being organized in Washington, D.C., Seattle, Los Angeles and New York. In San Francisco, a counterprotest is also planned.

Initiated by the Answer Coalition, the National Council of Arab Americans and the Muslim American Society's Freedom Foundation, the protest calls for a stop to U.S. aid to Israel, support for the idea that Palestinians have the "right of return" to land that is now Israel, and money for jobs and education.

"This is an emergency. We feel it's time us to speak up and voice our rage over what is happening in Lebanon," said Mazda Majidi, a spokesman for Answer. "This is a state terror campaign by Israel, supported by the U.S. government."

The San Francisco Voice for Israel is planning a counterprotest, and expects several hundred demonstrators. Founded in 2004, the group's mission is to counter "anti-Israel hate speech on the streets of the Bay Area," said spokesman Michael Harris.

"Israel is doing what is necessary to protect itself from a terrorist group which has sworn itself to Israel's destruction," Harris said. "This is part of an ongoing jihad by radical Islamic extremists."

He said he was not aware of counterprotests in other cities.

The San Francisco Police Department has assigned officers to the event and plans to close the streets ahead of the demonstrators and reopen them as they march through, said San Francisco police Officer Maria Oropeza.

The event will begin with a rally at 11 a.m. at the Civic Center, followed by the march at 12:30 p.m., and conclude with a rally back at the Civic Center from 2 to 4 p.m. It appears the counterprotest plans to stay at the Civic Center.

The march will leave Civic Center Plaza at 12:30 p.m. onto Larkin Street. It then will proceed onto Golden Gate Avenue to Market Street, down to Fourth Street, onto Mission Street back to Sixth Street, back to Market and onto McAllister Street, returning to Civic Center Plaza.

On July 23, about 1,000 people -- including U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein -- attended a "pro-Israel, pro-peace" rally in San Francisco's Justin Herman Plaza in support of Israel's military campaign in Lebanon. The rally was one of a series of Israeli solidarity rallies around the state and the country sponsored by Jewish groups.

A group of Palestinian Americans held a counter-rally, behind police barricades that created a 30-foot neutral zone.

The Source