Controversial Gala

The gala which was held in honor of the successful massacre of 1300 Palestinians in Gaza was attended by a number of prominent figures both from the USA and Israel, including the influential New York mayor Michael Bloomberg.

However, the dinner party which the witnesses branded "disgraceful" and "outrageous" was followed by an unpredictable and unprecedented reflection.

Students arrested

At 6:30 PM on Thursday January 29, some 250 protestors from various nationalities and political belongings staged a rally before the hotel to blockade the party and hinder the entrance of AIPAC members into the lobby. 10 young activists and students who were the main organizers of the demo on behalf of the Break the Siege On Gaza Coalition's Student Committee were consequently attacked by the New York Federal Police and arrested for interrogation.

Some of the apprehended students remained in jail for one week, and the rest were released after two nights or so. Almost one month after the settlement of controversies around the Gaza conflict and the expected oblivion of international community, I succeeded to find one of the released captives with the help of Hannah Mermelstein of BDS Movement and talked to him about the details of mounted campaign.

Ian talks to Timeturk

Ian C. is a 2007 graduate of Rutgers University whose name is being abbreviated due to security reasons.

Answering a question about the intentions of their anti-AIPAC effort, Ian told TIMETURK: "the objectives were to disrupt the AIPAC fundraiser and to point out that it was American money, specifically the $3 billion a year of military aid, which allows the Israeli occupation to continue."

"Similar actions like this will continue. They come in solidarity with the occupations of Israeli consulates in Canada and San Francisco, the blockade of the consulate in LA, the dozen or more university occupations in England in solidarity with Gaza, and other actions around the world." He added.

"We plan on similar direct action in the future to make visible our displeasure about the way our government is supporting the occupation of Palestine. As a Jew it also is important to say that Israel represents my nor many other Jews' values, but instead is a racist state bent on territorial expansion at the expense of the people living there." Reiterated Ian

On the details of their peaceful blockade and how they could obstruct the entrance if AIPAC officials and other people into the Marriot Hotel, he explained: "we used lockboxes in two groups of 5 to each shut down a revolving door, then we ran a long chain anchoring ourselves to the 2 other opening doors directing to disrupt the flow of traffic to the building."

"It took them 40 minutes to cut through the chain, they then tried pain compliance techniques on us for 20 minutes as they didn't believe that we couldn't just "let go". This resulting in several of us nearly having our hands broken from the stress of being pulled on with the chains inside the PVC pipe and several bruised extremities" Included Ian.

As a result "they then spent an additional hour ripping off the tape and cutting through the chicken wire and PVC pipe; so we blocked a lot of traffic into the building for well over an hour or maybe more."

According to Ian, 10 of the protestors were arrested and spent 20 hours in jail: "We all received 5 charges including 2 misdemeanors for disorderly conduct and resisting arrests. The violations included criminal trespassing, one disorderly violation and the other which I can't remember off hand but it was akin to blocking traffic."

The 10 arrested students could find a responsible and devoted lawyer who will be working on their dossier pro bono publico, and their official court appearance is scheduled for the April 6.

Now less than one month remains to the slated date of their court trial and the international anti-war activists and independent journalists hope that Ian and his colleagues will be acquitted as the real criminals of Gaza genocide are still enjoying immunity and nobody dares to bring a lawsuit against them.

http://en.timeturk.com/anti-war-activists-await-court-sentence--16969-haberi.html