I’m sickened and disgusted and angered at the ethnic cleansing going in the abusive, bigoted apartheid state of Israel and in Gaza. BUT, if I was stuck in traffic while trying to catch a plane at O’Hare, I would be pretty disgusted and angered by people claiming to be acting on behalf of Palestine by blocking traffic. Getting fucked over would not increase my support for the cause. I doubt if it increases anyone’s support for the cause.
Blocking traffic is an attack on the people who are just trying to go about their lives. Nothing is gained by making their lives harder. Why make them a target? It’s beyond stupid. It’s arrogant, selfish and based on “othering”: Passersby who have done nothing wrong are punished as if they were supporters of the obscene violence in Gaza. There’s no excuse for harming people who have done nothing to deserve it.
The tactic of blocking traffic serves only one purpose: to discredit the cause, whatever that cause maybe.
I don’t know who is organizing the traffic-blocking events. I wish I did so I could speak directly to them. There are so many effective ways to promote a cause! For crying out loud, the Palestinians need real help, effective help. Please, no more counterproductive stupidity.
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Please don’t compare these road-blockings with the actions taken during the Civil Rights Movement. Civil Rights activists THOUGHT about their actions and planned them to gain support. They broke bad laws to show the laws needed to be broken—like sitting in a restaurant or sitting down on a bus or registering voters. They planned events to make compelling images that gained support for the movement. Their marches were dignified, headed by religious leaders and included flags and mostly were legal and permitted. There is no comparison.
The Viet Nam protests which I was involved in started out as influential when the protests had some dignity and some point—such as refusing the draft. When the protests became violent and became associated with the public with radicalism in general, they stopped being effective. The war ended because the powers that be saw it end LBJs career and threaten Nixon. Riots didn’t help.
The only reason to do a public protest is to get a message out to the people who might not agree with the cause. Protests not planned with that in mind are at best self-indulgent and possibly counterproductive.