Jewish, Palestinian groups want the wall to come down
By Daily Press staff
Hundreds of protesters took over Palisades Park on Sunday afternoon in support of peace in the Middle East.
While the message, delivered by local Jewish and Palestinian groups, was to protest Israel’s construction of a wall annexing the West Bank, intense emotions created a shouting match amongst the crowd.
Santa Monica Police arrested one protester who ripped a sign out of the hands of another man while the two screamed obscenities at each other on Sunday. The man, whose identity is unknown, was arrested for assault and battery, based on a private person’s arrest to police.
Dozens of SMPD officers were on hand to keep the peace while the crowd exercised its First Amendment rights.
Members of Women in Black, the Palestinian Aid Society and more than 20 other organizations were on hand for the protest, where a 10-foot-tall cardboard replica of the 30-foot-tall “Apartheid Wall” served as a backdrop. The 400-mile long wall in the Middle East is a massive barrier that runs deep into Palestinian territory. It includes a 27-foot-high concrete wall, razor wire and electric fences, roads and trenches.
The replica wall was ripped down at the end of the event in Palisades Park to symbolize the group’s desire to see the actual “Apartheid Wall” removed from the Middle East.
Protesters depicted two scenes from “Convergence,” a play dramatizing the conflict between the Jews and Palestinians in Israel and the occupied territories.
Rabbis, professors and reverends spoke to the crowd about the conflict and ways to achieve peace. Alternative School House seeks charter membership
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on November 10, 2003. Read the original PDF.