Protest to Encircle White House
Opponents of 'U.S.-Israeli War' Plan Large Rally Tomorrow

By Petula Dvorak
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, August 11, 2006

The nation's capital is becoming a stage where passions on both sides of the Israel-Hezbollah conflict are being played out with a series of protests, vigils and rallies in Washington in recent weeks, with more to come.

The largest demonstration -- billed as a protest of the "U.S.-Israeli war" -- is expected to draw "tens of thousands" of people who plan to surround the White House tomorrow, said Tony Kutayli, communications coordinator for the Washington-based American-Arab Anti Discrimination Committee, one of the groups helping coordinate participants arriving from across the country.

In the last few weeks, the National Park Service has issued several permits for demonstrations tied to the conflict, said spokesman Bill Line.

This month, groups of women dressed in somber black slowly circled in front of the White House holding candles in a silent tribute to those killed in Lebanon. Across the region, groups have held small meetings to raise almost $7 million in aid for those killed and injured in Israel.

"Somehow, the story of what is really going on is being lost," said Misha Galperin, executive vice president and chief executive of the Jewish Federation of Greater Washington. "We need to try and counter that to the extent possible, to demonstrate our support."

Galperin's group helped organize a rally of more than 1,500 people in Freedom Plaza last month to support Israel in the conflict. Teachers, lawyers, members of Congress and a governor spoke on behalf of the Jewish state.

The group is not planning a counter-protest tomorrow, and Galperin said he believes the event was purposely scheduled on the Jewish Sabbath to thwart any response on its part.

But protest organizers said that most of their massive mobilizations, such as the antiwar gathering in September last year, are held on Saturdays to accommodate travel schedules for out-of-town participants.

Organizers of tomorrow's event are coordinating bus transportation from as far south as Tampa, as far north as Connecticut and as far west as Michigan. They are posting ride-share arrangements online and urging communities to donate cash for bus rentals.

"This is the largest mobilization of the Muslim community since the 2002 Palestinian rally," said Mahdi Bray, director of the Washington-based Muslim American Society, one of the co-sponsors.

Bray said many of his group's supporters are coming to protest what they consider the feeble U.S. pursuit of a cease-fire in the conflict. "It has not been pursued with due diligence," he said.

Beyond the nation's stance on the conflict in Lebanon, many of the participants will be people frustrated with the domestic stance on civil liberties and harassment of Muslims across the country, Bray said.

For example he said, every December, when U.S. Muslims head to Canada to celebrate Ramadan with relatives living there, they have no problems crossing the border northbound, Bray said. But on their return to the United States, they are often detained and "asked silly questions, like 'Do you read the Koran?' 'What do you think of Osama bin Laden?' "

The constant sting of those suspicions, as well as the deaths in his homeland in Lebanon, have moved Mounzer Sleiman, head of the National Council of Arab Americans, to help organize the local Lebanese community to protest.

The community is not prominent on the protest scene, Sleiman said. "Most people are affluent and stable. They have family. Their involvement is more toward cultural activities, literature and entertainment -- not politics so much," he said.

The primary organizer for tomorrow's protest is the ANSWER Coalition, which helped coordinate the September antiwar rally.

The group has also staged smaller weekly protests in front of the Israeli Embassy in Washington for the past three weeks and sponsored demonstrations in New York, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Chicago and Seattle.

The group's national coordinator, Brian Becker, said the Muslim and Lebanese groups taking part will be joined by many of the antiwar demonstrators who flooded the Mall last year.

"It is truly a U.S.-Israeli war," said Becker, an activist who has been associated with far-left organizations and is experienced in mobilizing large numbers of protesters. "The Lebanon operation is an extension of the U.S. war against Iraq. It is part of an integrated plan for the colonial-style domination of the entire oil-rich and strategic region."

The demonstrators plan to gather in Lafayette Square and march along Pennsylvania Avenue and 15th Street, across the Ellipse and up 17th Street, encircling the White House.

The permits were acquired with the legal help of Mara Verheyden-Hilliard of the Partnership for Civil Justice, who worked for months last year to get permission for demonstrators to walk along Pennsylvania Avenue in front of the White House.