At about 1:30 on Saturday afternoon -- with a pro-Palestinian rally on the White House ellipse ending and a crowd of several thousand protesters, mostly Arab-Americans, preparing to march down Pennsylvanian Avenue -- a middle-aged white woman exclaimed, "I like that!" and pointed excitedly at a sign bobbing above the crowd. It was a drawing of the American flag, but without the usual 50 stars. In their place was a single blue Star of David; the bottom of the sign read simply, "Free America."
"Free America from the Jews," the woman said contentedly. "Yeah."
Saturday's pro-Palestinian rally -- which, shortly after 1:30, merged with other left-wing protests and streamed toward Capitol Hill -- featured legitimate political protest and understandable personal anguish. It featured a speaker from Vieques and signs demanding that American troops leave Korea. It featured religious Muslims and secular Arabs, joined by a smattering of aging hippies and hairy college activists.
It also featured plenty of hate. Indeed, determining where political grievance ended and anti-Jewish bigotry began was no simple project. "Pro-Palestine is not anti-semitic," proclaimed one sign. But there was plenty of anti-semitism to go with the pro-Palestinian sentiment -- and plenty of views that occupied a dangerous zone somewhere in-between.
Swastikas were ubiquitous, deployed, mostly on Israeli flags, for the (ostensible) purpose of comparing Israel to Nazi Germany. Numerous signs portrayed Sharon as Hitler.
A number of posters made the case that Americans, specifically Christian Americans, were being controlled or duped by Jews. "Jews + Romans = Dead Christians," read one sign. "Jews + U.S. Foreign Policy = Dead Muslims," read another. A third -- perhaps less malicious, perhaps not -- read simply: "Stop Israeli control of our Congress."
It was a theme echoed by the chants of the crowd and the exhortations of a parade of speakers. "Israel out of Palestine, Israel out of the United States," thundered one orator. "Israelis have occupied Palestine and America," proclaimed another, adding, "The Palestinian people will gain their freedom; you, the American people, will gain your freedom back." A chant arose among the crowd: "Free free Palestine, free free United States."
On the question of what exactly the protesters were rallying for -- an end to occupation? an end to Israel? -- there was ambiguity and, no doubt, a difference of opinion within the crowd itself. "A Homeland for Palestinians, Too," read one sign. "Why Not Share?" said another. But poster after poster and T-shirt after T-shirt depicted Palestine as the entire land between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea. I did not see any visual exhortations to Palestinian statehood accompanied by drawings of just the West Bank and Gaza Strip. "Land for Palestinians Only, All Others Will Be Moved At All Times," a fake parking sign read.
And on the issue of suicide bombings there was even less equivocation. "Martyrs, not murderers," the crowd chanted early in the rally. "Long live the Intifada," protesters chanted later.
So the rally went: careening recklessly along a cliff of outright anti-semitism, sometimes plunging full-force into bigotry, sometimes pulling back, but always dangerously close. Was the phrase "Israel out of the United States" a clumsy way of arguing for reduced influence of the Israeli lobby on Capitol Hill? Or was it a call to expel Jews from positions of political power? Either way, it smacked of something perilously near to hatred.
To be sure, there were attempts to put forth a more conciliatory posture -- none more bizarre than when the rally's organizers produced a group of ultra-Orthodox Jews, fur hats and all, opposed to the existence of the state of Israel. They received the loudest applause of the entire event.
As the Palestinian rally merged with other marches and eventually arrived at the Capitol, the tension between different viewpoints grew. Several white demonstrators unfurled an enormous American flag across one of the Mall's dirt pathways, allowing protesters to stomp on it as they walked by. "Oh, that's not nice," exclaimed one woman as she realized what was going on. A crowd gathered and a heated debate ensued. Some objected to the idea of desecrating the flag; others expressed support but worried that "the media" would focus on it to the exclusion of more legitimate protest. "It's liberating," argued a man as he walked demonstratively around the flag's corner. "Sorry, that's how I feel: It's my flag and I'll walk right on it," one woman explained. Eventually, moderates -- many of whom were Arab-American -- prevailed, and the flag was removed.
So pro-Palestinian protesters succeeded, at least in one instance, of putting forth a less radical face for the cameras and reporters. But it was, in many ways, the exception, not the rule. And as I left the Mall around 4:30 p.m., I found myself thinking back to a poster I had seen on the ground in the middle of the pro-Palestinian rally earlier in the day. On one side was written: "Save America, Change U.S. Foreign Policy." And on the other side was written: "Bethlehem After 2000 Yrs. Same Killers." Two apparently different sentiments. Same sign.
