Children Observe, Honour and Commemorate the Martyred Children of Gaza . . . then Came the Police
It was a solemn memorial planned by Palestinian and other Arab families together with a Jewish faith group that opposes Jewish nationalism. The aim was to Observe, Honour and Commemorate the lives of children lost in Gaza in the last 6 months. About 15,000 children have been killed by the USA and Israel – the exact numbers are not possible to know since so many are buried in the rubble of structures. The number includes 1000s of infants and babies. The white cloth wrapped tiny bodies of deceased Palestinian babies is an iconic symbol of the 2023 – 2024 US Israeli genocide against the Palestinians.
The children of NJ, the Palestinian children are horrified and scarred for life watching the horrors unfold and seeing the degrading way they are being treated even here in the US away from the front line of the slaughter in Gaza. It is tremendously stressing and traumatic for all of us but much more for those communities directly impacted – especially those related to family members and community members that have been slaughtered. Meaningful community events such as this one that occurred in Leonia NJ this past Sunday, April 15 in a park are part of the unifying and healing process for the Palestinian people as would be true for any oppressed and traumatized population.
Palestinian families and their friends and supporters together with the anti-Nationalist Jewish faith participants solemnly planted 100s of tiny Palestinian flags to represent the 15000 or so children killed in Gaza in the last 6 months. It was a beautiful event that promoted unity and a means for Jewish, Muslim and Christian families to observe, honor and commemorate together the lives of the children lost to the genocide operation that NJ politicians continue to vote to send the armaments to support.
But someone in the park then called the police. He was bothered by this solemn family commemoration of the lives of the child victims – martyrs – of the US / Israeli slaughter operation. What the ceremony participants were told by one of the officers, they were responding to “a brawl between Israeli and Palestinians.” That is how one of the lead officers responded when a ceremony participant asked why they pulled up on the grass with lights and sirens so aggressively terrifying the children and women that were there just trying to commemorate the martyred children.
It was “Babies planting flags in memory of babies slaughtered in Gaza” explained the participant.
The probable Israel supporter “was intimidated and said we were threatening him and his family” according to one of the organizers. He then called the police.
Interviewing an organizer who stated:
“You can clearly see we were peaceful from a mile away.. when I said why aren’t you going after him to fine for false claim , misuse of county officials something to prevent from happening again he laughed “oh I can’t do that”
FBB: Did the cops tell you to leave ?Organizer: Yes they harassed us the entire time and threatened to take “next steps” if we didn’t leave.. a few people practically begged them to just let us finish filling in gaps and make a prayer. Then the sheriff came and told them to let us finish but we must hurry up and collect flags quickly. If you see in this video the poor kids are hurrying to pick up flags because they didn’t want to get in trouble.
Editors note: The park user that low key SWATTED this protected speech event and then the police over reaction and the improper police coverage in enforcing a violation of free speech rights – the police cherries going – telling the solemn group trying to bring comfort to their children that they had to hurry up and leave – how traumatizing for those children. They know the genocide and what happens when the Israeli police and soldiers come – that slaughter often follows and they see a low key version of it happening before them! They feel they have to hurry to avoid an uncertain fate. They probably are not sure what that might be because they know what it means back in Gaza and the West Bank.
This event was successful – it was an opportunity for a multi-faith, multi-ethnic, multinational, diverse group to solemnly commemorate the loss of so many children – it was an event that brought peace to the participants.
But then a hateful bigot called the police and the police violated the rights of the solemn peace loving community.
Another participant in the event – FightBackBetter is withholding names to protect the safety of spokespersons had the following to say:
With over 15,000 killed children no matter race it is a tragedy. Any loss of innocent life is a wrong and those responsible should be held accountable. As a community when we protest this loss of innocent life it often falls on deaf ears with our government officials and those capable of making change. So we decided to get together with a focus on honouring those children killed at the hands of the Israeli war criminals. When we say 15,000 children killed some people just look at that as a number, to us those children are more than just a number they are innocent lives with hopes and aspirations.
As a way to commemorate each of those lives we decided to write each of their names on a flag and stick it in ground. Unfortunately we didn’t have all the names of the children martyrs so we wrote down the names we had and left the remaining flags blank to represent those lives. It was very heartwarming to see people from the community that just happened to be at the park come in and join us. When looking at all those flags it really puts it into perspective of all those lives lost.
This is an example of what happens – Leonia is a town over from Teaneck which just endorsed a statement on “Anti-Semitism” but the statement references the ADL which has recently proclaimed equivalency between the keffiyeh, a traditional and symbolic representation of the Palestinian people and the Nazi swastika. So the peace loving observers of the child martyrs get criminalized just because a probably pro-Israel person calls the police and makes up a story.
Towns defining anti-Semitism based upon ADL interpretation are prone to abuse the protected speech rights of those who are opposed to US and Israel slaughtering children – as happened.
The correct behavior of the police would be to talk to the complainant, talk to the group in the peaceful ceremony – observe and then leave after they realize that the observers are just exercising their rights to protected speech and assembly.
But Leonia apparently like Teaneck believes in criminalizing just living while Palestinian.
This is low key genocide and there are those trying to ratchet it to bringing the US Israeli genocide in Gaza home to roost in the US.
