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PRINCETON: Pro-Palestinian demonstrators march in town

By Philip Sean Curran, Staff Writer
Hundreds of pro-Palestinian demonstrators protested in Princeton on Sunday against the Israeli government over the military actions in the Gaza Strip.
The roughly four-hour demonstration, organized by a group of students, academics and residents called "Princeton for Palestine," was intended to spotlight what protesters said were "atrocities."
It is estimated that approximately 2,000 people have been killed in Gaza since the fighting began.
The demonstrators on Sunday gathered first at Hinds Plaza before marching to the Princeton University campus to Scudder Plaza to listen to speakers rail against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his government.
Chanting in unison such slogans as "No justice, no peace," and "From the river to sea, Palestine will be free," several held homemade signs condemning the Israeli government.
Others wore Arab keffiyehs, that can be worn as a headdress or scarf.
Organizers estimated that anywhere from 400 to 600 people had attended, including several children who also carried signs.
At various points, some Muslim men went off to the side to pray in the afternoon.
Norman Finkelstein, a prominent Jewish critic of Israel who was one of the invited speakers, said the "lunatic state" of Israel had committed "massive atrocities" and "terror assaults on Gaza." He later criticized President Barack Obama for being the "chief enabler or the enabler in chief of this massacre."
The peaceful demonstration attracted a light police presence, with about three Princeton officers visible at the first stage of the event.
Abdulbasit Abdallah, a Lawrenceville resident originally from Gaza, said he had lost 13 relatives in the latest military offensive and about 20 homes of his relatives had been destroyed.
"Demonstrating, speaking out is the least I can do," he said.
The event drew a small counter-demonstration with a handful of Jewish teenagers standing off in the distance of Hinds Plaza holding pro-Israel signs. Yael Yonah, a 15-year-old from West Windsor, said she and her friends saw a flier for the protest and decided to show up at the spur of the moment.
"Israel is defending themselves and they have the right to," she said.
People called for divesting in, sanctioning and boycotting Israel in response to a "human crisis" in Gaza.
"It is we who openly proclaim our compassion and demand justice for all those who suffer in Gaza and Palestine," said former New York Times journalist Chris Hedges, a critic of Israel who spoke at the rally.
"The people of Judaism have never colonized another people, have never committed a genocide of another people," said another rally speaker, Shadee Elmasry, director of education at the New Brunswick Islamic Center. "They never killed the way they are killing. This is a hijacking of Judaism itself in the very same way that various movements in Iraq are hijacking the religion of Islam itself."
In their remarks, no speaker called on Hamas, a group the Israeli government and others, including the United States, has labeled a terrorist organization, to refrain from its violence. In fact, Mr. Finkelstein used the euphemism "projectiles" to describe rockets Hamas has fired into Israel.
University spokesman Martin A. Mbugua, asked Sunday whether the school had approved of the demonstration happening on campus, said the school was aware of the protest and that members of the university community have the freedom to express themselves. He later added that freedom of expression applied also to invited speakers.
Andrew Frank, the executive director the Jewish Federation of Princeton Mercer Bucks, said Monday the conflict could be stopped if the Palestinian side agreed to stop firing rockets into Israel. He was not at Sunday’s protest.
"Raining rockets on civilian populations is something that any nation has to respond to. The fact that, thank God, there have been relatively few casualties to date in Israel is testimony to the government’s investment in protective measures."