GREAT BARRINGTON — A human tragedy happening halfway around the world brought together opposing factions in the Berkshires during a passionate but peaceful demonstration Sunday afternoon in front of Town Hall.
Organized by the Berkshires Democratic Socialists of America and the Berkshire chapter of the Lefty Book Club, the rally attracted roughly 75 people. The purpose was to “express solidarity with Palestine” but a counter-protest of local supporters of the Jewish state quickly popped up as a pickup truck with several people waving Israeli flags pulled in front of Town Hall.
Colorful signs, honks of approval, and chants were the order of the day. The issue at hand is the ongoing violent conflict between Israel and those who run the Gaza Strip, a tiny Palestinian state on the Mediterranean Sea governed by Hamas, a militant Islamic organization. Gaza is home to more than 2 million people packed into an area of about 141 square miles, making it one of the most densely populated places on earth.
A violent battle between Israel and Hamas had just entered its second week. Israel launched additional airstrikes today, while Hamas fired another round of rockets back into Israel.
The Palestinian death toll in Gaza climbed to 200, including at least 58 children, as of Sunday evening, according to local health officials as reported by The Washington Post. The death toll in Israel stands at 10 after a disabled Israeli man was killed Saturday in a rocket strike in a Tel Aviv suburb.
Dozens of pro-Palestinian signs dotted the sidewalk in front of Town Hall. “No U.S. support for apartheid,” “Honk if you stand for human rights in Palestine,” and “End U.S. police exchange with Israel,” the signs read. One sign carried by a protester standing almost in the street said, “Death to Israel; Death to Amerikkka,” with the three Ks apparently standing for the Ku Klux Klan.
Media specialist and Berkshire County resident John Prusinski offered to speak for the group of protestors in an Edge interview. See the video below:
Prusinski was born in Lebanon and, as a child, used to drive with his family to the beach, passing Palestinian refugee camps along the way. People were, he observed at the time, “living in little tin shacks in the heat without services.”
“So, that part has always worried me, but currently the apartheid state of Israel is making it impossible for Palestinians to be on their own land,” Prusinski said.
Prusinski said Hamas was currently “throwing tiny rockets toward the Iron Dome,” an Israeli air defense system designed to intercept incoming missiles over Israeli airspace, while the Israeli Air Force responds with much stronger force, killing some civilians in the process.
“That’s not symbolic,” Prusinski said. “That’s children dying; that’s journalists being threatened,” he said, referring to a pre-warned Israeli raid on a building housing not only Hamas but the offices of the Associated Press and Al Jazeera.
“It’s a bad situation and I feel like, as a country that supplies the money for the military might for Israel to carry these things out, we as citizens have a duty to speak out about it,” Prusinski added.
Standing on the bed of the truck with other supporters of Israel, author and communications strategist Marco Greenberg, told The Edge that, while he currently lives in Great Barrington, he has lived in Israel and even served in the Israeli Army.
See video below of an Edge interview with Israel supporter Marco Greenberg:
“It saddens me that the people who are protesting against Israel aren’t really taking into consideration … living under a totalitarian regime, Hamas,” Greenberg said, pointing to the protesters. “If you see the other side, you will not see one reference to Hamas. It’s an organization funded by Iran, Qatar, — Turkey certainly supports them — and this is a fundamentalist organization that is not asking for Israel to do anything other than dismantle itself and no longer be a state.”
Counter-protester signs proclaimed, “Israel is our best ally” and “Stand with Israel.” Greenberg said, if the United States were under attack from rockets fired from Tijuana, we would be justified in responding.
“President Biden has said Israel’s reaction was justified and I agree with him,” Greenberg continued. “We emphasize that Israel has a right to self-defense. We have sympathy for the innocent Palestinian people who are suffering by living under a militant Islamic regime such as Hamas.”
Greenberg also questioned the motives of the anti-Israeli protesters, suggesting some of them might be animated by anti-semitism:
“I don’t think it’s a coincidence that, instead of truly arguing for peace and ceasefire and both sides putting down their arms, they’re putting 100% of their blame on the doorstep of the state of Israel.”
For his part, Prusinski rejected that suggestion: “The Jewish religion, I think, is being abrogated by the Israeli government. It’s a religion of peace and the people who are oppressing Palestinians are ignoring the parts of the Bible that disagree with their perspective. Right now, the people in Gaza are basically in an outdoor concentration camp. [Israel] complains about how terrible Hamas is, but Hamas is basically powerless. They serve as a foil for Israel to have an excuse to bomb them.”
Rabbi Levi Volovik of Chabad of Berkshire County, a synagogue in Pittsfield, was present and spoke privately to some of the anti-Israeli protesters. He was reluctant to talk to The Edge, but it appeared as if he was trying to start a dialogue.
After four hours, the protest ended just as it began: peacefully but passionately. Meanwhile, the strife in Israel and Gaza continued with no end in sight.
