#Port Washington NY | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

the-girl-who-didnt-smile · 2 months ago

Text

CRACKPOT THEORY: THE VOODOO ‘VIRGIN MARY’ IS ACTUALLY ERZULIE

Pictured: “Miss Erzulie Freda” by Andre Pierre

(Previously, I had argued that this must be Erzulie Freda, but now I no longer think that is necessarily the case.)

In Voodoo in New Orleans, Robert Tallant described how New Orleans Voodooists worshiped the Catholic saints:

“These merchants also sell pictures of saints. To certain Roman Catholic saints particular Voodoo power has been attributed: St. Michael is thought best able to aid in conquering enemies; St. Anthony de Padua is invoked for “luck”; St. Mary Magdalene is popular with women who are in love; St. Joseph (holding the Infant Jesus) is used to get a job. Many Voodoos believe a picture of the Virgin Mary in their homes will prevent illness, and that one of St. Peter (with the Key to Heaven) will bring great and speedy success in financial matters (without the Key to Heaven, St. Peter is still reliable in helping in the achievement of minor successes; the power of the picture is less, however). Pictures of the Sacred Heart of Jesus are believed to have the ability to cure organic diseases.”

SOURCE: Source: Tallant, Robert. Voodoo in New Orleans. 1946. Reprint, Gretna, La.: United Kingdom, Pelican Publishing Company, 1983.:

Many of these saints are not actually the Catholic Saints, but African-derived deities hidden under their names.

From the interview with the 75-year old Mary Washington (“Mary Ellis”), who was born in 1863*:

“That’s all I can remember. Marie Laveau used to call St. Peter somethin’ like ‘Laba.’ She called St. Michael ‘Daniel Blanc,’ and St. Anthony ‘Yon Sue.’ There was another one she called ‘On Za Tier’; I think that was St. Paul. I never did know where them names come from. They sounded Chinee to me. You know the Chinee emperor sent her a shawl? She wore it all the time, my aunt told me.”

SOURCE: Source: Tallant, Robert. Voodoo in New Orleans. 1946. Reprint, Gretna, La.: United Kingdom, Pelican Publishing Company, 1983.:

*Age and date of birth described in: Long, Carolyn Morrow. A New Orleans voudou priestess: The legend and reality of Marie Laveau. University Press of Florida, 2007.

Due to her age, the septuagenarian seems to have corrupted the pronunciation of the deities’ names. “Daniel Blanc” can be identified with Dan (Damballah), while “Laba” can be identified with Legba (Papa Legba). “Yon Sue” is probably Agasu (Miché Agoussou), while “On Za Tier” is possibly Azaka (Assonquer).

In Mythologie Vodou, Milo Marcelin identifies Maitresse Ezulie (Erzili Freda Dahomey) with the Virgin Mary. To be precise, she is identified with Our Lady of Sorrows (Mater Dolorosa), and two “Black Madonnas”: The Virgin of Altagracia, and Our Lady of Mount Carmel.

“Maitresse Ezili est identifiée à la Mater Dolorosa, représentée, dans les chromos catholiques, sous les traits d'une jolie femme qui porte des colliers en perles et en or, beaucoup de bracelets et de bagues en argent et en or, et qui a le coeur transpercé d'une épée en or. Elle est aussi identifiée à ces deux Vierges noires: Altagrace, appelée aussi Vierge d'Higuey (nom d'une ville Dominicaine), et Notre Dame du Mont-Carmel.”

SOURCE: Marcelin, Milo. Mythologie vodou: rite arada, vol. I. Haiti, Éditions haïtiennes, 1949, p. 77.

An intriguing bit of evidence is mentioned in Jeffrey E. Anderson’s Voodoo: An African American Religion.

In her thesis, Kendra Cole discovered a pencil drawing on the upper right corner of a document from the 19th century: The State of Louisiana v. Louise Johnson, New Orleans: City Archives, June 7, 1893.

The drawing can be viewed here, on page 31: https://aquila.usm.edu/honors_theses/658

It is not an exact match, but resembles Erzulie’s vèvè, as portrayed by Andre Pierre (shown above) and identified by Maya Deren in the 20th century.

See: Deren, Maya. Divine Horsemen : The Living Gods of Haiti. New Paltz, NY: McPherson, 1983 (originally published in 1953), p. 260: https://archive.org/details/divinehorsemenli00dere/page/260/mode/2up

Erzulie Dantor is also identified with the Virgin Mary, but her vèvè is not a match. See: https://haitianartsociety.org/ezili-dantor

Cole notes:

“My research in New Orleans was the first time the case had been opened since it was deposited; therefore, the probability of someone else representing the practice and drawing the symbol is doubtful.”

SOURCE: Cole, Kendra, "The State and the Spirits: Voodoo and Religious Repression in Jim Crow New Orleans" (2019). Honors Theses. 658. https://aquila.usm.edu/honors_theses/658

However, Anderson cautions:

“Unfortunately, the drawing is of uncertain age and origin and has no clear relevance to the case with which it associated, rendering it possible that the resemblance is simple chance.” (footnote 88)

SOURCE: Anderson, Jeffrey E. Voodoo: An African American Religion. LSU Press, 2024.

Indeed, the symbol might not be related to the lwa Ezili, but African in origin. For example, a similar heart-shaped symbol appears in the following photograph from 1900:

Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, Jean Blackwell Hutson Research and Reference Division, The New York Public Library. "Le roi d'Allada." The New York Public Library Digital Collections. 1900. https://digitalcollections.nypl.org/items/510d47de-07a3-a3d9-e040-e00a18064a99

As suggested by the name “Ezili Freda Dahomey”, Erzulie’s originates in the West African vodún Azili:

“An enslaved woman from Agonli-Houegbo, east of Abomey, established a shrine for the spirit Azili in the Tové neighborhood. Azili is the namesake of Haiti’s Èzili spirit family. The Dahomian army sold the woman in Hueda during the reign of Agaja, where she ended up remaining...Given Èzili’s importance in Haiti’s Rada and Petwo Rites, the narrative of the spirit’s origin in Dahomey and implantation in Hueda after 1720 suggests that the Èzili spirits have a Dahomian or Mahi origin.” (p. 73)

“Some have claimed that Ezili is a Haitian spirit (Dayan 1995, 58). However, the spirit Azlì or Azili is still served today in the Fon language area of Benin. Azlì dwells in the waters of Lake Azili that surround the island of Agonve, located on the left bank of the Oueme River (Brand 2000b, 7). In addition to their common traits, major differences include leprous male manifestations of Azlì in Fon culture (Tossounon 2012).” (pp. 169-170)

SOURCE: Hebblethwaite, Benjamin. A transatlantic history of Haitian Vodou: rasin figuier, rasin Bwa Kayiman, and the Rada and Gede Rites. Univ. Press of Mississippi, 2021.

See also: Daniels, Kyra Malika. "An Assembly of Twenty-One Spirit Nations." Africa and Its Historical and Contemporary Diasporas (2023): 67.

Worship of St. Peter and the Virgin Mary were prominent features of New Orleans Voodoo.

In an interview from the Federal Writer’s Project, Charles Raphael (“Raoul Desfrene”, born ca. 1868) described how Marie Laveau’s altar for “good work” featured statues of the Virgin Mary and Saint Peter:

Raoul Desfrene, a “French Negro” of 77, remembered Marie II well and attended some of her rites when he was a boy of about fourteen. What impressed him most was the jewelry he said she wore, which included, besides the ponderous gold earrings, diamond and ruby clasps in her scarlet-and-blue tignons, many rings set with diamonds and other precious stones, a huge horseshoe brooch of diamonds and a heavy gold bracelet on each arm. “She sure used to dress up,” he said.

He dismissed Marie I with, “There was an old lady living there, but nobody paid her no mind.” Raoul enjoyed describing the home of the Laveaus. According to him there was an altar for “good luck and good work” in the front room. It was covered with a white cloth and held a statue of the Virgin and one of Saint Peter. Raoul recalled one of another saint, a Saint Marron, who, he explained, “was a colored saint white people don’t know nothing about. Even the priests ain’t never heard of him ’cause he’s a real hoodoo saint.”

SOURCE: Tallant, Robert. Voodoo in New Orleans. United States, Pelican Publishing, 1984. Originally published in 1946.

If St. Peter was Papa Legba, it is plausible that the Virgin Mary was Erzulie, due to her prominence in Haitian Vodou as the divine feminine principle.

In Haitian Vodou, Milo Rigaud emphasized the importance of Damballah, Legba, and Erzulie, where the three form a holy trinity in the form of a triangle (“le triangle”):

Legba is figured as a divine masculine prototype, while Erzulie is figured a divine feminine prototype:

Dans le voudoo, Legba origine et prototype mâle du voudoo, est donc le soleil qui préside aux rites, tandis qu'Erzulie, origine et prototype femelle, en est la lune. Legba en est le Christ et Erzulie la Vierge. Les autres mystères viennent à leur suite, par ordre hiérarchique.

TRANSLATION:

In Vodou, Legba - male origin and prototype of Vodou - is the sun who presides over rites, while Erzulie - female origin and prototype - is the moon. Legba is the Christ and Erzulie the Virgin. The other mystères follow them, in hierarchical order.

SOURCE: Rigaud, Milo. La tradition voudoo et le voudoo haïtien: son temple, ses mystères, sa magie. FeniXX, 1953. https://original-ufdc.uflib.ufl.edu/AA00002240/00001

SEE ALSO: Rigaud, Milo. Secrets of voodoo. City Lights Books, 1985. French edition by Editions Niclaus 1953. Accessible here: https://archive.org/details/secretsofvoodoo00riga/mode/2up

This mirrors the importance of Saint Peter and the Virgin Mary in Louisiana Voudou.

Additionally, “Mama You” might be referring to one of the Ezili.

This is what is known about “Mama You”:

“Finally, some divinities survive only as names recorded in old documents, while others were probably no more than creations of imaginative authors. Mama You is one of the former, with her lone mention being a brief reference in a 1939 Federal Writers’ Project oral history. The only details supplied by the document are that she was “the mother of the child Jesus” and that she would sometimes answer from the ground when called by Marie Laveau.”

SOURCE: Anderson, Jeffrey E. Voodoo: An African American Religion. LSU Press, 2024.

Pictured: The protective mother, “Erzulie Dantor” by Andre Pierre

In Haitian Vodou, Ezili is sometimes referred to as “Manman” (as in, “Ezili bel Manman”, “Manman cherie” “Manman lavi” etc...) This is especially true for the protective mother Manman Ezili Danto. Words of praise for Ezili (especially, “Manman Danto”) sometimes refer to her as “Manman Ou”; there are many examples of this that can easily be found on the internet.

Just a hypothesis, but “Mama You” might be derived from “Manman Ou”, or part of a sentence that goes “Mama, You…” where “Mama” refers to (Mama) Ezili. In other words, “Mama You” might not be the name of a spirit but words of praise for Ezili - possibly, but not necessarily Ezili Danto.

In Lapriye Ginen, there is a lwa called “Manman Wou”, who is part of the Ezili famille. Another possibility is that "Mama You" is derived from this "Manman Wou".

SOURCE: Beauvoir, Max. Lapriyè Ginen. Haiti, Edisyon Près Nasyonal d'Ayiti, 2008.

Benjamin Hebblewaithe reproduced Beauvoir’s list of lwa here: http://ufdcimages.uflib.ufl.edu/AA/00/02/68/96/00001/Historical%20Linguistic%20Dimensions%20of%20Spirit%20Migration%20in%20Haitian%20Vodou.pdf

This is nothing definitive; I could have this wrong.

***

Previously, I proposed a theory that the Saint-Domingans may have brought a version of Erzulie who was both Erzulie Freda and Erzulie Dantor, like so:

“While I previously argued that this must be Erzulie Freda Dahomey, I have since realized that my logic was not entirely consistent. In Haitian Vodou, there exists a massive pantheon, where the lwa can be categorized by famille . “Erzulie” is actually a famille of lwa , where Erzulie Dantor is often described as the Petwo counterpart to Erzulie Freda Dahomey. (others categorize Erzulie Dantor as Rada and Erzulie Freda Dahomey as Danwonmen ) In the historical record of New Orleans, there is no evidence of an organization of Voudou spirits by famille . Petwo counterparts to Rada lwa - such as Damballah la Flambeau, Erzulie Dantor, and Maitre Carrefour - are absent.

Papa Lébat (Louisiana Voudou) might capture an earlier version of Papa Legba (Haitian Vodou), where he is both Atibon Legba and Maitre Carrefour. If Erzulie really was incorporated into Louisiana Voudou, it is possible she was both Erzulie Freda Dahomey and Erzulie Dantor.”

Upon reflection, I realize this theory doesn’t actually make sense.

The emergence of Erzulie Dantor can be dated to Bwa Kayiman. The Saint-Domingans fled to New Orleans years after this event. It is very unlikely that Erzulie Dantor would have merged with Erzulie Freda during this time window.

Because the historical record is so sparse, there is a lot of uncertainty here. But it seems more sensible that the Saint-Domingans would have brought something resembling Azili and possibly Erzulie Freda Dahomey, if they brought a version of Erzulie with them at all. In other words, my previous speculation that this version of Erzulie would be both Erzulie Freda and Erzulie Dantor is probably wrong.

#commentary #lady love (hazbin hotel)#lady rose (hazbin hotel)

3 notes · View notes

jules-has-notes · 5 months ago

Text

2018 VoicePlay spring roundup — friends, families, fun, and fear

A busy winter for the VoicePlay boys rolled into a slightly more relaxed spring. Between various road trips and recording sessions, they made sure to spend some time with loved ones and savor their accomplisments.

They started the season by celebrating another milestone on their YouTube page.

3, 2, 1, Let's jam!

The boys kicked off their spring travels with a trip to northwest Arkansas for the VoiceJam A Cappella Festival. In between two days of workshops for high school, collegiate, and community groups, they headlined a concert on Friday night.

youtube

In addition to reuniting with Deke Sharon once again, they also got to see their friend Chris Diaz from The Exchange, who was the director of the only high school group selected for the festival's competition that year.

While they were there, J.None was presented with a card containing messages collected from fans around the world to celebrate him officially joining the group.

After the festival, the guys had a couple days at home to work on other projects. If you've ever wondered how Layne comes up with his various percussion noises and deft beats, sometimes they happen just to pass the time while he's commuting.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Layne Stein (@laynestein)

instagram

Hey, lady!

For the second week of April, the guys met up with Rachel Potter to perform at a series of private events, including a corporate gig in Hartford, CT. Since VoicePlay already had six collaborations with Rachel in their catalogue, and several more with other ladies whose parts she could learn, they had the makings of quite a setlist for those shows.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Layne Stein (@laynestein)

instagram

Five years after they released their "Trouble mashup" video and he's still got it down.

Chickens and bergens and bugs, oh my!

During their next few days at home, they packed in some family-friendly fun. First, the Castelluccis hosted William's first birthday party, complete with a barnyard petting zoo.

A few days later, the boys met up at a local studio to film their next music video for a song about perseverance from the Trolls movie.

Round and round

Then it was time for a swing through the mid-Atlantic states. They started in central Pennsylvania, dipped down to Washington, DC, then hustled back up to Long Island, NY.

Port Washington, NY show — photos by Winifred Boyd

youtube

[This video was originally posted to the venue's Facebook page.]

Later, dudes!

The last weekend of April marked Earl's final performance as Crush the turtle in the live Finding Nemo show at Disney World. To celebrate the occasion, Layne and Cyndi took Doris to see the show in the morning, then the four of them spent the afternoon at the Animal Kingdom.

A couple days later, VoicePlay scooped up Max Herskovitz to fill in for Layne on a quick cruise to the Bahamas.

Come play with us

While the others were away, Layne and Tony worked on a couple of upcoming PattyCake videos featuring superheroes, getting one ready to release and the next ready to film. Once their buddies were back on dry land, they lured J.None into their "Unexpected Musicals" series with the role of Black Panther and a tasty rap verse in their MCU video.

The day after that, VoicePlay gathered up some family members and headed to a nearby farm to film the video for their cover of Johnny Cash's "Daddy Sang Bass".

Side quests

The next week, J.None popped up to Tennessee for a couple days of concentrated vocal coaching (and a little sightseeing). It's important to keep honing and expanding your skills, particularly in creative fields.

On the following weekend, family and friends gathered to celebrate Doris Stein's second birthday party. They had a fiesta theme, and a bounce house that was a big hit with the kid of honor.

Layne, Cyndi, and the girls had also created another family music video for the occasion, this time to "BFF" from the SpongeBob musical, which they'd seen on Broadway while they were in New York for the Total Vocal concert.

A few days later, VoicePlay teamed up with one of J.None's other groups, Paradigm Party Band, and a few kids of their acquaintence to perform at a private event.

Teamwork makes the dream work

The next week, the boys returned to the studio to film their next "Aca Top 10" countdown featuring the songs of Disney sidekicks.

They finished off their video filming for the spring with a location shoot at an abandoned sawmill, where they created their own scene from an action movie, complete with a Panic! at the Disco medley as a soundtrack.

#VoicePlay #traveling musicians #behind the scenes #long post #link-o-rama

3 notes · View notes

supertrainstationh · 4 months ago

Video

flickr

LIRR MP75 (World's Fair) 2525, LIRR press photo, August 1963 by R36 Coach Via Flickr: August 1963 press photo of new LIRR MP75C MU unit 2525 at Jamaica, NY. The MP75 cars were built by Pullman Standard of Chicago for the 1964-1965 World's Fair (served on the Port Washington Branch). The MP75s were converted to diesel coaches in the 1970s and remained in service until 1999, when the new Kawasaki C3 bilevels were delivered. They have been sold and can be found at shortlines and tourist operations.

#trainspam #long island rail road

2 notes · View notes

keanuquotes · 1 year ago

Text

Dogstar 2023 Tour Dates 10/08 Atlantic City, NJ – Sound Waves at Hard Rock Hotel 10/10 Port Chester, NY – The Capitol Theatre 10/11 New Haven, CT – Toad’s Place 11/30 Los Angeles, CA – Troubadour 12/03 San Francisco, CA – The Great American Music Hall 12/05 Sacramento, CA – Crest Theatre 12/07 Chicago, IL – Thalia Hall 12/08 Detroit, MI – The Majestic Theatre 12/09 Toronto, ON – Lee’s Palace 12/11 Brooklyn, NY – Music Hall of Williamsburg 12/12 Boston, MA – Paradise Rock Club 12/14 Philadelphia, PA – Underground Arts 12/15 Washington, D.C. – The Howard Theatre 12/16 Norfolk, VA – The NorVa 12/18 Charlotte, NC – The Underground 12/19 Atlanta, GA – Center Stage 12/20 Nashville, TN – Brooklyn Bowl 12/21 Nashville, TN – Brooklyn Bowl Read more at NYS Music…

#keanu reeves #Dogstar band

9 notes · View notes

dreaminginthedeepsouth · 1 year ago

Text

LETTERS FROM AN AMERICAN

October 17, 2023 (Tuesday)

HEATHER COX RICHARDSON

OCT 18, 2023

This morning, the Ukrainian military launched a surprise attack on two Russian airfields in occupied Ukraine, using a longer-range missile system secretly supplied in the last few weeks by the United States. The Army Tactical Missile System, or ATACMS, has a range of about 100 miles, or 161 kilometers. It enabled the Ukrainians to damage runways and destroy nine Russian helicopters. The missiles also killed a number of Russian soldiers. One of the conditions of Ukraine’s acquisition of these weapons was that they would only be used within Ukraine against the occupiers, not in Russia itself.

The thirty-one M1 Abrams main battle tanks the U.S. had promised Ukraine have all arrived, the U.S. confirmed today. All the Ukrainian military personnel who trained to use those tanks in Germany have also returned.

A recent Russian offensive has been largely unsuccessful, while the Ukrainian goal of dividing the Russian invaders in two (much as the U.S. did to the Confederacy) has been partially achieved but troops have not punched through. At the same time, strategic Ukrainian attacks have pushed Russia’s Black Sea fleet out of its main base in the Crimean port of Sevastopol, and the Institute for the Study of War assesses that the attacks on the airfields will force Russia to pull its aircraft back and either to disperse its ammunition depots or to fortify them.

Meanwhile, the struggle in the House of Representatives today looked like a preview of the 2024 election.

Representative Jim Jordan (R-OH), a staunch supporter of former president Trump and a key figure in the attempt to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election, is pushing hard for election as speaker, emphasizing how imperative it is for the House Republicans to enable the House to get back to business. As Karoun Demirjian outlined in the New York Times, Jordan and his allies have deployed a pressure campaign against those Republicans opposed to him, as she puts it, “working to unleash the rage of the party’s base voters against any lawmaker standing in his way.”

This is the same tactic that the extremists have used for decades to move the Republican Party to the right. But there is a different dynamic at play in this speakership crisis. Jordan and his allies created the crisis in the first place by supporting Trump’s demands to shut down the government, tossing out former speaker Kevin McCarthy because he would not agree to shut down the government, and refusing to abide by the vote of the Republican conference to accept the choice of the majority: first McCarthy and then Representative Steve Scalise (R-LA).

There is another way in which this moment is different. Jordan is a flamethrower who was one of the original organizers of the right-wing Freedom Caucus. Republicans saw McCarthy, who was an excellent fundraiser, as a pro-business Republican who worked with the far right, but Jordan is the real deal: a far-right extremist. Republican donors have already suggested they are not enthusiastic about working with him to fund Republican candidates.

The third way this moment is different is that putting Jordan in the speaker’s chair makes him, along with Trump, the face of the Republican Party going into the 2024 election. Representative Pete Aguilar (D-CA) previewed the many downsides of Jordan as speaker when he nominated Democratic minority leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) for the speaker’s chair. Aguilar blamed extremism and partisanship for the unprecedented chaos of the House and urged the Republicans to embrace bipartisanship to do the work the American people had sent them to Washington, D.C., to conduct.

Aguilar noted that Jordan was “the architect of a nationwide abortion ban, a vocal election denier, and an insurrection inciter.” He has “spent his entire career trying to hold our country back, putting our national security in danger, attempting government shutdown after government shutdown, wasting taxpayer dollars on baseless investigations with dead ends, authoring the very bill that would ban abortion nationwide without exceptions, and inciting violence on this chamber. Even leaders of his own party have called him ‘a legislative terrorist.’”

Aguilar pointed out Jordan’s opposition to disaster relief, veterans’ relief, support for Ukraine, and military aid to our allies, including Israel, and added: “This body is debating elevating a speaker nominee who has not passed a single bill in 16 years. These are not the actions of someone interested in governing or bettering the lives of everyday Americans.” Jordan as speaker would mean the Republican Party would “continue taking marching orders from a twice-impeached former president with more than 90 pending felony charges.”

Even without mentioning Jordan’s involvement with the cover-up of a sexual assault scandal at Ohio State, Aguilar put Republicans on notice that placing Jordan at the head of the party would have brutal consequences in Democratic campaign ads.

When House members voted for speaker, the Democrats were unified behind Jeffries, who won all 212 of their votes. Jordan won only 200 of the 217 votes necessary to become speaker, with 20 Republicans voting for someone else. His allies initially said they would call a second vote tonight but changed their minds, apparently realizing that another loss would weaken his candidacy significantly. They say they will hold another vote tomorrow.

Tonight, hundreds of people were killed in an explosion at a packed hospital in Gaza City. Palestinian authorities blamed an Israeli airstrike for the explosion; hours later, Israel Defense Forces said the explosion was a misfired missile launched as part of a “barrage of rockets” by the Islamic Jihad militant group. Neither version of events has been confirmed.

Governments around the region have blamed Israel and sometimes the U.S. for the catastrophic loss of life, and protests have broken out in Lebanon, Iran, and Turkey as President Joe Biden travels to the region personally to demonstrate U.S. support for Israel, pressure Israel to permit humanitarian aid into Gaza, learn any new information about the hostages, and to try to keep the conflict from widening and escalating.

Biden will meet in Tel Aviv, Israel, with Israeli leaders, first responders, and families of hostages, but the second leg of his trip—to Jordan, for a meeting with King Abdullah II, Palestinian Authority president Mahmoud Abbas, and Egyptian president Abdel Fattah el-Sisi—was canceled as Abbas rushed home. National Security Council Coordinator for Strategic Communications John Kirby told reporters Biden would speak with Abbas and Sisi on the trip back to the U.S.

—

LETTERS FROM AN AMERICAN

HEATHER COX RICHARDSON

#Letters from an American #Heather Cox Richardson #war in ukraine #war in israel #hostages #US House of Representatives

8 notes · View notes

stonecreationslongisland · 1 year ago

Text

Port Washington Curb Appeal, NY 11050

View On WordPress

4 notes · View notes

teaspoon-of-salt · 1 year ago

Text

In cities across the globe, people closed their shops, staged pickets, avoided commerce, and participated in marches as part of a global strike for Palestine on December 11. The call for a global general strike was launched by Palestinian civil society as Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza entered the third month, with Israel showing no signs of letting up.

From Istanbul to Brussels, entire blocks of stores could be seen shuttered in response to the global call to not engage in business as usual. An image went viral of a Turkish man kissing the Palestinian flag on the streets of Istanbul.

In the West Bank, Palestinians utilized their long tradition of general strikes and shut down public transport, universities, and local shops.

The people in Western nations, whose governments serve as the principal bastion of support for Israel, also hit the streets en masse on December 11 for the global strike.

In New York City, hundreds picketed outside of the New York Times building, in protest of the mainstream outlet’s pro-Zionist media coverage. Picketers chanted “everytime the media lies, a neighborhood in Gaza dies!”

Later in the afternoon, activists with Al Awda – NY protested outside the US mission to the United Nations and marched to the Jewish National Fund, a key zionist fundraising institution that actively aids Israel in the forced displacement of Palestinians from their land and the destruction of Palestinian land and property.

In Washington DC, a group of over 100 activists were arrested while occupying the lobby of the US Senate, with a few climbing the massive sculpture titled “Mountains and Clouds” to hang a banner. This action happened simultaneously to Congress debating Biden’s USD 106 billion spending package for Israel and Ukraine. These demonstrators sprinkled red-soaked fake money labeled “blood” money, with Joe Biden’s face printed on each bill, throughout the lobby. Protesters chanted “Not another nickel, not another dime, no more money for Israel’s crimes,” as they were dragged away by police.

In Philadelphia, thousands of protesters gathered outside of Joe Biden’s fundraiser with signs that read “Biden has blood on his hands.”

In Montreal, Canada, demonstrators occupied the offices of Israel’s largest shipping company, ZIM, displaying a banner that read “war crimes start at ZIM.” ZIM has been challenged by pro-Palestine demonstrators across the globe, such as in Italy, where trade unionists shut down ports to prevent weapons transport through ZIM.

In Manchester, England, thousands marched for Palestine and took part in actions including occupying a Puma store, a brand which has been targeted by the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions movement for sponsoring the Israel Football Association.

#palestine

2 notes · View notes