Where were these people the past years Hamas launched rockets into Israel? Where were they when I was in Sderot, Israel 2 hours after rockets hit a school last year? Some of the comments on this one are particularly annoying too 
HeraldTimesOnline.com
Protesters rally against Gaza violence
By Mercedes Rodriguez 331-4370 | mrodriguez@heraldt.com
January 4, 2009
As Israeli forces were beginning their ground attacks on the Gaza Strip, some members of the Bloomington community took to the streets twice Saturday to speak out against the bloodshed in the Mideast.
The crowd, numbering roughly 30, first assembled at noon at the Monroe County Courthouse square. Organizer James Cooper, with Indiana Students Against War, said the issue is of importance to everyone because the ongoing conflict between Israel and the Palestinians is interconnected with other violence in the Middle East and there’s the “potential for a large amount of people to die there, especially if there is a ground incursion,” he said.
Many sought to raise awareness of the problems Palestinians face.
The protesters stood holding signs, including some reading “Free Gaza,” “Where’s Obama?” and “No U.S. support for ethnic cleansing.”
Raja Hanania, a Bloomington resident since 1994, stood facing Walnut Street. He held up a sign in Arabic. It said “No to occupation. Free Palestine.”
“I feel sorry for my people there,” he said. Hanania said he lived in the Palestinian territories for 18 years. There, Hanania said, he was a “second-class citizen” in his own birthplace. “Unfortunately, the U.S. government is only looking at one side of the story,” he said.
Past congressional candidate Gretchen Clearwater was at the protest. She said she believes the U.S. has direct influence over the events there.
“No life is less valuable than another. It’s up to us. We have to step up and really, honestly broker peace.”
Bloomington High School North student Sami Haddad was on hand with members of his family, including a number of cousins, also in high school. “When it comes down to it, someone is going to have to learn to turn the other cheek,” he said of the conflict. The teens said they had trouble raising awareness of these issues among their peers.
“When I told a bunch of friends that I was going to protest against the war in Gaza, some of them were like, ‘What’s Gaza?’” said their friend Maha Elsarrag.
Cars honked at the crowd. They chanted together. After about an hour on the square, they marched down the sidewalk to the Sample Gates. A passer-by yelled at the group and extended his middle finger. Protester Dave Stewart spoke to the man for a few minutes.
“I’m too old to hear someone with a cross on him yelling hate without asking him what’s going on,” he said.
A smaller group, about a dozen, gathered in the rain at 5 p.m.
Previously, Cooper had announced there would be another protest if and when a ground offensive occurred.
He said he never thought it would happen so quickly. E-mails were sent to get the word of a second gathering out.
“With this incursion going on, it’s hard for me to sit still,” he said.
You are 100% right.Repd.
