While domestic social justice protests have dominated the Street for the past year, social justice movements around the world have not gone away. Over the past few weeks we've seen the Israeli - Palestinian conflict flare up and not surprisingly, there were groups on the streets of Denver voicing their opinions.
Early in the first week of the most recent conflict, I came across these guys - about 25 or 30 people in Civic Center Park at Colfax and Broadway. Not many people. They were quite nice and the rush hour traffic passed mostly without noticing. I wasn't there long but I didn't hear a lot of crowd reaction - positive or negative. (I heard only one horn honk in support)
On Friday May 14th, at 4pm a sizeable pro-Palestinian group gathered at the State Capitol.
I did not attend but there was good coverage in local media and on Youtube.
There are pretty close to 1000 people in attendance at this march - a number which has grown over the years in Denver. A Youtube search will show many prior protests going back over a decade (pretty much each time Israel and the Palestinians have fought). Attendance has grown.
The following weekend - May 22nd, there was another Free Palestine rally, with fewer people, but still it was more than 500.
The group met, as it has for several decades, on the steps of the State Capitol.
Turns out Bumble Bee is pro-Palestinian.
The crowd on Broadway gave consistent honks of support.
Attendees take time to pray at the rally.
Rep. Iman Jodeh is a Colorado State Representative and is the daughter of Palestinian immigrants. She spoke about the long evolution of Pro-Palestine rallies in Denver, saying "It's depressing that we have to keep meeting like this."
Jodeh went on to say organizers are "building a movement to stop the violation of human rights" and invited members of all communities in Colorado to join them.
More on Iman Jodeh>
There were a number of other speakers, including Evan Weissman - of Buntport Theatre fame - who is a member of a group called Jewish Voice for Peace.
Weissman spoke about how "many American Jews will tell you how complex the situation (in Palestine) is....but after 70 years and the boot is still on the neck, it's no longer complex."
After speakers, the rally set off on a march through downtown on the Saturday evening.
This video gives you a pretty good view of the crowd size.
There were no counter protesters as has happened in other cities and this crowd was very peaceful and well behaved.
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