Doing Something About It

There have been a number of protests here in Larache in a show of solidarity with the Palestinians. They have been permitted and well received by the authorities. Which is unlike the Spring of 08 when an unofficial protest by students for Palestine was broken up violently by the police. It was here that I saw middle school students being slapped violently, hit with batons, and thrown into police vehicles. A hard sight to see and a constant reminder of which side the Moroccan government is on when it comes to the Palestinian question.

Now, this freedom is not necesarily anything new and in fact Islam itself calls for a responsible, conscious citizen who doesn't hesitate to denounce bad governance and the suffering of its people. Yet, there is so much pent up anger and aggresion in this part of the world due to an increasing poverty, less and less social mobility, and a continuously corrupt and irresponsible government that with the help of Europe and the US keeps a iron tight grip on its people and their freedom. This is all done in the name of world economics, the fight against terorism, or whatever the evil of the current moment might be. So, it was beautiful to see this outpouring of human emotion and spirit behind last night's march.

It is the first one that I have seen since I came back from America. I was impressed by the sheer quantity of people that had come out for the march. People here are generally disinterested in any civic activity and they would prefer to sit on the sideline and ridicule those that do stand up for something than actually join in and participate. But Palestine is different. And it showed last night...there must have been at least 1000 people there tonight, and it was a tremendous show of support by the Larachi people for the Palestinians. You may feel the intensity in the air and feel as though there is something violent or dangerous going on but the strong emotion simply manifests the pain and the suffering that the Moroccan's are dealing with, for they are so close to feel the pain of the Palestinians but too far away to do anything about it. And its frustrating for them. At least here they have a peaceful and positive way of showing their feelings. Here's the video.