“While You’re Shopping, Bombs Are Dropping!”; Die-In and Direct Action
“BOMBS ARE DROPPING!”
Two days before Christmas, the protests continued across the world, a global movement for a Free Palestine. I began my Saturday as I had the month before, back in Portland. For brunch, we ate at Cedo’s, and the falafel was especially tasty and we were welcomed by the lovely Palestinian owners. Once our meal was finished, we returned to the Pioneer Courthouse Square to support ZaytunaPDX’s event against the genocide.
When we arrived, we noticed the crowd gathering on the steps. Unlike the last rally at the square, no Christmas music roared over the speakers. The crowd of over 100 gathered quietly, the whole event seemed very somber, as one would expect.
Christmas has been canceled in Bethlehem, the historical town of Jesus’ birth, so there is nothing to celebrate. The town, where the Christian son of God and the Muslim prophet was born in a manger, lies in the Israeli-occupied West Bank. Palestine has one of the oldest Christian populations, and its members have no refuge from the violence. In fact, the historical Christian church in Gaza, where many were seeking refuge, was bombed by Israel. As was the Latin Monastery in Lebanon, two days before the sacred holiday. As such, its residents called off the usual festivities, as many of them have lost family members in the genocide.
It wasn’t until the event was set to begin, and the majority of protesters gathered around the large Christmas tree in the center; that the music began to blare once more in the square, no doubt controlled by security.
ZaytunaPDX announced a die-in as the first part of the rally. White sheets were handed out to the mass of mourners, who wrapped themselves in them while lying down on the cold brick. The white sheets and acting dead were meant to symbolize the over 22,000 dead men, women, and especially children, paid for by American taxpayers.
All the while, organizers wandered around the square and placed props on the demonstrators. They handed out poppies, a flower of remembrance. On others, they placed blue cut-outs of the vests worn by members of the press in Gaza, with painted bullet holes and blood. The day before a rally was held outside The Oregonian headquarters, to honor the nearly-100 journalists killed by Israel in the last 70-plus days, as Israel targets members of the media for exposing their crimes.
Throughout the die-in, they poured red-dye, while others had their hands dipped in red like blood. Some supporters laid a Palestinian flag over the still silhouettes, like the flags placed on the caskets of dead soldiers. Only in this instance, the dead were mothers and fathers, and their children, many merely infants.
Families, with their children, were also in attendance, and scores of spray-painted signs bore the messaging that caused many of us to be moved to march. Signs that called out the number of children dead throughout the months of airstrikes and the ground invasion of Gaza.
One woman held aloft a sign that read “COMPASSION NOW. 6,600 DEAD CHILDREN”. That statistic, without a doubt, increased overnight. This also doesn’t account for the 75 years of occupation of Palestine, which has seen millions displaced. It doesn’t include the number of young boys and girls imprisoned through Israeli military courts. The amount of children murdered by Israel is a number we will never be able to confirm, let alone count.
There were a few notable differences from the protests since the bombing of Gaza began. While the black truck that had seemed suspect was still at the edge of the squares, the owner had listened to our concerns and removed any support of police, in the form of a Thin Blue Line sticker. Instead, the truck sat idle, with a flag of Iraq and Palestine, on the back.
As the die-in continued, I was then approached by a couple of the organizers. One of them was a man I had discussed throughout a couple articles. He approached me calmly and respectfully, and introduced himself. He had read my articles, he told me, and he understood what I was aiming for, simply advocating for actual direct action, something that he and the others were pushing towards. He admitted his own faults, and clarified that he understood our issue with communicating with security forces, even those at the square. If anything, he added that he was relatively new at this, as were the organizers.
He had some fair criticisms of my writing which I’d like to address. As a writer and reporter, I will admit when I make mistakes. My first was giving his full legal name. All articles mentioning him have been adjusted to remove his name, simply listed as a “man”. The other is what I did note in my last report, “There’s Only One Solution; Intifada, Revolution, and the Streisand Effect”. As I have witnessed, ZaytunaPDX has done well to disavow and separate themselves from the accused sexual predator that I have discussed. As Palestinians, Arabs, and Muslims, they organize against the genocide the best that they can, and have heard and acknowledged our concerns. One example was something I had missed the week before, when they organized a caravan of vehicles to shut down the Fremont Bridge.
They then asked if we had heard what the action was today, to which we nodded. Overall, it was a positive interaction, and I was suddenly excited to see what they would do today. It was a new idea, not the same circuit march that I had taken an issue with and which did little to call attention to the genocide. Now they were ready to take direct action.
The night before, a direct action had taken place at Portland’s famous Peacock Lane. Peacock Lane attracts lots of visitors every year, as rich residents decorate their multi-million dollar homes with scores of lights and decorations. Normally, vehicles will line up outside and drive on the road, alongside pedestrians that wander the excessive holiday displays they could afford.
Instead, the night before, activists had gathered at the street as the sun began to set. They dumped layers of broken bricks and rubble into the road, to prevent the normal tourism of the affluent neighborhood. The rubble signified the situation in Bethlehem and Palestine, where Christ was born. They even brought baby dolls, covered in kufiyas, and figurines of shepherds and angels that they littered over the stone blockade. Flares were lit and placed on the roadblock, so people could see these additions. They handed out flyers with the words of prominent Palestinian pastors, detailing how Christmas festivities were called off in the wake of the atrocities committed in Gaza.
The activists chanted, and some passersby joined in on their chorus of “FREE FREE PALESTINE!”. An old man then appeared and began tearing down the display of protest, scrambling to throw the bricks off of the road. Eventually, Portland Police arrived at the scene, and they too joined in to remove the rubble, as they genuinely support the State of Israel and train with the IDF.
Remember that Christ was born under a brutal occupation by the Romans, and that they killed him for the fact that his words challenged the status quo and caste systems. Jesus was a brown Jewish child born in a town now facing a worse military occupation, one that targets the very people that would have heard his message of love and peace for humanity. I am not a believer, but historically Jesus was a living person, and many faiths acknowledge the power of his teachings. The town of Bethlehem is holy to both Christians and Muslims, and is occupied by the apartheid state of Israel.
As a result, Christmas could not continue as usual.
WHILE YOU’RE SHOPPING!”
Eventually, the die-in ended, and the demonstrators picked themselves off of the cold concrete, and gathered around the speakers. A couple people spoke about the ongoing genocide. I stood at the outskirts hearing snippets of the speeches, one of the organizers reminded us of the fact that Christmas is canceled in the town where Jesus was born.
Once the speeches wrapped up, the procession proceeded to the sidewalk, on the corner of 6th and Morrison. Zaytuna led us all in chants of “Israel, Israel, What Do You Say? How Many Kids Did You Kill Today?” and “From the River to the Sea, Palestine Will Be Free!” Instead of taking the streets, the organizers led the crowd on the sidewalk, as we marched east two blocks.
They then approached the Pioneer Place Mall. The protesters pulled the doors open and spilled into the mall at the heart of downtown Portland. The organizers on the megaphone led the march into the hall, and continued their chants.
The crowd of over 100 entered the large shopping center through the vestibule, and walked through the large hallways. All around, you could hear echoes of the chants that they continued to scream. “From the River to the Sea,” reverberated throughout the chamber, followed by “Palestine Will Be Free!”
The Pioneer Place Mall has multiple floors. We entered on the second floor, at ground level. The protesters marched around the elevators, wrapping themselves throughout the entire area. Some activists held their Palestinian flags over the railings. Below, shoppers stared up at the protesters, wondering why they had interrupted their day of Christmas shopping.
The moment the march entered the mall, the security team began to circle the demonstration. They spoke on their walkies to each other, no doubt nervous by the size of the crowd. However, they kept a distance and an eye, as they reported to each other the numbers now flooding the shopping center.
“While You’re Shopping,” organizers began to chant. “Bombs Are Dropping!”. It echoed throughout the floors, and some shoppers in the upper floors stuck their heads over the railings to watch the activists. “While You’re Shopping! Bombs Are Dropping!”
The march flowed in a long line, circling the area multiple times. Eventually, the organizers stepped onto the escalators. Single file, we began to follow the march to its intended target. As activists descended down the escalators, the organizers continued to lead yells of “CEASEFIRE NOW!” over and over. I wandered around the floor, first to capture some video from above, then to see if any security forces or police were approaching the demonstration.
By the time I made my way to where the march ended up, I spotted them gathered around Zara. Zara, a retail giant for clothes and shoes, has many stores in occupied Palestine and the 1947 borders of Israel. Franchise owners hosted a fundraiser for an ultra-nationalist extremist in the Israeli government, whose political party incites violence against Palestinians and who was filmed pulling a gun on Palestinians in occupied East Jerusalem.
As such, Zara was on the boycott list, and so the organizers decided to protest the store. A group was gathered outside, and their chants continued to echo through the spacious shopping center. “ZARA, ZARA, YOU CAN’T HIDE! YOU’RE SUPPORTING GENOCIDE”.
I noticed that a large crowd had entered the lower level of the store, and stood near the cashiers, as they continued to protest. One individual stood at the window, in front of a mannequin. They held a Palestinian flag in both hands, and a poppy on the right. The logo on the window that read “ZARA, Happy Holidays”, was covered with the flag.
In the hallway, there was a large neon sign reading “ZARA”. Red droplets dripped around the lettering of the logo, and a line of deep red, that truly looked like blood, was gathered at the base of the floor.
As the demonstration continued, I noticed a security guard rush into the store in a speed-walk. I filmed and followed behind wondering what he intended to do or if he’d try to force out the picketers.
When I went in, the energy of the crowd was high, as they waved Palestinian flags back and forth, next to the racks of high-priced clothing. The security guard spoke to the cashier, who was frantic and irritated by the rally. On top of the check-out counter, activists had dumped bundles of white cloth, doused in red, to symbolize the blood on the hands of the retail chain.
All the while they continued to chant, “Zara, Zara, You Can’t Hide! You’re Supporting Genocide!”.
The upstairs had been locked and their consumers and crew watched the crowd on the outside, no doubt justifying their continued support of Zara clothing, despite the fact that it’s cheaply produced and highly overpriced; let alone the retail giant’s continued support of the apartheid state.
We held the space for a solid twenty minutes and more, as others rallied in the foyer. I was handed a sticker depicting a Palestinian youth, with the words “Palestine Will Be Free”, which I stuck on the R of the store’s logo on the front door.
Having successfully shut down the store, the organizers led the march out of the store, and deeper into the mall. At this point, the retail staff moved quickly to shut the doors. One individual tried to drop a sign between two closing doors. The woman, even more annoyed, tossed it back out. Then, at the other doors, I filmed the staff shuttering the entrance, just to make sure they didn’t do anything rash.
Another spray-painted sign was placed on the tiles, which read “PALESTINIAN CHILDREN DESERVE TO… LIVE IN PEACE, PLAY, BE CHILDREN, HAVE PARENTS, GROW UP, GROW OLD. PALESTINIAN CHILDREN DESERVE FREEDOM”.
One of the staff, a tall white man with tattoo sleeves, proceeded to pick it up and tear it in half. I called him a loser, and a fascist, as he was. Normally, I do not condone harassing staff specifically, as many of us are simply paying the bills. This response, however, was a spit in the face of Palestinian children and seemed to be an act of hate.
PALESTINIAN CHILDREN DESERVE TO LIVE IN PEACE, PLAY, BE CHILDREN, HAVE PARENTS, GROW UP, GROW OLD.
I then caught up with the protest, which had now amassed at the food court. There, they gathered in the center, and continued to scream, “What Do We Want? Ceasefire! When Do We Want It? NOW!”
“CEASE FIRE NOW”, disrupted the diners sitting in the Chinese restaurant, and walking by with Christmas gifts in hand. We stood in the middle and the megaphones and voices shook the customers, as some sitting outside in the patio area picked up their plates to go into the restaurant. Security continued to circle the demonstration, but did nothing to intervene.
The organizers then led the march back to the area in which we entered. We filed up the escalators, and meandered around the second floor, like a long picket line, blocking the escalators to the lower floor. Security ensured that they stood at the escalators that led up to the third floor, to keep us contained.
As the activists continued to circle the second floor, I went outside to smoke a cigarette. I watched the security guards at the other entrances, who stood silent. I could hear the calls of the crowd echoing outside, and saw many shoppers confused as to where a protest was taking place.
After a couple of minutes, the crowd exited out of the opposite corner of where we entered, on Third and Morrison. The energy continued in chants, as the long line passed the Apple Store. There, a few employees stood outside of the entrance. They most likely feared that the protest would try to enter the flagship store, for Apple’s support of the Israeli apartheid state.
Instead, we made our way back to the courthouse square, where the protest was not quite finished. The Starbucks, on the corner of 6th and Morrison was a weekly target of our boycotts and demonstrations, because they too enable Israel’s slaughter of civilians. The organizers stood at the entrance, and effectively shut down any going or leaving for a short while. A red handprint was left on the window, signifying the cruel carnage that their coffee supports, and the customers stared out of the store at the crowd of activists yelling, “BOYCOTT STARBUCKS!”. Once we made our message clear, we walked back to the Christmas tree at the center of Pioneer Courthouse Square.
There, the protest came to an end. ZaytunaPDX organizers thanked us all for our support. I cheered, happy to have stuck around and taken part in such a powerful action. This is the type of direct action I had been advocating for from the beginning, and the action was truly inspiring. Zaytuna had done well to directly confront two of the corporations that continue to profit off of the Israeli apartheid regime. Our boycotts have been working as well, considering the record losses of Starbucks. As such we must continue to Boycott, Divest, and Sanction, until Palestine is Free.
A woman on the megaphone announced that while it was the holiday season, they would not stop in their protests and organizing for a Free Palestine. They reminded us once again that the people of Bethlehem had called off all festivities, in order to honor their family buried under the rubble and the babies being murdered by American bombs.
While you’re shopping, bombs are dropping.
The Christmas story is a Palestinian story.
