by Askia Muhammad
White House Correspondent

THE WHITE HOUSE (FinalCall.com)�Just days after the largest pro-Israel demonstration ever in Washington and another shift of U.S. support in favor of Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon�s brutal policies, more than 100,000 Arab and Muslim groups, civil rights activists, union members, immigrant rights activists, veterans, peace groups and youth protestors crowded the National Mall, rallying peacefully to oppose those same U.S. policies.

Against the backdrop of President George W. Bush�s strong endorsement of Mr. Sharon as a "man of peace," four separate marches and mobilizations merged at the U.S. Capitol April 20 into what amounts to the largest pro-Palestinian demonstration in U.S. history. Another 20,000 people gathered the same day for a similar rally in San Francisco.

During an entire week of protests against U.S. policies, demonstrators called for an end to U.S. military aid to Israel; targeted the spring meeting of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank; called for an end to U.S. military operations around the globe, including against Muslims in the Philippines, and in the area of Colombia where Afro-Colombians are the primary victims; and they called for a halt to the mounting attacks on civil liberties in this country.

Rally speakers included Rep. Cynthia McKinney (D-Ga.), Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) President Martin Luther King III and Michael Ratner, president of the Center for Constitutional Rights.

Demonstrators included elderly Black women in wheelchairs to White-teenaged, anti-capitalist protestors wearing bandannas on their faces to conceal their identities. Marchers carried signs, which read: "If Sharon is a Man of Peace, Then Hitler Must Be a Saint!" "Jews Against The Israeli Occupation: Not in My Name!" and "Justice for All."

Just two weeks after he declared that "enough is enough" concerning an Israeli siege and military crackdown on dozens of West Bank villages and refugee camps, Mr. Bush adopted more conciliatory rhetoric, conceding he understood the Israeli actions, saying the U.S. would instead demand that PLO President Yasser Arafat deliver results to match his condemnation of terrorism.

"The situation on the ground is that Secretary Powell leaves the situation worse than when he came," said Saeb Erekat, a senior adviser to Mr. Arafat told reporters in the West Bank town of Ramallah after the U.S. diplomat�s final meeting with the Palestinian leader April 17. Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak canceled a second meeting he had scheduled with Mr. Powell that day, delegating his foreign minister to meet with the U.S. official.

Members of the new anti-war coalition demanded an end to what they called Mr. Bush�s "war without end." "We�ve joined the march to demonstrate that there are millions of Americans who have grown weary of the administration�s endless and ill-defined war on terrorism," said organizer Ted Glick of the 9/11 Emergency National Network.

"We cannot fight terror with terror," agreed Eliza Braun of the National Youth and Student Peace Coalition. "We must stop the expansion of this war to Iran, Iraq, the Philippines and Colombia."

The Washington protests mark a watershed moment for the acceptance of the Palestinian struggle as a part of the legitimate landscape in this country, according to many political analysts. Up until now, most Jewish liberals and leftists who did want to oppose Israel stayed away from supporting pro-Palestinian positions.

Because of long-standing connections between Blacks and Jews involved in the Civil Rights movement, Blacks have sometimes been indifferent to the Palestinian cause. Palestinians and other Arabs are learning their own lessons from the Black movement, according to Mahdi Bray, national political director of the Muslim Public Affairs Council (MPAC).

"(The protest demonstration) certainly has been inspired by the African American movement here in the United States," he told The Final Call. Black people especially "now realize that oppression is oppression," and recognize the suffering of the Palestinian people under Israeli occupation.

"I think we�re seeing a new movement in support of the rights of the Palestinian people," the Rev. Lucius Walker, convener of Pastors for Peace, said in an interview. "There�s been a lot of undercover support, unarticulated, unorganized support, outside the Muslim community.

"What I think we�re seeing is a galvanizing of the widest range of liberal forces in this country saying, �We�re not against Israel. We�re for the rights of the Palestinian people.� We�re saying that we are not anti-American, but we are opposed to our country�s complicity with Israel to wreak havoc on and exterminate the Palestinian people,�" he continued.

Phyllis Bennis, a fellow at the Institute for Policy Studies, agrees. "The issue of Palestine has come into its own as part of the mainstream of the peace and justice movement. Today, we see an extraordinary combination of 75,000 or more people where everybody here is committed to a free Palestine, for the first time. That�s the significance of it."

Native American people are also looking at what�s happening in Palestine, and beginning to identify with the Palestinians. "We understand that the United States (is) using its client state, its step child Israel, to carry on the same crimes against Palestine (that) already happened to us and Africans stolen from Africa," American Indian Movement leader Vernon Bellecourt said. "Sixteen million lives were destroyed here in what is called the United States as part of America�s war and genocide, characterized by terrorism (and) ethnic cleansing" of the native people, Mr. Bellecourt said.

The growing movement in support of the Palestinians will also soon get more attention from members of Congress. Rep. Cynthia McKinney (D-Ga.) was the only elected official to speak at the rally.

"We�re the world�s most powerful nation (and we) have a responsibility to act in defense of the weak and to protect them from harm. We failed in Rwanda. We failed in East Timor. And now as we speak, we failed in Jenin," she said.

In order to have an effect on Congress, activists will need to translate the energy of the protest rally into the congressional districts "back home," according to one analyst. "People have to go back home, into their districts and let their (Congress) members know, this is how they feel," Jameel A. Johnson, chief of staff for Rep. Gregory Meeks (D-N.Y.) said in an interview.

"Congressman Meeks wants to see two states, viable states. He just recently signed on to a resolution calling for an end to the violence, calling for two viable states living peacefully side by side, which he thinks can happen if people will put their emotions aside, put humanity in front, and start talking to get the job done."