In Tel Aviv, hundreds rally in solidarity with DC Women’s March
Chanting ‘Love not hate, makes America great!’ protesters join marchers across globe in defiance of new US president
Hundreds of Israelis gathered outside the US Embassy in Tel Aviv on Saturday evening in solidarity with the massive woman’s rights protest taking place in Washington, DC, on US President Donald Trump’s first full day in office.
Chanting “Love not hate, makes America great!” the 500 or so protesters in Tel Aviv said they wanted to “Un-Trump the World,” and tell the new president “keep your tiny hands off my rights.”
One woman held a sign reading “Embarrassed to be an American” in one hand, and another bearing a hand-drawn Fallopian tube giving the middle finger in the other.
Trump faces levels of public mistrust unseen in recent decades, most recently dramatized by the show of force by demonstrators who flooded into Washington by the trainload Saturday for a massive rights march.
With fresh memories of his fat-shaming a former beauty queen, sex assault allegations and a controversial stance on abortion, hundreds of thousands of women in pink “pussyhats” massed near Washington’s National Mall, preparing to march on the White House led by celebrity participants including Alicia Keys, Scarlett Johansson and Michael Moore.
The knitted “pink pussyhats” they wore were an allusion to his boasts in a leaked videotape of grabbing women’s “pussies” with impunity.
Tel Aviv was one of hundreds of cities to hold solidarity protests in conjunction with the Women’s March on Washington.
Rallies in London, Paris, Chicago, New York, Sydney, Prague drew hundreds of thousands of people.
While Trump won 42 percent of the women’s vote, millions who did not vote for him worry that gender rights and other progress on women’s health, contraception and abortion could be chipped away.
Organizers have not specifically used the term “anti-Trump” to describe their efforts, but the message is clear.
Bringing together “people of all genders, ages, races, cultures, political affiliations and backgrounds,” they say the protest seeks to secure immigrant rights and access to abortion, among other demands — things which Trump’s critics accuse him of wanting to curb.
Dozens of progressive groups are supporting the event, as well as Amnesty International and Planned Parenthood, the women’s health care provider that is a Republican target because of the abortion services it provides.
Melanie Lidman and AFP contributed to this report
