405 Freeway: Gaza protesters block traffic in West Los Angeles

Well its in the news so it worked. Protest is literally one of the only thing that's ever actually effected change in this country so stick with it. The more people it pisses off, the better. If a protest leaves people feeling safe and comfortable, it wasn't a protest, it was a parade.

What exactly is it accomplishing? You think anyone is unaware of Gaza at this point? People don't care to be blunt. Pissing people off just makes life a little more miserable for people who have nothing to do with the issue.
Blocking traffic in Israel would make a much bigger difference.
Nah, the message is getting lost in the delivery. I support BLM too but had the same issue with their freeway-blocking tactics. Nobody is going to swing to your side of the argument because you blocked their route home...nobody. People have emergencies, parents and kids need to get places...people have important jobs and need to be able to get to work such as doctors, first responders, air traffic controllers etc etc.. Yes, Gaza and BLM are both worthy causes but there are many other worthy causes as well. You can't block traffic for every worthy cause...block people from living their lives to put what you personally feel is the most important social issue at the top of their world by forcing it on them through essentially trapping them. It's just plain wrong and nothing is going to change that. Yes what's going on in Gaza is more wrong, and yet it's still illogical af and morally wrong to pretend that this provides justification to trap people on freeways.
- If you think the point of disruptive protest is to win people to your side you are an idiot. The point is to make society stop working.
- Is there anything you feel strongly enough about to protest like that?
  In trying to look at it from the perspective of "what could make me do that" I can only think of some downright heinous shit. To get to the point that you're willing to stand in front of cars and have people hate you for preventing them from living their lives? It's pretty hard to imagine.
  And on top of that, to know that your actions are going to ruin you in some way or another; that you're facing jail time, bodily harm, or extreme financial burden? Either they're being both sensitive and stupid or they're so fed up that they feel like there's no other recourse. It's insane to me to think about being pushed so far that that seems like a good idea.
  But then I think about how they must have gotten there, and the things that would get me there, and they're not so different.
I would say that this kind of protest just makes people mad at you and your cause. If I was stuck in traffic for X hours I would probably be mad at the protestors and not sympathize with their cause.
- See, in this image, you would be the one standing in the back pissed off they can't just get their lunch and would be mad at the protestors.
  History happens every day. You need to not be mistaken where you stand in it.
- "And what is it America has failed to hear?…It has failed to hear that the promises of freedom and justice have not been met. And it has failed to hear that large segments of white society are more concerned about tranquility and the status quo than about justice and humanity."
  Martin Luther King, Jr
- well i was going to condemn genocide but then some people who want the killing to stop blockid traffic so now i think its ok to kill people.
  sure have fun being mad at the protestors
- I mean, you're right about the people directly impacted, but if you're on the 405, this shit happens all the time. I was stuck for a few hours cause of a jumper. It's annoying, and it's hot outside, and in the moment I would certainly be anti-protester if not anti-everything. But that's just people there at the time inconvenienced.
  So, it's probably a net good for their cause since more people aren't in traffic than are, although at this point I feel like everyone has made up their mind on Gaza (and honestly, images and recounts from people on the ground there are a thousand times more persuasive than whatever this is)
- Exactly, the worthy message is completely lost in the immoral delivery.

"Americans will tolerate anything [(even genocide)], provided it doesn't block traffic."

No need to single out Americans. Most of the developed world, including a lot of the "nobler than thou" European peoples that some Americans love to worship, are equally complicit.
- It's just a relevant quote given the post.

This leaves me thinking that maybe we should be protesting our own prison industrial complex this way.

Not sure how shutting down roads has anything to do with Israel, but I'm glad the roads are shut down. If only it could be done permanently.

The occupied state of Palestine's settler invaders would evaporate overnight without the constant military and financial support of the Great Satan. Harming the economic output of the US is directly in line with opposing the genocide. In fact it's the only thing that will actually work, short of armed struggle.

Sort of too late for this

Elections are coming up. Now is the best time to start disruptions. They will not listen outside of election season.

Because West Los Angeles is just full of people who have any say about what happens in Gaza... 🙄

What's happening in Gaza is being directly funded by all of our taxes, there's not a particular location that the protesting needs to be done, it just needs to be done.
- If you want to protest tax dollars, take it to the Mall in D.C. and shut down their infrastructure.
  If you actually care about what's happening in Gaza, take it to Tel Aviv.
  Anything else is a pointless "look at me!" protest.
Local and state governments absolutely have a say through their investments to Israel. It's just as important to pressure them for divestment as the federal government and corporations on the BDS list.
Not only are state and local lawmakers more accessible to constituents than federal lawmakers, but local investment portfolios also hold billions of dollars in funding to Israel sourced from the everyday taxes of community members. State and local governments across the U.S. hold more than $4 trillion in all investments in their investment portfolios. At least $1.6 billion in Israel Bonds is held between state governments, municipal governments, and public pension funds nationwide. Those investment dollars come from every individual, household, and business within the municipal or state borders that pay property taxes, income taxes, and sales taxes, making them some of the most representative pools of dollars invested on behalf of the public. Saper says that campaigns targeting the investment of these local dollars “invite people to reckon with how implicated we are here at home with the atrocities we are witnessing abroad.”
https://truthout.org/articles/state-and-local-efforts-to-divest-from-israel-are-gaining-steam/
- Let me paint you a picture of the fucked up situation in the Middle East.
  If the US withdraws support of Israel, Iran attacks, they have pretty much openly stated that they would if that were to happen. If Iran attacks and Israel is out of options, Israel uses nukes. If Israel uses nukes, Pakistan uses nukes. Then India. During all of this, due to the massive amount of destabilization, extremist warlords start popping up. Russia and China start sticking their fingers into things, and not just in the Middle East, but any country/territory they've had their eye on, such as Taiwan. All of this takes place a stones throw away from European countries in NATO, and if any of them get hit, all of NATO is obligated to respond. That's not getting into the shit places like Turkey or North Korea would start during the chaos.
  It's not as fucking simple as just cutting off Israel. It's a big, complicated, shitty machine that is likely to fucking explode if you remove the wrong pieces. And as shitty as it sounds, 40k casualties over 10 months is a lot less than the millions that would die within a week were shit to hit the fan.
- The people screaming for divestment have no idea what's involved. In many cases there are contractual obligations that make it impossible.
  The people screaming for it have no idea how any of it works, they just want it stopped and will continue to get angry when it doesn't.
Ahh yes. Gatekeeping of what is considered valid protest and white liberalism, name a more iconic duo.
- An effective protest reaches the hearts and minds of people who can actually have an impact.
  Protesting in L.A. does neither of those things.