The government in a neighbouring state is apparently calling on the government for assistance in covering the bill to police the "pro-Palestinian" protestors.
These people have been out and about on a regular basis. They are getting louder each time. They are also getting potentially more dangerous.
A colleague in that state phoned me yesterday. She is about to head out of the country for a week. She has a job to do while she is there. When the request for help first came up she was happy to go but now she is worried about her teenage son. He came home from one of these protests "on a high". He told her "it was fun".
No, he didn't have permission to attend the protest march. His parents were deeply disturbed to discover he had gone. They thought he was doing a school project with a mate.
They have tried to reason with him. They have talked about the background to the Hamas-Israeli conflict. He's not ready to listen - yet.
"I'll be going of course. I can't let them down but I would be happier if I could help him see what this is really about. Any suggestions gratefully received. I mean that."
I can't interfere of course - or can I? It is one of those times when I am glad I don't have children. I have never met her son. She is simply a colleague, one I know very little about. I am quite sure she is going through what many parents are going through right now. They will be worrying about their children, young and older, going on "protest" marches for causes they do not really understand but believe are right.
And then, in this instance, I thought of something else. My colleague knows someone else we both know. She actually knows him far better than I do. He's a Muslim but his views on the conflict are very different from those of the protestors. He's an academic who has studied the area.
I sent my colleague an email last night saying, "What about M....? Could he help?"
There was a response this morning, "Thanks. J... (her husband) is going to call him."
I don't know if it will help. Perhaps I shouldn't even have mentioned it. It is none of my business. Not everyone will have someone they can call on to help.
The cost of "protesting" is far more than the million dollars which apparently it is costing the police when they are called out like this. It is costing everyone in the community. Yes, we have a "right" to protest but there are also costs - some of them hidden.
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It's frightening how people who understand nothing about the conflict believe they know everything.
I am deeply concerned by their sources of (mis)information. We let them vote at 18. They want to lower that to 16 - and these young people know so little. It's terrifying.
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