Tens of thousands of pro-Palestinian protesters chant 'Guilty!' in front of White House
Katie Hawkinson ,Kenneth Niemeyer
Sat, November 4, 2023
Tens of thousands of anti-war activists descended on Washington, DC Saturday.
Organizers told Insider they believed up to 100,000 people were at the march.
Protesters held signs that read "Free Palestine!" and called on the US to stop aiding Israel.
Tens of thousands of people took to the streets in Washington, DC, on Saturday in support of Palestinians. They marched to the White House where they chanted "Guilty!"
Thousands of protesters came to the city on buses, many of them from out of state, including as far away as Georgia and Massachusetts.
Washington, DC, is the latest city to see large pro-Palestinian rallies. Hundreds of thousands of protesters around the world have staged demonstrations in the last week, including massive protests in London, Istanbul, and elsewhere. Major cities throughout the United States have also seen rallies, including Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Boston.
Several large protests took place last weekend after the Israel Defense Forces launched its ground operation in Gaza.
Hamas militants killed more than 1,400 people and kidnapped an estimated 100 to 200 people in a series of attacks in southern Israel on October 7.
In response, Israel launched punishing air strikes and a ground offensive in the densely populated Gaza Strip, a sliver of land the size of Philadelphia that is home to about 2 million people, many of them children.
The Hamas-led Palestinian Health Ministry has said that the death toll in Gaza is nearing about 10,000 people. The Ministry said thousands of those fatalities have been children. The median age in Gaza is 18.
Organizers say 100,000 demonstrators were in DC to call for a cease-fire
Thousands of pro-Palestinian demonstrators gathered in Washington, DC to call for a cease-fire in Gaza on Saturday.
Organizers told Insider that about 100,000 people arrived in DC on Saturday to call for a cease-fire in Gaza. Organizers said the demonstrators planned to march from Freedom Plaza to the White House, then back to Freedom Plaza.
Protesters are demanding the US stop sending military aid to Israel
Demonstrators gathered for a pro-Palestine rally in Washington, DC.
Insider spoke to demonstrators who called for the United States to stop sending military aid to Israel.
One man carried a poster that said he was a veteran and that he was shocked that his country "supports war crimes with $$$ & arms."
"I can't believe more veterans aren't here with me right now," he told Insider.
President Joe Biden has asked Congress for $14.3 billion in aid for Israel, $10.6 billion of which would go to the Department of Defense to use for Israeli defense systems and to replenish US munitions going to Israel, Insider previously reported.
The United States has long provided Israel with billions in military funding.
Organizers hoped the march would be the largest pro-Palestinian demonstration in US history
Pro-Palestine demonstrators march toward the White House.
Brian Becker, the director of the ANSWER Coalition, which helped organize the march, told The Post he hoped the gathering would be "the largest demonstration in support of the Palestinian people in the history of the United States."
40 buses full of demonstrators couldn't get to Freedom Plaza because of road closures, organizers say
Thousands of people gathered in Washington, DC to call for a cease-fire in Gaza.
Event organizers told USA Today that 40 buses carrying people planning to attend the demonstration could not reach Freedom Plaza due to road closures. The crowd, which had to walk to get as close as possible to the rally, included people using wheelchairs and toddlers. Many protesters wore keffiyehs, traditional scarves some men wear in Middle Eastern regions.
Naming those killed in Gaza
Pro-Palestinian protesters carry a banner listing the names of what they say are the nearly 10,000 Palestinians killed in Israel's military offensive in the Gaza Strip.
Israel's military offensive in the wake of the Hamas attacks has killed nearly 10,000 Palestinians, many of them civilians and many of them children, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry.
The only comprehensive statistics for civilian casualties in Gaza come from the Palestinian Health Ministry, an agency of Gaza's Hamas-run government whose credibility has come under scrutiny after it blamed an explosion at Al-Ahli Baptist Hospital in Gaza on Israeli forces — a claim disputed by numerous open-source researchers and the assessment of the US intelligence community.
After President Joe Biden publicly doubted the accuracy of its casualty statistics, however, the Health Ministry released a list that it said contained the names, ID numbers, and ages of every person killed by Israeli airstrikes, Insider previously reported.
While Insider was unable to verify the list, it has been endorsed by officials from the United Nations and the World Health Organization.
The only comprehensive statistics for civilian casualties in Gaza come from the Palestinian Health Ministry, an agency of Gaza's Hamas-run government whose credibility has come under scrutiny after it blamed an explosion at Al-Ahli Baptist Hospital in Gaza on Israeli forces — a claim disputed by numerous open-source researchers and the assessment of the US intelligence community.
After President Joe Biden publicly doubted the accuracy of its casualty statistics, however, the Health Ministry released a list that it said contained the names, ID numbers, and ages of every person killed by Israeli airstrikes, Insider previously reported.
While Insider was unable to verify the list, it has been endorsed by officials from the United Nations and the World Health Organization.
‘No ceasefire, no votes’: tens of thousands attend pro-Palestinian rally in Washington DC
Edward Helmore
Sat, November 4, 2023
Photograph: Will Oliver/EPA
Tens of thousands of pro-Palestinian protesters marched through downtown Washington DC on Saturday in what organizers hoped was the largest US demonstration of its kind since Israel began its bombardment of Gaza after Hamas attacked the country last month.
Related: Pro-Palestine protests continue across UK over Israel-Hamas war
The crowd waved Palestinian flags, carried posters and chanted slogans during the National March on Washington: Free Palestine, which took place alongside similar events across the US and elsewhere in the world.
Organizers representing or endorsed by dozens of pro-Palestinian groups directed marchers to Freedom Plaza in the nation’s capital before looping past the White House.
“Now is the time to stand with the besieged people of Palestine! Gaza is being bombed by the hour. Its people are denied food, water and electricity by Israel. Tens of thousands more people are likely to die. We must ACT!” the Act Now to Stop War and End Racism (Answer) coalition said on its website.
The march, alongside protests in New York, Seattle and other US cities, was part of an intensifying push to demand both a ceasefire in the Israel-Gaza conflict and an end to US and western military aid to Israel. Demonstrations in support of Palestine were also staged in London, Berlin, Paris, Ankara and Istanbul with a similar message for both Israel and supportive western governments.
In London, television footage showed large crowds holding sit-down protests blocking parts of the city centre. Protesters, Reuters reported, held “Freedom for Palestine” placards and chanted “ceasefire now” and “in our thousands, in our millions, we are all Palestinians”.
Brian Becker, the director of Answer, told the crowd in Washington that US public support for the Palestinian people had “entered a new era unlike any that had come before it”.
He drew a parallel with the anti-apartheid movement against South Africa four decades ago, saying that when it began the US Congress still considered Nelson Mandela a terrorist. But seven years later, Mandela was the president of South Africa.
Change, Becker said, happens “in leaps and bounds” but not as a result of what happens in Congress or who is the White House, but what happens in communities and on the streets.
“The change comes from us,” he said. “We’re sending a strong message, a very strong message to Joe Biden: if you stand with genocide, we hold you guilty of genocide.”
“When you kill 10,000 Palestinians not because of what they’ve done but because of who they are, when you commit genocide against a people, and destroy a people in whole or in part, you are guilty of genocide and that’s why we’re going to the White House,” Becker added.
Signs of a split between traditional, pro-Israel Democratic party supporters and younger voters, including Arab Americans, over the Israel-Gaza conflict were made apparent in a speech by Nihad Awad, the national director at the Council on American–Islamic Relations.
“The language that President Biden and his party understands is the language of votes in the 2023 elections, and our message is: No ceasefire, no votes,” Awad said, listing states that next year’s presidential election could turn on. “No votes in Michigan, no votes in Arizona, no votes in Georgia, no votes in Nevada, no votes in Wisconsin, no votes in Pennsylvania.”
According to the Hamas-run Gaza health ministry, at least 9,257 people in the territory have been killed – including thousands of children – 23,516 wounded and hundreds of thousands more displaced since Israeli action started almost a month ago. The Israeli attack was in response to a Hamas assault from Gaza that killed 1,400 Israelis and took more than 200 hostages. On both sides, most casualties are civilians.
Jewish groups advised against counter-protesting or engaging with the pro-Palestine marchers. Jen Zwilling with the Edlavitch DC Jewish Community Center, emailed members saying that engagement could “increase the potential for violence or antisemitic rhetoric”.
Sponsors of the Free Palestine march included the Palestinian youth movement, the American Muslim Alliance, National Students for Justice in Palestine and the Palestine Right to Return Coalition. It was also endorsed by American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee, the Palestinian American Council and the Council on American-Islamic Relations.
Speakers at the march included human rights attorney Noura Erakat, Palestinian writer and activist Mohammed El-Kurd, and figures from Muslim and Arab organizations in the US.
Becker earlier told the Washington Post that he hoped the gathering would be “the largest demonstration in support of the Palestinian people in the history of the United States”.
“People are mortified by the carnage,” he said. “And they are equally mortified that the Biden administration has insisted that there not be a cease-fire.”
Last week, Joe Biden called for a humanitarian “pause” in the bombardment of Gaza but has not demanded a ceasefire.
Thousands protest ‘genocide’ at DC rally for Palestine
John Bowden
Sat, November 4, 2023
The streets of Washington DC were flooded with Palestinian flags and calls for an end to the bloodshed in the Gaza Strip on Saturday as thousands rallied against Israel’s ongoing military campaign.
Demonstrators centred their efforts on Freedom Plaza and began their march late into the afternoon following addresses by a number of speakers. Estimates of the crowd were difficult due to the sheer size but easily numbered in the tens of thousands, if not higher. Activists, pro-Palestinian signs, and flags could be spotted far across the city as the march was unfolding.
A speaker list for the event was not immediately available, but representatives from various Muslim-American political groups and pro-Palestine groups centred in the US were heard giving remarks over the speakers.
Crowds that gathered around Freedom Plaza trended younger, though not exclusively. A number of parents could be seen leading children of all ages through the demonstration, some holding signs of their own.
Multiple speakers echoed a common refrain among the pro-Palestine cause’s supporters — “from the river to the sea”. Activists have sought to reclaim that phrase in recent weeks as supporters of Israel including some in the Democratic Party have described it as inherently antisemitic.
One higher-profile speaker at the event was rapper Macklemore, who mocked calls by figures who support Israel for their opponents to “do their research”. A wide contingent of left-leaning groups were spotted in the crowd, having organised small, individual groups of demonstrators to attend. Some notables included anti-war group CodePink, the Democratic Socialists of America, and the Neturei Karta.
“I don’t know everything, but I know enough to know that this is a genocide,” Macklemore told a crowd to cheers of support.
Other messages shared by demonstrators varied significantly. Many derided Israel’s military actions in the Gaza Strip as a genocide, and accused the US of being complicit through deeds and words. President Joe Biden was a topic of frequent criticism both from speakers at the rally and from individual demonstrators in the crowd; one Wisconsin-based organiser gloated onstage about having met Mr Biden with chants of “Genocide Joe” during his recent appearance in Wisconsin.
A man holds a sign at Saturday’s March for Palestine in Washington DC (John Bowden)
Aerial shots of the crowd showed a tremendous mass of people that began marching late into the afternoon. Many wore Palestinian flags as capes or bore them on flagpoles; others had colour-coordinated picket signs. Muslim-Americans also bore signs and shirts denouncing Islamophobia, a sensitive subject and a highly relevant one given the murder of a 6-year-old Palestinian-American boy in Chicago in what authorities are alleging was a hate crime likely spurred by the Israel-Gaza conflict.
A small handful of protesters in the crowd were directly opposed to Israel with a far less compromising tone, including one picket sign that read “Israel does not exist.”
The majority, however, were clearly enraged by the shocking and heartbreaking scenes of utter carnage out of Gaza in the past few weeks; Israel has defended the climbing death toll as an unavoidable cost of war, while others question whether Israel’s military is taking steps to avoid civilian deaths. Numerous strikes near and around hospitals have caused those accusations of careless or event-targeted attacks to grow.
In the crowd, which again appeared to trend in almost every way towards the president’s main voting coalition, there was a noticeable disgust and anger centred around not just the actions of Israel, but the words of the Biden administration and the president in its ally’s defence.
A person holds up a sign denouncing Joe Biden at Saturday’s March for Palestine in Washington (AFP via Getty Images)
Progressives and some more centre-leaning Democrats have, according to staffers on Capitol Hill, been deluging the offices of Democratic lawmakers with calls and emails throughout the past few weeks demanding that the US ask Israel and Hamas to reach a ceasefire. Such an idea is currently opposed by the Biden administration, which has religiously avoided just about any action that could be seen as unsupportive of Israel’s military.
But that may change, if Saturday’s rally and the hundreds of thousands who added their voices to the cause this weekend are any indication at all of the pressure campaign that Democrats currently face. And there’s reason to believe they are: The popular anonymous Capitol Hill account Dear_White_Staffers, which tends to trend left in its own messaging, featured numerous accounts from anonymous Hill staffers describing the mounting calls for a ceasefire as the rally approached. CNN reported the same unease among staffers in the White House, who told the network that the calls for a ceasefire may become too loud to dismiss in the weeks or days ahead. Sit-ins took place in numerous congressional offices, including those of Rep Betty McCollum and Sen Alex Padilla.
On Saturday, many of those with signs or other protest materials used bloody imagery to describe what US tax dollars were paying for as Mr Biden and his deputies affirm and reaffirm their support for what they say is Israel’s right to “self-defence”.
A woman carries an object meant to depict the bloody corpse of a child at DC’s March for Palestine on Saturday (John Bowden)
Among activists on social media, there was a palpable excitement. Many proclaimed that a trend was turning in their favour, that the pro-Palestine movement was seeing a moment like never before in the US and in the west. The ANSWER Coalition, one of the Saturday march’s organising groups, declared it the “largest” pro-Palestinian event in US history.
Biden administration officials have struggled with their responses to what has clearly been a backlash from the left that they did not predict.
As a growing number of senators and members of Congress call for a “humanitarian pause” or, in the case of a handful of progressives, go as far as to support a full ceasefire, the White House has reportedly been privately urging Israel to accept the former. There’s little evidence yet that they have had any success. Reporters, meanwhile, have pressed the administration on whether the US is taking any steps to determine whether war crimes are being committed in Gaza — a determination, they have pointed out, the US was comfortable making in Ukraine.
Perhaps most revealingly: Mr Biden suffered his first defection in the US Senate this past week on the issue, and not from any of the usual suspects. Instead it was Dick Durbin, chairman of the Judiciary Committee, who told CNN “I think it is” time for a ceasefire when asked about the issue on Thursday.
“At least in the context of both sides agreeing. For example, the release of those kidnapped should be part of this — immediate release. That should be the beginning of it,” said the centrist Democrat from Illinois. “An effort should be made to engage in conversation between the Israelis and Palestinians.”
Perhaps most revealingly: Mr Biden suffered his first defection in the US Senate this past week on the issue, and not from any of the usual suspects. Instead it was Dick Durbin, chairman of the Judiciary Committee, who told CNN “I think it is” time for a ceasefire when asked about the issue on Thursday.
“At least in the context of both sides agreeing. For example, the release of those kidnapped should be part of this — immediate release. That should be the beginning of it,” said the centrist Democrat from Illinois. “An effort should be made to engage in conversation between the Israelis and Palestinians.”
Thousands of protesters flock to Washington DC for Gaza ceasefire march
The New Arab Staff
04 November, 2023
Marches against Israel's siege, bombardment and ground operation in Gaza have been occurring around the world as international calls for a immediate ceasefire grow.
Protests in Washington DC have been ongoing since the start of Israel's bombardment of the Gaza Strip on 7 October [Getty]
Thousands of people have been preparing to march in Washington DC to rally in support of a ceasefire amid Israel's ongoing siege, bombardment, and ground operation in Gaza.
The march, titled the 'National March on Washington for Free Palestine' will see activists from across the US head to Washington DC's Freedom Plaza.
According to The New Arab's US correspondent in Washington DC, many people were coming out of Union Station in to participate in the protest as trains arrived from outside the state into the city.
RELATEDMENABrooke Anderson
One such person who took the train to Washinton DC from Virginia was Jordan, who told The New Arab that they were going to the march because of the "genocide going on in Palestine that is being funded by US dollars".
They said that the US policy was not aligned with their values and urged others who weren't directly impacted by the ongoing war in Gaza to "make sure you're doing your research and show out [to marches] because it's super important and this is your civic duty".
Some organisations included in the march are ANSWER (Act Now to Stop War and End Racism) Coalition, the Palestinian Youth Movement, and the Palestinian Feminist Collective, among others.
Already in Plaza Square posters and banners were laid out, including coffins with Palestinian flags on top to represent those who have lost their lives during Israel's siege, bombardment and ground operation in the Gaza Strip that has killed 9,488 people including 3,900 children.
The march in the US comes amid a host of other ceasefire marches around the world including in the UK, where videos emerged of protesters occupying Charing Cross train station in London and Edinburgh Waverly station in Edinburgh.
AFP
Sat, November 4, 2023
Thousands of demonstrators rally in support of Palestinians in downtown Washington (OLIVIER DOULIERY)
Thousands of protesters in the US capital on Saturday called for a ceasefire in Gaza amid Israel's relentless bombing campaign, with some slamming President Joe Biden's support for Washington's top ally in the Middle East.
The rally, at which demonstrators waved Palestinian flags and wore the traditional keffiyeh scarf, was the largest protest in Washington since the beginning of the Israel-Hamas conflict on October 7.
"Free, free Palestine," and "End the siege on Gaza now," the protesters shouted.
Other slogans targeted the US president: "Biden, Biden you can't hide, you signed off on genocide" and "We say no, Genocide Joe."
"It is unacceptable to allow for the loss of so many innocent lives and we cannot consider this a proportional conflict," said 24-year-old Amanda Eisenhour of Virginia.
"This is a massacre, a genocide... a stain on our history, and I cannot accept as a citizen that my taxes are funding this."
Jasmine Iman, 25, came from New York to attend the protest and said she will not vote for Biden in next year's presidential election because of his steadfast support for Israel.
"We will not vote for the Democratic Party. We will make sure that everyone we know knows not to vote for the Democratic Party because of (Gaza)," she said.
Biden, 80, is likely to face off against 77-year-old Republican former president Donald Trump a year from now, with polls showing a hypothetical matchup in a virtual dead heat.
If the election ends up being a choice between Biden and Trump, "I'll sit it out," Iman said.
Fighting raged in Gaza on Saturday for a 29th day since Hamas militants stormed across the Israeli border and, according to Israeli officials, killed more than 1,400 people, mostly civilians, and abducted over 240 others.
Since then, Israel has relentlessly bombarded the Gaza Strip and sent in ground troops. The health ministry in the Hamas-run Palestinian territory says 9,488 people have been killed, around two-thirds of them women and children.
iba-acb/sst
Sat, November 4, 2023
Thousands of demonstrators rally in support of Palestinians in downtown Washington (OLIVIER DOULIERY)
Thousands of protesters in the US capital on Saturday called for a ceasefire in Gaza amid Israel's relentless bombing campaign, with some slamming President Joe Biden's support for Washington's top ally in the Middle East.
The rally, at which demonstrators waved Palestinian flags and wore the traditional keffiyeh scarf, was the largest protest in Washington since the beginning of the Israel-Hamas conflict on October 7.
"Free, free Palestine," and "End the siege on Gaza now," the protesters shouted.
Other slogans targeted the US president: "Biden, Biden you can't hide, you signed off on genocide" and "We say no, Genocide Joe."
"It is unacceptable to allow for the loss of so many innocent lives and we cannot consider this a proportional conflict," said 24-year-old Amanda Eisenhour of Virginia.
"This is a massacre, a genocide... a stain on our history, and I cannot accept as a citizen that my taxes are funding this."
Jasmine Iman, 25, came from New York to attend the protest and said she will not vote for Biden in next year's presidential election because of his steadfast support for Israel.
"We will not vote for the Democratic Party. We will make sure that everyone we know knows not to vote for the Democratic Party because of (Gaza)," she said.
Biden, 80, is likely to face off against 77-year-old Republican former president Donald Trump a year from now, with polls showing a hypothetical matchup in a virtual dead heat.
If the election ends up being a choice between Biden and Trump, "I'll sit it out," Iman said.
Fighting raged in Gaza on Saturday for a 29th day since Hamas militants stormed across the Israeli border and, according to Israeli officials, killed more than 1,400 people, mostly civilians, and abducted over 240 others.
Since then, Israel has relentlessly bombarded the Gaza Strip and sent in ground troops. The health ministry in the Hamas-run Palestinian territory says 9,488 people have been killed, around two-thirds of them women and children.
iba-acb/sst
'Ceasefire now': Protesters link Gaza truce to 2024 US vote
Tens of thousands, including Jewish Americans, converge at Freedom Plaza in US capital, demanding immediate ceasefire in Israel's war on Gaza and US stop bankrolling Tel Aviv's aggression in the tiny Palestinian enclave.
BABA UMAR
TRT WORLD
Protesters marched down the streets of Washington DC, waving Palestinian flags and calling for ceasefire in Gaza. / Photo: TRT World
In a massive show of people's power, tens of thousands of pro-Palestine protesters have converged at the Freedom Plaza in Washington DC, in what organisers hoped to be the biggest protest of its kind in the United States since Israel's bombardment on besieged Gaza.
Organisers on Saturday said at least 30,000 protesters were expected to join growing calls for an immediate ceasefire in Israel's war on Gaza and that Washington stop bankrolling Israel's "genocide" in the blockaded Palestinian enclave.
Protesters, not far from the White House — the most important address of the country — came with their keffiyehs, Palestinian flags, drums, placards to record their anger at Gaza's catastrophe and frustration over US government's failure to rein in Israel and its opposition of a permanent truce in Gaza.
TRT WORLD
A protester carries a white shroud splattered with red colour to highlight mass killings of Palestinian children in indiscriminate Israeli bombardment.
For David, an American Jew and an anti-war activist, ceasefire in Gaza has become ever more urgent.
"The more of us calling it [ceasefire], the more of us shouting that Israel cease its genocide in Gaza, the more likely is they will hear us. If we are not out in great numbers, they are never going to listen," said David, co-founder of Jews for Palestinian Right of Return, an advocacy group that backs Palestine's demand for end to Israeli occupation.
He blamed Israeli policies and Zionism for causing "decades of brutality" which he said also gave rise to the resistance from the Palestinians.
"I'm a Jewish person. I am totally anti-Zionist and against the principle of Zionism which is a racist colonial ideology that is responsible for 75 years of brutality and also for producing the resistance against it," he said.
"I just tell people there's nothing anti-Semitic about calling for equality. What's anti-Semitic about saying all people deserve to be treated equally? That's what this movement is about."
TRT WORLD
Many American Jews have thrown their weight behind the pro-Palestine protests.
Dozens of coffins with Palestinian flags on top were placed at the site to symbolise nearly 9,500 Palestinians who have been killed in the ongoing Israeli bombardment in the blockaded enclave.
"From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free," chanted demonstrators as they unfurled enormous Palestinian flag that filled Pennsylvania Avenue, the street leading up to the White House.
Protesters also lined-up dozens of small white body bags with the names of children killed in Gaza. A lone protester near the protest site carried a white shroud splattered with red colour to highlight the mass killings of Palestinian children in indiscriminate Israeli bombardment.
More than 3,700 children have been killed in relentless Israeli strikes on homes, schools, hospitals, mosques and elsewhere, Palestinian officials say.
The crowds chanting "Free, free Palestine! Free, free Palestine!" and "Ceasefire now!" wowed to continue protests and also expressed anger over US government's monetary and military backing to Tel Aviv.
TRT WORLD
US has rejected widespread calls for a ceasefire in Gaza and claimed this would give Hamas a chance to carry out another attack.
Immediately after Hamas' attacks on Israel on October 7, the US President Joe Biden visited Israel and declared there he is "a Zionist."
Weeks later in White House, Biden announced "if there were not an Israel, we'd have to invent one", a remark that has prompted many Arab Muslims in America to see Biden as too biased in favour of Israel to be a peace-broker in the Middle East's lingering conflict.
US has stopped short of calling for a ceasefire, and instead backed "humanitarian pauses" to allow crucial aid into besieged Gaza.
But protesters, many of them chanting "Biden, Biden you cannot hide, you signed up for genocide," said the "humanitarian pause" is not enough and will only embolden Israel to kill or kick out 2.3 million Palestinians from Gaza.
"Gaza's people are being slaughtered by Israeli and American bombs. Israel is committing genocide in Gaza by killing defenceless people," said Nancy Samie, a retired teacher, who had come with her friends.
Samie, once a Democrat, pledged to opt out of voting next year, saying she was disillusioned with President Biden's position on Palestine.
"Biden is complicit in this," she said. "And he will not have my vote in the 2024 election."
TRT WORLD
Protesters scolded US civil rights leaders for not condemning the killing of women and children by Israeli bombings.
"Israel, with the full backing of the US government, is carrying out an unprecedented massacre in Gaza. Thousands of Palestinians are being killed with bombs, bullets and missiles paid for by US tax dollars. This is the latest bloody chapter in the colonial project of Israel, founded with the objective of dispossessing Palestinians from their land," protest organiser ANSWER [Act Now to Stop War and End Racism] said.
ANSWER is known for its massive US antiwar movement opposing the US invasion of Iraq in the months prior to March 19, 2003.
On its website, hundreds of organisations and groups endorsed Saturday's national march.
SOURCE: TRTWORLD AND AGENCIES
Baba Umar
Baba Umar is an Executive Producer with TRT World
@Babaumarr
Tens of thousands, including Jewish Americans, converge at Freedom Plaza in US capital, demanding immediate ceasefire in Israel's war on Gaza and US stop bankrolling Tel Aviv's aggression in the tiny Palestinian enclave.
BABA UMAR
TRT WORLD
Protesters marched down the streets of Washington DC, waving Palestinian flags and calling for ceasefire in Gaza. / Photo: TRT World
In a massive show of people's power, tens of thousands of pro-Palestine protesters have converged at the Freedom Plaza in Washington DC, in what organisers hoped to be the biggest protest of its kind in the United States since Israel's bombardment on besieged Gaza.
Organisers on Saturday said at least 30,000 protesters were expected to join growing calls for an immediate ceasefire in Israel's war on Gaza and that Washington stop bankrolling Israel's "genocide" in the blockaded Palestinian enclave.
Protesters, not far from the White House — the most important address of the country — came with their keffiyehs, Palestinian flags, drums, placards to record their anger at Gaza's catastrophe and frustration over US government's failure to rein in Israel and its opposition of a permanent truce in Gaza.
TRT WORLD
A protester carries a white shroud splattered with red colour to highlight mass killings of Palestinian children in indiscriminate Israeli bombardment.
For David, an American Jew and an anti-war activist, ceasefire in Gaza has become ever more urgent.
"The more of us calling it [ceasefire], the more of us shouting that Israel cease its genocide in Gaza, the more likely is they will hear us. If we are not out in great numbers, they are never going to listen," said David, co-founder of Jews for Palestinian Right of Return, an advocacy group that backs Palestine's demand for end to Israeli occupation.
He blamed Israeli policies and Zionism for causing "decades of brutality" which he said also gave rise to the resistance from the Palestinians.
"I'm a Jewish person. I am totally anti-Zionist and against the principle of Zionism which is a racist colonial ideology that is responsible for 75 years of brutality and also for producing the resistance against it," he said.
"I just tell people there's nothing anti-Semitic about calling for equality. What's anti-Semitic about saying all people deserve to be treated equally? That's what this movement is about."
TRT WORLD
Many American Jews have thrown their weight behind the pro-Palestine protests.
Dozens of coffins with Palestinian flags on top were placed at the site to symbolise nearly 9,500 Palestinians who have been killed in the ongoing Israeli bombardment in the blockaded enclave.
"From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free," chanted demonstrators as they unfurled enormous Palestinian flag that filled Pennsylvania Avenue, the street leading up to the White House.
Protesters also lined-up dozens of small white body bags with the names of children killed in Gaza. A lone protester near the protest site carried a white shroud splattered with red colour to highlight the mass killings of Palestinian children in indiscriminate Israeli bombardment.
More than 3,700 children have been killed in relentless Israeli strikes on homes, schools, hospitals, mosques and elsewhere, Palestinian officials say.
The crowds chanting "Free, free Palestine! Free, free Palestine!" and "Ceasefire now!" wowed to continue protests and also expressed anger over US government's monetary and military backing to Tel Aviv.
TRT WORLD
US has rejected widespread calls for a ceasefire in Gaza and claimed this would give Hamas a chance to carry out another attack.
Immediately after Hamas' attacks on Israel on October 7, the US President Joe Biden visited Israel and declared there he is "a Zionist."
Weeks later in White House, Biden announced "if there were not an Israel, we'd have to invent one", a remark that has prompted many Arab Muslims in America to see Biden as too biased in favour of Israel to be a peace-broker in the Middle East's lingering conflict.
US has stopped short of calling for a ceasefire, and instead backed "humanitarian pauses" to allow crucial aid into besieged Gaza.
But protesters, many of them chanting "Biden, Biden you cannot hide, you signed up for genocide," said the "humanitarian pause" is not enough and will only embolden Israel to kill or kick out 2.3 million Palestinians from Gaza.
"Gaza's people are being slaughtered by Israeli and American bombs. Israel is committing genocide in Gaza by killing defenceless people," said Nancy Samie, a retired teacher, who had come with her friends.
Samie, once a Democrat, pledged to opt out of voting next year, saying she was disillusioned with President Biden's position on Palestine.
"Biden is complicit in this," she said. "And he will not have my vote in the 2024 election."
TRT WORLD
Protesters scolded US civil rights leaders for not condemning the killing of women and children by Israeli bombings.
"Israel, with the full backing of the US government, is carrying out an unprecedented massacre in Gaza. Thousands of Palestinians are being killed with bombs, bullets and missiles paid for by US tax dollars. This is the latest bloody chapter in the colonial project of Israel, founded with the objective of dispossessing Palestinians from their land," protest organiser ANSWER [Act Now to Stop War and End Racism] said.
ANSWER is known for its massive US antiwar movement opposing the US invasion of Iraq in the months prior to March 19, 2003.
On its website, hundreds of organisations and groups endorsed Saturday's national march.
SOURCE: TRTWORLD AND AGENCIES
Baba Umar
Baba Umar is an Executive Producer with TRT World
@Babaumarr
Thousands of Pro-Palestine protesters march to Washington state Capitol Saturday
Shauna Sowersby
Sat, November 4, 2023
Thousands of Pro-Palestine protesters march to Washington state Capitol Saturday
Steve Bloom/The Olympian
Several thousand protesters marched from Heritage Park to the steps of the Washington state Capitol building in Olympia on Saturday, calling for “an end to the siege on Gaza, a ceasefire, and an end to the U.S. aid to Israel.”
“This march represents a critical moment in the Palestine struggle, signaling the consolidation of a mass movement in the United States committed to challenging the decades-long role of the American government in the genocide of the Palestinian people,” said a news release from organizers at the event, including Samidoun Seattle, Falastiniyat, Palestinian Community Center of Washington State, Students United for Palestinian Equality & Return UW, Beldaan, and others.
The peaceful march in Olympia was in solidarity with a Pro-Palestine rally held Saturday in Washington D.C. that drew tens of thousands of protestors, according to organizers.
“This is a march against the genocidal siege being perpetrated by Israel against Gaza, and for an end to the root cause of this violence: the occupation of Palestine,” a spokesperson for the Olympia Democratic Socialists of America told McClatchy. “We’re proud to stand with the 15 other organizations who have endorsed this march and called for an end to all US aid to Israel, and for our state to cut all ties with the apartheid state.”
Protesters at the event called on state and national leaders such as Gov. Jay Inslee and President Joe Biden to call for and encourage a ceasefire.
During the event protesters laid on the steps of the Capitol holding papers with the names of Palestinians who have been killed in the last several weeks in Gaza. Attendees also played music and sang together.
Other cities across the world such as London, Berlin and Paris also saw protests Saturday, with tens of thousands of people in attendance.
As of this writing Gaza continues to see heavy air strikes from Israeli forces, Al Jazeera reported Saturday. The outlet reported that at least 9,448 Palestinians have been killed in four weeks. While Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has claimed the attacks are in retaliation for an attack by Hamas on Oct. 7, Israeli forces have been indiscriminately killing civilians in Gaza instead.
Leaders such as U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken have not called for a ceasefire, claiming that “a cease-fire would simply leave Hamas in place, able to regroup and repeat what it did on Oct. 7.”
Shauna Sowersby
Sat, November 4, 2023
Thousands of Pro-Palestine protesters march to Washington state Capitol Saturday
Steve Bloom/The Olympian
Several thousand protesters marched from Heritage Park to the steps of the Washington state Capitol building in Olympia on Saturday, calling for “an end to the siege on Gaza, a ceasefire, and an end to the U.S. aid to Israel.”
“This march represents a critical moment in the Palestine struggle, signaling the consolidation of a mass movement in the United States committed to challenging the decades-long role of the American government in the genocide of the Palestinian people,” said a news release from organizers at the event, including Samidoun Seattle, Falastiniyat, Palestinian Community Center of Washington State, Students United for Palestinian Equality & Return UW, Beldaan, and others.
The peaceful march in Olympia was in solidarity with a Pro-Palestine rally held Saturday in Washington D.C. that drew tens of thousands of protestors, according to organizers.
“This is a march against the genocidal siege being perpetrated by Israel against Gaza, and for an end to the root cause of this violence: the occupation of Palestine,” a spokesperson for the Olympia Democratic Socialists of America told McClatchy. “We’re proud to stand with the 15 other organizations who have endorsed this march and called for an end to all US aid to Israel, and for our state to cut all ties with the apartheid state.”
Protesters at the event called on state and national leaders such as Gov. Jay Inslee and President Joe Biden to call for and encourage a ceasefire.
During the event protesters laid on the steps of the Capitol holding papers with the names of Palestinians who have been killed in the last several weeks in Gaza. Attendees also played music and sang together.
Other cities across the world such as London, Berlin and Paris also saw protests Saturday, with tens of thousands of people in attendance.
As of this writing Gaza continues to see heavy air strikes from Israeli forces, Al Jazeera reported Saturday. The outlet reported that at least 9,448 Palestinians have been killed in four weeks. While Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has claimed the attacks are in retaliation for an attack by Hamas on Oct. 7, Israeli forces have been indiscriminately killing civilians in Gaza instead.
Leaders such as U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken have not called for a ceasefire, claiming that “a cease-fire would simply leave Hamas in place, able to regroup and repeat what it did on Oct. 7.”
No comments:
Post a Comment