Despite the peaceful nature of the protest and despite the fact that many Jewish people are participating in the march and have been speaking out in support of Palestine, the New York Post and other media outlets have used this particular demonstration to discredit to the pro-Palestinian movement as anti-Semitic and to stir up racial animosity and divisions, dishonestly suggesting that today’s protests would be a threat to the large Jewish population living in Crown Heights, which is close to where the march began. In fact, the New York Police Department said it was sending a large number of 1,500 to 1,800 police officers to respond to the protest, and reports suggest the police presence was enormous. But, as was highlighted Friday night at the massive Jewish Voices for Peace rally at Grand Central Station, anti-Zionism is not anti-Semitism, and criticism of the State of Israel is not a threat to Jews. On the contrary, the fight for Palestinian liberation and the end of the occupation is something that all people of conscience support, regardless of their faith; and the fate of Jews and Arabs in Israel and the occupied territories is intertwined and neither can be free without the other.
The rally took place a day after Israel launched one of the deadliest attacks on Palestinian civilians, sparking outrage around the world, an attack that almost immediately followed the failure of the United Nations vote on a resolution calling for a “immediate and sustained humanitarian truce”, which was later vetoed by the United States.
In fact, the bombing has been so intense that it has destroyed international lines of communication and much of Gaza is now without electricity and cut off from the rest of the world. This has made it virtually impossible to provide medical care to wounded Gazans, made it difficult to coordinate rescues, and made it impossible to calculate the full extent of the invasion or how many Palestinians have died in the recent bombings. However, we do know that since October 7, when Hamas launched an incursion into Israeli territory, more than 7,000 Palestinian civilians in Gaza have been killed by Israeli bombs. In turn, hundreds of Palestinians have been killed or wounded in fighting in or near the West Bank, as Israel’s war threatens to spread the conflict further into neighboring territories. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who has referred to Palestinians as “human animals” and claims that the Israeli Defense Forces have “killed thousands of terrorists,” has declared that last night’s bombings and ground invasion mark the beginning of the second phase of what could be a very long war, which will only bring more death and destruction to Palestinian civilians.
Today’s protest, one of the largest pro-Palestinian protests in New York since the most recent conflict began, comes amid a growing global wave of support for Palestine and calls to end Israeli bombings of Palestinians in Gaza. . In London, more than 100,000 protesters marched today to demand Israel “stop the war on Gaza”, while ten thousand people demonstrated in Rome and nearly ten thousand in Berlin, despite the German government banning the protests in favor of Palestine.
“Israel bombs, US pays, how many kids did you killed today?”
Thousands took over the Brooklyn Bridge in NYC i solidarity with Gaza.
End the siege on Gaza!
End the air strikes and every military intervention!#freepalestine🇵🇸 pic.twitter.com/vvSjo60zqf
— Luigi W Morris (@LuigiWMorris) October 28, 2023
On Friday night in New York, at least a thousand protesters organized by Jewish Voices for Peace closed the Grand Central Station during rush hour to demand an immediate ceasefire. Several hundred protesters wearing T-shirts reading “Not in our name” and “Jews say ceasefire now” were eventually detained. These protests and the growing outrage over Israel’s crimes are a clear indication that, despite massive repression and threats of retaliation, resistance to the occupation and Israel’s endless war against Palestine is growing. While most respondents in the United States said they supported Israel, 66 percent agreed that the United States should call for “a ceasefire and de-escalation of violence in Gaza.” At the same time, support for Israel among young people in particular (Generation Z and Millennials) has fallen by more than half and 51 percent of those under 35 said they do not support sending weapons and military equipment to Israel.
BREAKING: Thousands and thousands of New Yorkers take over the Brooklyn bridge for a free Palestine and an immediate end to the genocide in Gaza. pic.twitter.com/CxYVjgJ3KM
— Stop Cop City (@JoshuaPHilll) October 28, 2023
Saturday’s demonstration and Friday’s protests at Grand Central Station demonstrate unequivocally that there is an increasingly dedicated and organized multi-ethnic and multi-religious movement against Zionism and for the liberation of Palestine. Building this movement in the United States and throughout the imperialist world, in particular, is one of the most powerful tools we have to end the occupation and the decades of oppression, war and conflict that have created so much suffering and claimed the lives of so many people. The demands to end the bombing of Gaza and the defense of a ceasefire are significant and progressive, as are the actions of dock workers in Italy, who have responded to the call of Palestinian unions to stop the shipment of weapons to Israel, and who are demonstrating how we can bring these struggles to our workplaces as well as to the streets. Students, workers, Jews and Muslims, and many other oppressed groups are showing the way forward by uniting around the world to defend Palestine. This incredible international support is an important part of the broader struggle for the liberation of Palestine and the creation of a single, secular, socialist state in which Jews, Arabs and all minorities can live in peace with equal democratic rights.
This article was originally published in Left Voice part of the International Network of La Izquierda Diario.
Translation: Gloria Grinberg
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2023-10-29 14:40:40
#USA #Large #mobilization #York #occupation #Israels #brutal #attacks #Gaza
