Thousands of people march through the streets of New York in favor of Palestine

New York, May 22 (EFE) .- Thousands of people demonstrated this Saturday in New York to show their support for the Palestinian people in a thunderous march that went through one of the main avenues of the multicultural district of Queens, and in which it was requested freedom for Palestine.
The event, which featured countless Palestinian handkerchiefs and flags, was characterized by loud drums and slogans constantly shouted by attendees, including “Free, Free Palestine” and “No Justice, No Peace.”
Palestinian flags waved not only at street level, but also from the tops of traffic lights, buildings or trucks in the Sunnyside neighborhood, along Queens Boulevard, which was packed with people.
Meanwhile, the protesters repeated the slogans “Say it loud, say it clear, we don’t want Zionists here” and “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free” (From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free), a phrase that was even seen on the poster of one of the local cinemas in front of which the march passed.
Part of the Orthodox Jewish community in New York, where a good number of them are concentrated, also wanted to show their support for Palestine by marching in the front line of the demonstration, dressed in their traditional Shabbat attire.
Convened by the organizations Within Our Lifetime and NY4Palestine, the event is one of the most massive that has been experienced in New York since the escalation of violence in Gaza between Israel and the Palestinian militias in Gaza, which after 11 days of bombings has left more than 240 dead and 1,900 wounded.
“People have been contacting us for a long time from Queens, from Staten Island, from the Bronx, asking that we bring the Palestinian cause to their neighborhoods,” Nerdeen Kiswani, the co-founder and president of Whitin Our, told local media. Lifetime, an organization in favor of the Palestinian people founded in 2015 in New York.
“Especially in Queens, the most diverse place in the world, and there have always been people from all over the world who support Palestine.”
This march comes less than 48 hours after more than 20 people were arrested in clashes between pro-Israel and pro-Palestinian protesters that occurred on Thursday night in New York.
The altercations took place in and around Times Square hours after the Israeli government and the Islamist movement Hamas announced a ceasefire.
In addition to New York, this Saturday, pro-Palestinian demonstrations had been called in around 60 other locations in the US, while this Sunday marches for the same cause had been scheduled in 25 other cities.

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