Huge protesters flocked to the country’s capital on Saturday to call for an end to hostilities between Israel and Hamas as the dead toll in Gaza surpassed 9,200 and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu rejected American calls for a “humanitarian pause” in the combat.
After a 1,400-person Hamas attack on southern Israel on October 7, there has been a surge of protests around the world demanding an end to Israel’s bombardment of the Gaza Strip, which is on its 29th day. The most recent of these protests took place in the afternoon at Freedom Plaza, a short walk from the White House.
By dark, a couple hundred more individuals were meandering around the park, and a group of around 150 people were screaming “cease fire now” as they stood in Lafayette Park near the White House gate.The Council on American-Islamic Relations’ Ibrahim Hooper told USA TODAY that “a cease-fire is the main goal of everyone right now.” “You can’t do anything without a cease-fire. You can’t do humanitarian aid, you can’t treat the wounded, and you can’t even remove bodies until there’s a cease-fire.”
“Nothing should get in the way of a humanitarian cease-fire.”Protests in Washington, DC, London, and Paris took place at the same time as the Washington demonstration.
‘No votes, no cease-fire’
While many speakers emphasised Biden’s support for Israel’s war effort and his opposition to a cease-fire, none highlighted the wedge the Gaza war has driven between the Democratic Party and Arab Americans and young voters more than Nihad Awad, national executive director at CAIR. One speaker, a member of the U.S. Campaign for Palestinian Rights, even called the president “Genocide Joe.”To thunderous applause, Palestinian American Awad declared, “The language that President Biden and his party understand is the language of votes in the 2023 elections, and our message is: No cease-fire, no votes.”
Saying, “No votes in Michigan, no votes in Arizona, no votes in Georgia, no votes in Nevada, no votes in Wisconsin, no votes in Pennsylvania,” he listed the swing states that helped Biden win in 2020. When Awad made the electoral threat, he made it clear to the audience that he was speaking in a personal capacity.”No votes for you anywhere if you don’t call for a cease-fire now,” he declared.
Awad issued a call for a Democratic party election boycott the same day that progressive Representative Rashida Tlaib, D-Michigan, published a video with a similar message.As shown in the video, Tlaib, the lone American Palestinian in Congress, claims that Joe Biden “supported the genocide of the Palestinian people.” “The people of America will never forget. Biden, back an immediate cease-fire. Or don’t rely on us come 2024.
Enough is enough
Some, like 89-year-old Kennett Square, Pennsylvania resident Joan Nicholson, were drawn to the protest because of their long-standing support for the Palestinian cause. Some, like 25-year-old Tampa, Florida resident Xochitl Aldama, claimed they attended the demonstration because they were shocked by the extent of the devastation in Gaza.Some were motivated by personal bereavement.
Author Laila El Haddad, a 45-year-old Palestinian American, told USA TODAY, “I came with tens of thousands of others to hold my country accountable for its complicity in war crimes and crimes against humanity.””I found out yesterday that an Israeli airstrike on my cousin’s house in Gaza City killed five of my close family members: my aunt, three of my adult cousins, and my cousin’s wife.”She uttered, “I’m here to say enough is enough.”
Large crowds overflow outside Freedom Plaza
It was unknown how many individuals had attended the event by late Saturday afternoon. The throng erupted from Freedom Plaza and extended onto the nearby roads.In answer to a question, the US Park Police stated that it was “prohibited from providing crowd sizes for any event.” Calls requesting an estimate of the size of the crowd were not answered by the D.C. Metropolitan Police.
After the talks ended just before five o’clock in the evening, attendees shared carrot sticks and crackers as they marched in a line stretching two city blocks from the plaza to the White House. Arabic pop music was playing during the demonstration. A few protesters carried makeshift coffins that symbolised the people killed by Israeli bombings in Gaza.Before leaving, the majority of the protesters chanted slogans for around thirty minutes while they were outside the White House.
At the protest in Washington, D.C., one individual was taken into custody for destroying property, according to Metropolitan Police Officer Elizabeth Grannis. According to a police social media post, the individual is accused of spray painting the windows of a company located in the 700 block of 17th Street,Traffic police claimed on social media on Saturday night that individuals were leaving Lafayette Park one by one and that they intended to resume the scheduled road restrictions.Grannis stated, “Police were still keeping an eye on the demonstrations in front of the White House.”
Demonstrators remained outside the White House compound just before 8 p.m., according to Anthony Guglielmi, a U.S. Secret Service spokesperson who talked with USA TODAY. However, an attempt to trespass at a gate was handled without incident. He added that no one had been arrested by Secret Service agents.The gathering, according to the Anti-Defamation League, contained “zero acknowledgment of Israeli suffering.”
According to Meredith Weisel, the director of the Anti-Defamation League’s capital region, while there was a lot of outrage and sorrow over the war and Gaza’s damage during Saturday’s addresses at Freedom Plaza, none of the speakers denounced Hamas or its attack on Israel.”There was zero acknowledgment of Israeli suffering,” Weisel stated in a conversation, “and a lot of legitimising and justification for violence against Israelis.”A group of protestors held a banner with the hashtag #AlAqsaFlood, which is the moniker Hamas gave to its spectacular attack from the previous month.
Weisel continued, “There are undoubtedly people there today who are responding to the humanitarian crisis” in Gaza. “But most of the people we have seen on the stage have been justifying what happened on Oct. 7.”New York, London, and Paris demonstrators call for an end to the Gaza War.
Thousands of protesters were seen walking towards the UN headquarters through the streets of Midtown Manhattan on Saturday night, according to pictures that went viral online. Despite the fact that no one had been arrested, the New York City Police Department said that there were temporary road closures due to the demonstration. A text message from a City Hall representative stated that Mayor Eric Adams was keeping an eye on the demonstration.Emails were not immediately answered by U.N. press officers on Saturday night.
Protesters at the Port of Oakland in California reportedly scaled a US military warship that was reportedly sailing to Israel on Friday, according to the San Francisco Chronicle.In Europe, hundreds of protesters shut down Oxford Circus, a popular retail and tourist area, on Saturday afternoon, blocking roadways and chanting pro-Palestinian slogans. As a result, at least 11 individuals were arrested in London.London’s Metropolitan Police said in a statement, “This behaviour clearly impacts on London’s ability to function normally and we are working quickly to reopen the road.”
In the first large-scale event permitted by authorities since the attack on Israel on October 7, thousands of people marched through Paris to call for a cease-fire. Wahid Barek, a 66-year-old retiree, told Reuters he was against killing Palestinians and Israelis as he marched. “I regret that civilians have died on both sides. These acts have nothing to do with civilians. It’s truly dishonourable,” he remarked.In addition, protesters against the shelling of Gaza came to the streets of Berlin, Istanbul, and Ankara, Turkey.Grandmothers and toddlers join the demonstrators in Washington, DC
At 2:30 p.m., speakers addressed the composed yet energising crowd, and Pennsylvania Avenue and surrounding streets were crowded with protestors. After the streets were blocked, 40 buses full of people, according to the organisers, were unable to arrive in the square. Striding towards the rally, the passengers tried to get as close as they could beneath cloud-filled skies.
Wheelchair users, young children, and people of many colours donning the keffiya, an iconic scarf from Arab countries, were among the attendees. Many carried placards demanding an end to the Gaza War; some connected the Palestinian cause to global happenings. One such banner said, “From Palestine to Mexico, these border walls have got to go.”
Among the growing number of protesters in Gaza is a navy. Chanting “cease-fire now,” protesters crowded Freedom Plaza and spilled out onto the neighbouring streets. James Colbow, a 69-year-old Ohioan Navy veteran, said he drove to the nation’s capital to demonstrate support for the beleaguered Palestinians in Gaza at an unbearable volume.
Colbow expressed his dissatisfaction with his administration for its involvement in the war crimes.Colbow stated that the answer to Middle East peace would be a two-state solution in which Israel and a Palestinian state coexist. He declared, “I support the right to self-determination for both the Jewish and Palestinian peoples.”
Who organized the protest in Gaza?
The Answer Coalition, a coalition of anti-war and racial justice groups, coordinated the D.C. march. Its goals include lifting the Israeli siege of Gaza and cutting off American aid to Israel.According to Brian Becker, executive director of the coalition, “today is going to be the largest demonstration ever in the history of the United States in support of Palestinian social and civil rights, and for peace,” he stated in an interview conducted before.
“We’re sending a message to the Biden administration that we profoundly disagree with its position, which has opposed a ceasefire and has instead embraced Israel’s genocidal-type assault against civilians in Gaza,” Becker stated. “We’re anticipating at least tens of thousands.” I wouldn’t be shocked if 100,000 existed.”
Netanyahu dismisses appeals for a “humanitarian break.”
Netanyahu sidestepped calls on Friday for a “humanitarian pause” in the conflict to enable food and medical supplies into Gaza made by Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Vice President Joe Biden.After meeting with Blinken in Tel Aviv, Netanyahu declared, “I have made clear that we are continuing forcefully and that Israel refuses a temporary cease-fire that does not include the release of our hostages.” “Israel opposes the transfer of funds to Gaza and does not permit the entry of fuel into the Gaza Strip.”
Blinken in Jordan; Israeli attacks murder civilians in Gaza in a shelter and hospitalAn estimated 240 Israelis were kidnapped by Hamas, the militant Islamist organisation that rules Gaza, during its spectacular onslaught last month.”It is imperative that we do everything possible to protect civilians,” emphasises Blinken.
The U.N. said on Friday that 9,257 people—including 3,826 children—had died in the coastal enclave as a result of Israeli airstrikes since October 7, using data from the Hamas-controlled Gaza Health Ministry. The U.N. said that food supplies in Gaza last only seven days and that less than one-third of the region’s facilities are currently in operation.
Blinken told reporters on Friday that while “we stand strongly with and behind Israel in its right and obligation to defend itself, defend its people, and take the necessary steps to try to ensure that this never happens again,” “it is imperative that we do everything possible to protect civilians, and that we do everything possible to get assistance to those who need it.”
