On Saturday, November 4, an estimated 300,000 people marched in Washington, DC to demonstrate in support of the Palestinian people and oppose the brutal genocidal bombings of the residents of occupied Gaza. People traveled from as far as Florida, Massachusetts, and Kentucky to participate in the DC demonstration, which occurred on the same day as similar events in cities such as San Francisco, London, Paris, and Berlin.
The mobilization in Washington, organized by a coalition including the Palestinian Youth Movement, American Muslim Alliance, National Students for Justice in Palestine, and ANSWER (Act Now to Stop War and End Racism) Coalition, began with a rally at Freedom Plaza and was followed by a march to the White House where the crowd called out “Genocide Joe” Biden for his support of the siege and slaughter of thousands of Palestinian families in Gaza.
At the rally, rapper Macklemore emphasized that “this is a genocide,” and Palestinian journalist Mohammed el-Kurd called for continued action: “We cannot sit in the corner quietly as they kill our people… We need to speak out.” Protestors chanted to express their support for an immediate ceasefire, demand an end to U.S. military aid to the Israeli state (“Not another nickel/Not another dime/No more money for Israel’s crimes”), and solidarity with the Palestinian people (“In our thousands/In our millions/We are all Palestinians”).
In San Francisco, approximately 50,000 demonstrators gathered at Civic Center Plaza for a rally and then marched through downtown. The crowd appeared very engaged. Many young people seemed to be very new to going to protests. For some it was likely their first, for others it may have been the first time they took to the streets since the uprisings in response to the police murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis.
Enormous demonstrations like these show that many people in the United States and elsewhere are outraged at the massacres in Gaza and are not willing to accept their governments’ role in the genocidal treatment of Palestinians. We must continue to stand up and mobilize to show that the Palestinians are not alone in their struggle and that the U.S. government must end its role in funding and otherwise supporting such violent acts of oppression. And we must continue to organize with everyone around us to build a movement that will achieve real liberation for Palestinians and all people around the world.
