WASHINGTON, 22 April — Tens of thousands of demonstrators gathered yesterday in Washington to protest Israel’s occupation of Palestine.
Organizers of the Palestinian rights rally said the gathering was the largest demonstration for Palestine in US history.
Marching to chants of “End the Occupation Now!” people came to Washington from all over the United States.
The rally, held a week after the pro-Israel rally attended by US officials and legislators, was estimated by police at between 70,000 to 100,000.
Washington D.C. police officials said the crowd was larger than they had anticipated.
Ali Uddin Ahmed drove down from New Jersey with his family to support the Palestinian cause “because we object to the killings and we feel very sad about it. We wanted to show our support for the Palestinians.”
Ahmed said he, his wife and their four children had made a “joint decision” to attend the rally.
“It was important to my children to assist in today’s rally for peace,” said Ahmed, a Pakistani national who lived in Jeddah for 13 years before immigrating to the United States. “We are very concerned about what is happening to the Palestinian people.”
Others made a 12-hour trip in a 21-bus caravan from the Detroit area to join the rally organized by International Answer, an anti-war, anti-racism coalition that shifted the theme of its protest as violence against the Palestinians escalated.
“Our government money is going towards killing innocent Palestinian civilians and its really upsetting me,” said Sarah Havens, a Georgetown law student from Rochester, New York. “I don’t think most Americans would support Israel if they knew the history of the conflict,” said Havens, who wore a Palestine keffiah over her shoulders. “I’ve been attending these protests since the Intifada started.”
“I think the American people are not well informed about the Palestinian issue and any attention we can bring to it is good,” said Alex Soto, from Miami, Florida, who is also a law student at Georgetown.
For Soto, this was his first pro-Palestinian protest, he said the “news coverage and the upsurge in the violence drove me to come out today.” Soto wore a badge that said: “We are all Palestinians.”
“As Americans, we all bear responsibility for the death of all the Palestinians and Afghanis,” said Havens.
Both Havens and Soto said the Palestinian issue has caused quite a heated debate on their law school campus. “There was a lot of vandalism when pro-Israeli groups started ripping down pro-Palestinian materials and replacing them with pro-Israeli materials, the school finally had to get involved,” they said.
Mohamed Fathy and Mohamed Ahmed, both Egyptian-Americans, drove down together from New Jersey. They also wore bumper stickers on their T-shirts that declared: ‘We are all Palestinian.’
“We are here to show our support for the Palestinian people and to show American the aggression the Palestinians are facing every day, and to try to stop US aid to Israel,” said Fathy. “US tax money is being used to pay for Israel weapons. We don’t agree with this.”
Today everyone here is a Palestinian,” said Fathy. “We’ve met Jewish people here who have come to support Palestine. They say they are Palestinian Jews, and we are all cousins.”
Young people wore the Palestinian flag around their necks like a cape, and cardboard signs held by women and children denounced Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and President Bush. College-aged anti-capitalists marched alongside Muslim mothers pushing baby strollers.
“This the is first massive anti-war protest since Sept. 11, the timing is critical due to the threats coming from the Administration regarding the escalation of the war on terrorism and the war in the Middle East,” said Kenna Storm-Gibson, who traveled from Brown University in Rhode Island on a chartered bus.
Asked about the Palestinian issue on campus, Storm-Gibson said: “It is difficult at school because of Ivy League schools have a large Jewish population. Brown is one-third Jewish. One has to be very careful to separate anti-Israeli occupation from anti-Israel, because many people at brown, and other campuses, are reluctant to come out on the war on terrorism, and on what’s happening to the Palestinians, because they fear it will be interrupted as being anti-Israel.”
Sam and Sabna, from Ethiopia, graduated from the University of Maryland and are now both working locally in the technology field. “It’s important for us to be here because we don’t agree with what’s happening in Palestine and other underdeveloped nations,” they said. “We hope the US will pay attention to this injustice. “What’s happening in Palestine goes against the idea of freedom and the natural interests of this country.”
Protesters tweaked Vietnam War-era chants to the Palestinian cause, shouting, “One, two, there, four: We don’t want no Mideast war!”
Many middle-aged people were present.
“It was important for me to be here because I want Israel to leave the Palestinian territories. I want to get the message to Sharon that their are a lot of people here in America who are against what he is doing to the Palestinians,” said George Bradish, who works at the Library of Congress, and biked in from Virginia to attend the rally.
“Bush has been saying that terrorism must stop before the negotiations can start,” said Bradish, “but he can go on making excuses forever. Our government must do something to end this. Bush needs to do as Clinton did, he needs to work with the parties on the disputed points.”
Kathy McGregor is a grandmother from Silver Spring, Maryland, she attended the rally for her granddaughter, and whose father is Jordanian. “I’m here because I’m opposed to the occupation and the violence against the Palestinians. I’m here because I wanted this to be a big turnout, so we had to participate.
Others said they came to learn. “I’m here to learn more about what’s going on in the world, and to protest how the Palestinians are being treated in the Middle East,” said Renee O’Connor, who traveled 9 hours in a bus caravan from Albany, New York, to attend the rally. “
This is an important part of history, and I’ve learned we must not be silent against injustice, and we must take an active role in what’s going on in the world. As Dr. (Martin Luther) King said: ‘The only way not to repeat history is to learn about it.’”
