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“At the end of the day, the Palestinian flag will be on all of Palestine, from the river to the sea!”
People in all world continents have risen in support of Palestine and Palestinians under occupation, bombardment and siege.
Historic protests have been organised, including in the countries, mostly in western Europe and north America, whose governments do not recognise Palestine.
“Free, free Palestine!”
In Seattle-Tacoma yesterday, the AP reported, hundreds of protesters demanding a boycott of Israel and ceasefire in Gaza attempted to block alleged weapons shipments to Israel being loaded onto the military supply ship the Cape Orlando.
Lindsey Wasson /AP
In Brampton, Ontario, Canadian poet Rupi Kaur declined a Diwali invitation from the Biden administration in protest of its support for “this genocide against Palestinians”. She recalled how “In the Sikh tradition, during the time of Diwali, our 6th guru…helped free 52 fellow political prisoners from unjust imprisonment.”
In Washington, DC, tens of thousands of protestors gathered around the White House demanding a ceasefire and an end to the occupation.
Protestors smeared red paint on the White House walls.
In the United States government, besides the resignation of senior state department official Josh Paul and reported “dissent cables” by diplomats in the ministry, BreakThroughNews reported that many staffers on Capitol Hill are “disgusted” by their government’s support for the ongoing attacks by Israel. “Be kind to each other and cruel to institutions,” an anonymous Jewish staffer said. He describes the “moneyed interests” being obeyed by elected representatives in the video below.
In New York City, as earlier in the Capitol, Jewish Voice for Peace and other civil society organisations staged sit-ins and courted arrest at the Grand Central Station in Manhattan, demanding a ceasefire, saying “Not in our name.”
Meanwhile in Latin America, the Bolivian government ended diplomatic ties with Israel, while Chile, Colombia and the Honduras have recalled their ambassadors.
Bogotá – Ivan Valencia /AP
Santiago – Claudio Sandoval /NurPhoto
Buenos Aires – Wafa
Further east, South Africa and Chad became the first African nations to withdraw their diplomats from Israel. Mass protests have been muted in certain African countries historically sympathetic to the Palestinian cause (such as Senegal) due to a shift in government allegiance and crackdown on protesters.
Cape Town – AFP
Mogadishu – AP
Mombasa – Anadolu Ajansi
Perhaps the largest protests have been in west Asia, and the central Asian countries with a US military presence (such as Turkey) have seen protestors march to those military bases and demonstrate in cities almost every day since the attacks began.
Bishkek – AFP
Rabat – Fadel Senna /AFP
Half a million protestors in Istanbul
In the Arab countries in particular, protests led by young people have also taken the form of a boycott – of US brands such as McDonald’s, Starbucks and Coca Cola, and of corporations like Nestlé, seen to be supporting the Israeli occupation.
Boycotts in Amman
Such boycotts carry forward the work of the global BDS movement inspired by the end of the racist apartheid state in South Africa – which also saw weapons imports from the White powers skyrocket in the late 1980s, until the release and election of Nelson Mandela by universal franchise.
Recalling its diplomats from Israel, the South African government called on “the international community to hold Israel accountable for breaches of international law.” Of the over 4,000 children killed and 2,000 reported missing in the debris of their homes, it added:
“All of these children killed since 7 October are non-combatants and those responsible for their deaths must be held accountable for war crimes, crimes against humanity and in the case of the scale of deaths in Gaza and increasingly in the West Bank, the crime of genocide must also be investigated.
“The scale of deaths in Gaza are a direct result of the unlawful actions by Israel on the peoples of Gaza.”
al Maghazi refugee camp, Deir al Balah, Gaza – Ashraf Amra
Meanwhile in Great Britain, the words “Fuck Balfour” were graffitied onto the Foreign Office building in London, referring to the 1917 Balfour declaration of the imperial government.
In Cambridge, thousands of protestors demanded the university there divest from Israeli institutions. “Completely divest from all companies involved, stop taking their money, stop facilitating their research, and do not be complicit in the ongoing Nakba,” a student told the Varsity paper.
In the settler colonies of Aotearoa (New Zealand) and Australia, protestors stormed the office of deputy prime minister and defence minister Richard Marles and read out the names of the (now over 10,000) Palestinians killed by the Israeli military in Gaza.
Outside the US embassy in Tāmaki Makaurau (Auckland) – Reddit
Closer home, tens of thousands of protestors have rallied in Quetta, Karachi, Kozhikode and Islamabad, with smaller protests in Bengaluru, Delhi, Budgam, Colombo, Kolkata and Dhaka.
“Each more depraved than the other: America and Israel” – Budgam
Quetta – Iran Press
“Down with Zionism, save Palestine!” Kozhikode – Manorama
Karachi
Islamabad – Sohail Shahzad /EPA
Colombo – Pradeep Dilruskshana
The protests have also included teach-ins and seminars about the history of Palestine, on campuses and online.
Coins of Palestine, 1927–43
The massacres in Tantura, 1948
“The liberation ideology will exist as long as the colonisation and occupation exist.” – Israeli historian Ilan Pappé, 15 October 2023
“It’s not a civil war or a conflict. It’s a liberation movement fighting for justice.” – Writer and PFLP leader Ghassan Kanafani, 1970
“Fuck Hamas.” – Egyptian standup comic Bassem Youssef
Perhaps the hardest protest to mount has been for Palestinians in the West Bank. Media reports and data from the Palestinian Authority and civil society organisations point to an ongoing daily (or rather nightly) campaign of Israeli arrests, raids, and executions, while soldiers and armed settlers in the illegal settlements dispossess (now over 1,000) Palestinians of their homes.
Israeli occupation forces arrested Palestinian activist Ahed Tamimi in Nabi Saleh in the West Bank Monday.
Hebron – Reuters
Ramallah – AFP
Jerusalem – AP
Tel Aviv – Reuters
Meanwhile, in Gaza yesterday, where the Israeli military has now reportedly bifurcated the Strip, Palestinian writer Yousri al-Ghoul told Al Jazeera that people fleeing who had made it from north to south “told him that Israeli troops set up multiple checkpoints, ‘killed many and took many as prisoners… stole their money, stole their jewellery, everything they have’.”
“What Gaza is going through is a shame on the international community.” – Palestine Red Crescent Society president Younis Al-Khatib, November 7
Also in Gaza, three civil society organisations in a joint statement yesterday said: “What is happening in Gaza represents one of the darkest pages and unprecedented level of suffering in the history of the Palestinian people. More than two million Palestinians are on the verge of starvation and thirst, with thousands struggling to access basic necessities such as bread and water.”
“Hundreds of thousands of Palestinians have been displaced more than once because of the incessant Israeli attacks that chase them from place to place in every area of the Gaza Strip. As we write, the threat of mass forced displacement into Egypt and ethnic cleansing of more than two million Palestinians lingers imminent.”
“Al-Mezan, Al-Haq, and the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights emphasize that the Palestinian people in Gaza are facing imminent genocide… States must pressure Israel to permit the immediate and unconditional transfer of patients from Gaza to receive medical treatment outside the Strip, including through Erez and Kerem Shalom crossings.
“Israel’s crimes and atrocities against the Palestinian people must cease immediately and must never be repeated. To this end, the international community must not only hold Israel and the Israeli authorities accountable, but must also dismantle Israel’s settler-colonial and apartheid regime and ensure that all discriminatory and inhumane laws, policies and practices against the Palestinian people are abolished once and for all.
“The international community must also urge Israel to withdraw immediately and unconditionally from the occupied Palestinian territory and enable the Palestinian people to fully exercise their inalienable right to self-determination and return to their homes from which they were forcibly expelled in 1948.”
UNRWA, November 7
Gaza, occupied Palestine, October 28
Tokyo, November 5
Gaza, occupied Palestine, October 9
Christchurch/ Otautahi, October 21
