Coalition fights illegal auction of Palestinian land in Baltimore

On Sept. 17, the Baltimore Peoples Power Assembly, with a coalition that included the Palestinian Youth Movement and Jewish Voices for Peace, staged a counter-demonstration against a Baltimore area “Israeli Real Estate Expo.” In reality, this “expo” was an illegal auction of Palestinian land in Gaza and the West Bank to would-be Zionist settlers. 

These land sales have occurred across the country as Zionist real estate firms smell opportunity in the wake of the genocidal Zionist war that has raged since Oct. 7, 2023. The Pikesville Hilton DoubleTree hosted the blood land sale and became a fortress for a few hours on what would have normally been a sleepy Tuesday night. The police harassed the demonstration’s every movement, and a local attorney was stopped by the police when simply trying to serve a legal cease and desist demand on the hotel. 

Pikesville is a historically Jewish suburb of Baltimore. The bulk of Baltimore’s Jewish community relocated to the northwest suburb in the mid-20th century as part of broader white flight from Baltimore proper. In the decades since that flight, Pikesville has morphed into something of a Zionist stronghold. 

As such, the Baltimore County Police Department mobilized most, if not all, of its active officers in the Pikesville precinct to confront the pro-Palestine demonstrators. The Baltimore County gestapo officers were aggressive, threatening, and at times violent toward the protest, which numbered around a hundred people. The pro-Palestine protest was simply a noise demo with chants, drums, Palestine flags, and the like. This is important to note, considering how the events played out. 

As the afternoon progressed, Zionist provocateurs became more and more aggressive towards the protest. This reached a height with multiple assaults on pro-Palestine demonstrators and a wave of homophobic, racist, and, ironically, anti-semitic slurs hurled at the protest. Through all that vitriol, the Baltimore County gestapo took no action against Zionist provocateurs except to take them to safety. 

The same cannot be said for the gestapo’s actions toward the pro-Palestine protest. By the end of the night, the police had arrested a protester, who they charged with assaulting an officer and disorderly conduct, and held overnight on $15,000 bail. To call this a disgrace would be the understatement of the year. 

However, this repression did not stop the crowd from rallying late into the night, gestapo police and Zionists be damned. No Zionist left the land auction that night without hearing the chants of those who would see the end of the Zionist apartheid regime. 

As long as the Palestinian people are denied justice, then no Zionist nor their supporters will have peace. 

Lev Koufax is an anti-Zionist Jewish activist.