The Zionist state plans to try a U.S. citizen and New Orleans-area resident – Samaher Esmail – in a military court over social media posts. They’re not even alleging that she did anything besides post pro-Palestinian pictures. 

So much for “Israel” being a “democracy in the Middle East” (West Asia). For Palestinians, there is no freedom of speech, movement, or any other kind in their occupied homeland. On the other hand, “Israeli” soldiers and settler mobs are free to post their acts of violence all over the internet and face no repercussions. 

Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) dragged 46-year-old Esmail out of her family home in Silwad on the occupied West Bank on the night of Feb. 5. She is a cancer patient. Her family was able to capture the brutal kidnapping on video, which sparked outrage across the internet. 

Neither Genocide Joe Biden nor Louisiana’s racist governor, Jeff Landry, have said a word about Esmail’s treatment throughout the whole period she’s been in administrative detention. The local governments in Louisiana have been mute as well.

Four days passed before she was given access to a lawyer. It took 14 days for someone from the U.S. consulate to check on her. Meanwhile, during the first six days in prison, Esmail was denied access to her medications and lost consciousness at one point. 

The Zionist regime has let her out on bail but will not allow her return to the U.S. Her next trial date is March 31. The Zionists have no intention of giving her a fair trial. She’s facing bogus charges, and this is a sham court. The military courts constitute a separate legal system designed for abusing Palestinians in the West Bank and have a 99% conviction rate. “Israeli” citizens are not tried in these courts. 

But the movement in the greater New Orleans area has been fighting for her. During the Gulf Coast March for Palestine on Feb. 18, several thousand people from across the Gulf South and beyond chanted “Free Samaher Esmail” in the streets, as well as “Justice for Tawfik Abdeljabbar.” Abdeljabbar was a 17-year-old Palestinian New Orleans area native who was killed by an occupation officer when he visited his homeland of Palestine on Jan. 19. 

This action — the Gulf Coast March for Palestine — began with a rally in Armstrong Park, on the outskirts of the French Quarter. The park is the site of the historic Congo Square. 

Many consider Congo Square a sacred site, particularly those who draw from the African diaspora religions. It was a unique site in North America through various periods of the slave economy (under the Spanish, French, and then U.S. control). Because of peculiarities in Louisiana law, enslaved and free Africans here had some legal right to gather, and Congo Square became a place where masses of enslaved, free African, and Indigenous peoples were able to meet, celebrate, sell wares, and more. 

This history is one reason Congo Square was chosen as the march’s launching point. Many speakers invoked this history to highlight the continuities across time and among peoples regarding the liberation struggle. No one is free until we’re all free.     

The march was led by Masjid Omar mosque and some 20 other organizations. This broad coalition has continued to carry out actions since Feb. 18. We have to keep up the pressure. 

Justice for Tawfik! Free Samaher Esmail! 

The campaign to free Samaher Esmail has requested that supporters contact the U.S. State Department and Louisiana Congressperson Troy Carter. Suggested wording and contact information are given below. 

U.S. State Department, Office of Overseas Citizens Services: (888) 407-4747

Script:
Hi, my name is ___ and I live in____. I am calling regarding LA-District 2 constituent and U.S. citizen Samaher Esmail, who Israeli Defense Forces abducted in the occupied West Bank of Palestine on Feb. 5, 2024, and wrongfully imprisoned and charged. She is a cancer patient and has been denied essential medication. I am calling for the U.S. State Department to act immediately ahead of Esmail’s March 31 trial and to designate Esmail as wrongfully charged by Israel and to demand Israel drop all charges against Esmail and allow her to come home.

Congressman Troy Carter (LA-District 2): (202) 225-6636

Script:
Hi, my name is ___ and my zip code is ___. I am calling regarding LA-District 2 constituent and U.S. citizen Samaher Esmail, who Israeli Defense Forces abducted in the occupied West Bank of Palestine on Feb. 5, 2024, and wrongfully imprisoned and charged. She is a cancer patient and has been denied essential medication. I am calling for Congressman Carter to ensure that the U.S. State Department designate Esmail as wrongfully charged by Israel and to demand Israel drop all charges against Esmail and allow her to come home.

RICHMOND, Va., March 11 – At about 6:45 this morning, a multiracial group of nine young people chained themselves together and blocked traffic on the southbound lanes of Interstate 95 in Richmond near the exit to Arthur Ashe Boulevard.

An anonymous statement emailed early this morning to several local media outlets stated that the blockade was meant to “disrupt the flow of ‘business as usual’ in the heart of the Commonwealth, demanding that the U.S. empire cease all funding for the genocidal, Israeli occupation of Palestine at once.”

If the protesters’ purpose was to draw attention to the mass slaughter taking place in the Palestinian Gaza Strip – a genocide enabled and funded by the U.S. government – they definitely succeeded. The action was covered by all three local network TV affiliates, the city’s daily newspaper and NPR affiliate Virginia Public Media.

However, The Virginia Defender was the only media that managed to get close enough to the protesters to interview them.

The highway  – one of the busiest in the country – is under the jurisdiction of the Virginia State Police, who arrived at the scene, declared it an unlawful assembly and physically moved the protesters to the side of the breakdown lane, allowing traffic to resume.

According to both the protesters and a spokesperson for the State Police, the blockade lasted at least a half-hour.

“For the protesters’ safety and to expedite the reopening of the interstate lanes, the protesters were guided to the right, southbound shoulder of the interstate,” a VSP media release stated.

That’s one version of what happened.

Jasmine Cuellar, one of the protesters, gave the Defender a different one:

“The cops dragged us all the way across the interstate, hurt people, definitely down there (gesturing to other protesters lined up in the breakdown lane), threw them into the water and were like literally trying to shove us off the edge of this like, whatever this is called.”

Two people at the scene said they saw one state trooper push one of the protesters halfway over the concrete barrier along the breakdown lane.

Three people said that one officer tore off a protester’s COVID face mask, leaned in close and said,” I just want to see your face,” causing another officer to intervene.

Several other people said a few protesters had been pushed down onto puddles of water, soaking their clothes in temperatures of around 40 degrees.

Asked about these allegations at an impromptu press conference held at the foot of the embankment leading up to the highway, VSP spokesperson Corinne Geller said she had no information about those alleged incidents, but said she had seen at least two protesters deliberately lying down in the puddles.

There were nine protesters in all. One told the Defender that two of their number were African-Americans, two were Arab-Americans, one was Latina and most were LGBTQ+. According to the VSP release, their ages ranged from 21 to 30.

A total of 10 people were arrested. (As of our press time, there was no information about why the 10th person was arrested.) All 10 were charged with stopping the vehicle of another, obstructing free passage of others, unlawful assembly, and being a pedestrian on the interstate.

The first three charges are Class 1 misdemeanors, each of which carry possible penalties of up to a year in jail and/or a fine of up to $2,500. The fourth charge is a traffic offense.

According to the State Police, all those arrested were taken to the city jail, where the normal  procedure is for a magistrate to decide if and how they will be released.

As we go to press, opponents of the Israeli genocide are again attending the regular meeting of Richmond Coty Council, demanding that body pass a resolution calling for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza.

Among those scheduled to speak is Princess Blanding, sister of Marcus-David Peters, a young African-American high school teacher fatally shot by a Richmond police officer in 2018, a shooting that became a major focus of the 2020 Black Lives Matter protests in Richmond set off by the murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis.

Update

March 12—The latest we have heard is that all protesters have been released. At this time, we don’t know how the prosecutions will proceed. Updates will be posted on The Virginia Defender’s Facebook page as they become available.

Videos

After being moved to the side of the highway, waiting to be taken away, protesters remain defiant.

https://photos.google.com/share/AF1QipPIG5sggGu48E0LkKpwojfbyHFTTLzXVlwVV04f16b9RhB3ZzUUY_9OCY_XJoh9Kw?key=LWNhTWpBUkgzTURORzJzZUJEdHgwdWkyazBsZV9B

Still chained together and to a ladder, protesters wait to be arrested. (VIDEO)

https://photos.google.com/share/AF1QipOGAwdXirv27jtNPX_UxVS2QfXMdKtZDvsoLQl5CC6mlOSRQqVrgIP7ajFWrR6YWw?key=RHU3eUZZLTdKd2p1TEw1Yy1XX3U3NzYtcUFURnN3

Complete press conference by VSP spokesperson Corinne Geller. (Note: The questions about allegations of police misconduct were raised by The Virginia Defender.)

https://photos.google.com/share/AF1QipNimgU7gv6SgmyM-G94X6yteSann6Pvrz3MVGCY1nVGa5bck71I4Cq6xt5HPucjqA?key=S3pkcjdZbjBvdXMwLXBpb1N5eUkyenp3YXI2cmZB

Source: The Virginia Defender

Now more than ever, Americans deserve objective, diverse, trustworthy, and contextualized coverage of Gaza.

America’s corporate media serves as a key cog in the machinery of genocide.

Rather than providing the kind of objective, fact-based reporting integral to an informed citizenry, our mainstream press bombards us with explicit and implicit biases, false narratives, dehumanization, and misdirection, serving to stifle public dissent and justify, rationalize, and conceal the systematic oppression and extermination of the people of Gaza.

As dependable propaganda tools for Israel’s aggression, our news censors truth not only by what they choose to cover and how they spin it—but what they deliberately omit. This orchestrated disinformation campaign helps ensure the ongoing and unconditional support of the U.S. government and its continued role as Israel’s dutiful genocidal benefactor.

This isn’t war. It’s mass murder. But this isn’t what most Americans are watching, reading, and hearing on the news.

How does a Palestinian-American with family in the region reconcile the disconnect between “reality” and the “story” our press is “telling”?

Consider a day in the life in Gaza: Palestinian schools, hospitals, universities, places of worship, and heritage sites are being systematically destroyed. Civilians, nearly half children, are being murdered on a mass scale (over 30,000 dead, nearly half children). The calculated deprivation of food and water is literally starving families to death. Babies are being born into a living hell, with screams of terror, the ear-piercing explosions of limb-searing U.S.-made bombs, and the painful moans of their parents among the first sounds they hear. The electricity powering the oxygen machines keeping sick patients alive cut off, leaving them to struggle to gulp each of their final breaths. Amputations of children’s limbs without anesthesia with barbed wire have become obscenely routine. Broken but alive, Palestinian bodies riddled with shrapnel require each piece to be pulled from their flesh. Hungry children are found dead with single Israeli sniper shots to the head because they made the mistake of seeking out food from an aid truck. The deliberate decimation of Gaza’s telecommunications infrastructure has left families unable to communicate with one another or with the world, allowing daily atrocities to become increasingly invisible and unreported.

For those fighting for survival in Gaza, there is nowhere left to run, nowhere to turn, and no one to turn to. This isn’t war. It’s mass murder. But this isn’t what most Americans are watching, reading, and hearing on the news.

According to Al-Jazeera, KAN reported that the Israeli army and police forces exchanged heavy fire with Palestinian fighters in the kibbutz Be’eri on October 7, despite being aware that there were Israeli captives inside the building.

An investigation by the Israeli Broadcasting Corporation (KAN) revealed that the Israeli army was aware of the presence of Israeli captives in the house it targeted with two tank shells in the Be’eri settlement on October 7, Al-Jazeera reported on Saturday.

An Israeli detainee reportedly informed the Israeli forces that there were 12 Israelis inside the house. She told KAN that they did not believe her.

According to Al-Jazeera, KAN confirmed that Hamas fighters did not fire on the captives and that it was Israeli fire that killed the Israelis, along with 40 fighters.

The families of the Jewish settlers who were killed by Israeli tank shelling in the kibbutz Be’eri had previously called on the army to conduct a comprehensive and transparent investigation into the decisions that led to “this tragic outcome.”

This came after Israeli Brigadier General Barak Hiram told The New York Times that he had authorized tank fire towards the building, “even at the cost of civilian casualties”.

Israeli Army Radio previously revealed that Chief of Staff Herzi Halevy decided to launch internal investigations into all units into the events of October 7.

‘Hannibal Directive’

Israel did not officially recognize the implementation of the ‘Hannibal Directive’ on October 7. However, several investigations shed light on the events of that day.

Former Labor party leader Shelly Yachimovich called on December 24 for an investigation into the Israeli army’s implementation of the ‘Hannibal Directive’ in Israeli towns surrounding the Gaza Strip on October 7, Al-Jazeera reported.

‘Hannibal Directive’ is the name of a controversial procedure used by the Israeli army to prevent, at any cost, the capture of soldiers by enemy forces.

“There is a violent campaign to prevent any investigation/talk” about Israeli Brigadier General Barak Hiram “knowingly killing 12 hostages, including children” in a house in Be’eri,” Yachimovich wrote on her X platform.

“The reason?” she rhetorically wondered in her tweet, adding: “Hiram is ‘the hero of Israel’. The heroes of Israel protect the children of Israel, not kill them.”

The former Labor leader attributes the incident to the implementation of the Hannibal directive, sarcastically noting, “Hannibal turned over in his grave.”

Gaza Genocide

Currently on trial before the International Court of Justice for genocide against Palestinians, Israel has been waging a devastating war on Gaza since October 7.

According to Gaza’s Ministry of Health, 30,960 Palestinians have been killed and 72,524 wounded in Israel’s ongoing genocide in Gaza starting on October 7.

Moreover, at least 7,000 people are unaccounted for, presumed dead under the rubble of their homes throughout the Strip.

Palestinian and international organizations say that the majority of those killed and wounded are women and children.

The Israeli aggression has also resulted in the forceful displacement of nearly two million people from all over the Gaza Strip, with the vast majority of the displaced forced into the densely crowded southern city of Rafah near the border with Egypt – in what has become Palestine’s largest mass exodus since the 1948 Nakba.

Israel says that 1,200 soldiers and civilians were killed during the Al-Aqsa Flood Operation on October 7. Israeli media published reports suggesting that many Israelis were killed on that day by ‘friendly fire.’

Source: Palestine Chronicle

PFLP questions the significance of Biden’s port plan in Gaza at a time when the United States could effectively impose aid entry through alternative means.

The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) has issued a warning against the U.S. plan to establish a temporary pier off the coast of Gaza for “transporting aid to the sector.”

The movement emphasized that the U.S. plan is “suspicious and dubious” and goes beyond the goal of aiding the Palestinian people, opening the door to executing other alarming objectives, such as forced displacement plans under humanitarian and other pretexts.

It also considered the issuance of instructions by the U.S. President to establish the port an attempt to appease public opinion in the United States and part of his electoral propaganda at a time when there had been no real pressure exerted to force the occupation to stop the starvation war or its crimes against the Palestinian people or to facilitate the entry of convoys into the Gaza Strip.

Furthermore, the PFLP affirmed that the step would be approached with caution and skepticism, especially given the behavior and positions of the U.S. administration, its actions against the Palestinians, and its bias toward the occupation.

It regarded the attempts to portray this step as evidence of a rift between the U.S. administration and the occupying entity as inaccurate, emphasizing the partnership between the two sides in aggression, genocide, and starvation.

The movement further questioned the significance of the step at a time when the United States could effectively impose aid entry through alternative means, such as compelling the opening of border crossings and delivering assistance via land routes through international institutions, particularly the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA).

It emphasized that the alternative to these suspicious plans was to press for the cessation of aggression and the complete withdrawal of the occupation from the Gaza Strip. This includes the return of the forcibly displaced to their areas and homes, as well as the opening of crossings to allow the entry of aid without restriction or conditions and its distribution across the Strip.

“Any actions beyond those aforementioned are futile, dubious, and unwelcomed,” it added.

PFLP concluded its statement by affirming that the Resistance will remain vigilant and will confront any “suspicious U.S. plans or any other actions that might compel Palestinians to be expelled to liquidate the Palestinian cause.”

It further confirmed that the U.S. presence would be a legitimate target for the Resistance.

Biden’s new port plan won’t bring relief to Gaza: Economist

According to The Economist, U.S. President Joe Biden announced on Friday, during his State of the Union, address that he has directed his military to lead a mission that will establish a temporary pier that will bring humanitarian aid into the Gaza Strip.

“Tonight, I’m directing the U.S. military to lead an emergency mission to establish a temporary pier in the Mediterranean on the Gaza coast that can receive large ships carrying food, water, medicine, and temporary shelters,” he said during his speech.

“No U.S. boots will be on the ground,” Biden claimed.

He added that the temporary pier would enable a massive increase in the amount of humanitarian assistance getting into Gaza but stressed that “Israel” must play its part in the process for it to be successful.

Earlier, a senior Biden administration official said the temporary port will feature a pier that will “provide the capacity for hundreds of additional truckloads of assistance each day.”

According to the official, the shipments will be screened by the U.S. and partners in European Union member Cyprus.

The people of Gaza are facing dire shortages of food, water, and medicine, with the United Nations warning of the risk of famine. The entire population of 2.2 million is in crisis or worse levels of food insecurity, according to the World Food Program (WFP).

The WFP reported that Gaza requires at least 300 vehicles each day to transport food, medicine, and other necessities. Shipments via Gaza’s two operational land border posts—the Rafah crossing with Egypt and the Karam Salem crossing with “Israel”—fall significantly short.

The U.S. has so far airdropped a total of 192 packages containing 112,896 meals to Gaza. The figure, according to The Economist, only represents one meal per six days for 5% of Palestinians, this is provided that all pallets arrived undamaged.

In addition, the challenge is not only getting the supplies into the Strip but distributing them around the territory, knowing that trucks and stores were attacked and Israeli tanks tore up the roads.

The Government Media Office in Gaza called earlier for the immediate and urgent opening of land crossings to allow thousands of tons of aid to enter, in order to prevent the deepening famine crisis in the Gaza Strip, especially in the north.

Commenting on the casualties resulting from the random air drops of aid, which led to the killing of 5 people and injury of several others, the office reiterated that such operations are not effective and are not the optimal way to deliver aid.

Five Palestinians, including two children, were killed on Friday due to an aid airdrop mishap, where at least one parachute malfunctioned, causing a package to fall on them. The tragic incident occurred in the al-Shati refugee camp in northern Gaza at approximately 11:30 am local time.

Airdrops of humanitarian aid to Gaza may not be necessary if pressure on the Israeli occupation was effective, Patrick Wintour of The Guardian reported.

According to The Economist, Biden refuses to utilize America’s clout to push “Israel” to let additional supplies into Gaza. Now, after enabling “Israel’s” behavior for months, he is seeking ways to free it of accountability.

The UN Relief and Works Agency is also concerned with the distribution of help once it arrives on the ground. Chris Doyle, executive director of the Council for Arab-British Understanding, believes the decision of the U.S. to airdrop aid is a sign of “America’s ineffectiveness.”

Doyle notes that airdrops are considered dangerous and not enough, emphasizing that the U.S. is only doing so since it “cannot persuade Israel to allow aid into Gaza by land and in trucks. It is the ultimate sign of weakness and shows the U.S. is unwilling to stand up to Israel.”

According to Politico, the airdrops expose Biden’s very limited approach with “Israel” since the U.S. usually delivers airdrops to areas that are occupied by “terrorist groups or hostile regimes, not allies.”

Source: Al Mayadeen English

The solidarity movement with Palestine has swept the world. So did the struggle against the Vietnam War two generations ago.

Close to 80% of Gaza City has been destroyed by U.S.-made and U.S.-paid-for bombs and shells. Over 30,000 Palestinians, including 13,000 children, have been killed.

The Pentagon dropped two million tons of bombs on Laos, killing a tenth of the country’s people. Millions more were killed in Vietnam and Cambodia.

Nearly three million GIs were sent to Vietnam and around a trillion dollars was spent (adjusted for inflation) on the Pentagon’s dirty war. This didn’t stop a Vietnamese tank from crashing through the gates of the former U.S. Embassy in Saigon (now Ho Chi Minh City) on April 30, 1975.

Vietnam had won. So did every poor person on the planet, including workers in the United States.

One of the U.S. war criminals in Vietnam was retired Army Gen. John C. Bahnsen Jr., who died on Feb. 21. He’s described as a hero for dropping grenades from a helicopter on Vietnamese in a fawning obituary published by the New York Times. 

 Bahnsen was awarded 19 medals. Helicopter pilot Hugh Thompson Jr. was shunned by military brass for helping to stop the My Lai massacre in which 500 people were murdered. 

War criminal Lt. William Calley, who helped lead the massacre, had been a strikebreaker during the Florida East Coast Railway strike.

“The enemy of my country is my enemy, and our mission was to kill them,” declared Bahnsen. 

Who is the enemy of poor and working people in the United States, the vast majority of the country’s population?

It wasn’t the People’s Republic of China that shut down nine of the 10 General Motors plants in Flint, Michigan, impoverishing the Black-majority city. It wasn’t Vietnam that poisoned Flint’s water supply.

The Russian Federation isn’t responsible for freezing the federal minimum wage at a miserable $7.25 per hour since 2009. (Many state minimum wages are higher, although still inadequate.)

Capitalist monopolies increased food prices by 25% since 2020, not Iran. The rent is too damn high because of big landlords, not Yemen. It was banksters that foreclosed seven million homes, not Palestinians.

Genocidal racism

Bahnsen came back home to the United States. Fifty-eight thousand GIs didn’t. 

General George Patton Jr. was Bahnsen’s commanding officer in Vietnam. In the documentary “Hearts and Minds” — which won an Academy Award in 1975 — Patton was shown gleefully displaying an ashtray made from a Vietnamese person’s skull.

That’s the level of Hitler’s Third Reich, where lampshades were crafted with human skin. Patton Jr. was the son of World War II General George Patton, who despised survivors of the concentration camps, calling Jews “lower than animals.”

The leaders of the apartheid state occupying Palestine are just as racist. “We are fighting animals,” declared Zionist Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, referring to the people of Gaza. 

The Israeli daily newspaper Hayom stated the time had come to “send Gaza back into the Stone Age.” This rag is owned by the family of the late billionaire casino owner Sheldon Adelson, who gave over $400 million to Trump and other Republicans.

Israeli Minister of Heritage Amichay Eliyahu called for dropping an atom bomb on Gaza. Eliyahu also called for the Muslim holy month of Ramadan to be “wiped out.”

During the Vietnam War, the military brass contemplated using nuclear weapons. Among those considering the nuclear option were Pacific Commander in Chief, Admiral Harry D. Felt and Chair of the Joint Chiefs General Earle Wheeler. U.S. aircraft carriers bombing Vietnam carried nukes.

Kissinger made barely disguised nuclear threats at the Paris peace talks. These threats and the genocidal U.S. killing of millions caused Vietnamese negotiator Lê Đức Thọ to refuse the Nobel Peace Prize awarded to himself and Kissinger. 

One continuous struggle

The threat of the People’s Republic of China intervening, as happened in the Korean War, is said to have convinced the U.S. not to use nukes in Vietnam. 

The generals and admirals also blamed the anti-war movement for stopping them. So did President Richard Nixon.

On April 28, 1970, the U.S. invaded Cambodia. Three days later, as anti-war rallies and demonstrations swept the United States, Nixon called student protesters “bums.” 

The Ohio National Guard killed four students at Kent State University on May 4, 1970. They were Allison Krause, Jeffrey Miller, Sandra Scheuer and William Schroeder.

Ohio Gov. John Rhodes had originally called out the Guard to break a Teamster strike.

On May 15, 1970, state and local police in Jackson, Mississippi, fired into a dormitory at Jackson State University. Black students Phillip Gibbs and James Green were killed. 

Many of those who are demonstrating to stop the genocide in Gaza also marched for Black Lives Matter.

Three of the four Kent State martyrs — Krause, Miller and Scheuer — were Jewish. Today both Columbia and George Washington universities suspended the local chapters of Jewish Voice for Peace because JVP helped organize demonstrations in defense of Gaza.

In 1966, the Georgia House of Representatives voted to kick out Black Representative Julian Bond because of his opposition to the Vietnam War. In 2023, the U.S. House of Representatives voted to censure Rashida Tlaib, the body’s only Palestinian member, for defending Palestine.

Presidents Johnson and Nixon were war criminals. So is Genocide Joe Biden, who is helping to starve Gaza.

The U.S. Navy couldn’t defeat Vietnam and it can’t stop Yemen from turning ships around in solidarity with Palestine. Palestine will win.

Three Michigan cities – Detroit, Grand Rapids and Kalamazoo – held ceasefire marches on March 2, answering the call for “Global Ceasefire, End Genocide” actions. On March 3, a car rally streamed through the streets of Detroit and neighboring Oak Park to block traffic on I-696.

In Detroit, Michigan’s largest city, the ceasefire protest gathered at the riverfront Hart Plaza. There demonstrators topped the park flag pole with a Palestinian flag. Chanting loudly in the gentrifying downtown area, the protest clogged the full width of Woodward Avenue en route to a rally at Grand Circus Park, near sports arenas and music venues. 

Lead banners from the Palestinian Youth Movement and Freedom Road Socialist Organization called out the themes of the action: End the genocide on Gaza now! From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free! Hands off Rafah! Victory to the Palestinian resistance! Remember Aaron Bushnell!

These weekend actions continue the outpouring of local ceasefire resolutions across Michigan – in Ann Arbor (City Council and School Board), Canton Township, Dearborn Heights, Dearborn, Detroit, Ferndale, Hamtramck, Kalamazoo, Lansing, Warren, Washtenaw County, Wayne County, Ypsilanti, to start. 

The “Vote Uncommitted” wave begun by 101,000 votes in the Feb. 27 Michigan presidential primary spurred similar electoral expressions on Super Tuesday against the Biden administration’s arming of Israel’s genocide in Palestine.

As part of the March 2 Global Day of Action, Los Angeles saw tens of thousands take over a huge area of downtown. It was among the biggest – if not THE biggest – in Los Angeles since Israel began its genocidal assault on the people of Gaza.

The action was initiated and endorsed by the Palestinian Youth Movement, ANSWER Coalition, Jewish Voice for Peace, Labor for Palestine, Socialist Unity Party and many other groups. The size of the crowd made it difficult to walk through or advance from the back of the march to the front, much less determine its numbers.

The action included many young Palestinians, and signs and banners indicated that Jewish organizations and individuals, labor unions, LGBTQ+ people, and Black, Brown and Asian people from the neighborhoods of L.A. all came out in solidarity.

The march was followed by a long car caravan. Between people on foot and cars and trucks decorated with signs, banners, and Palestinian flags, the protest covered an area of about 30 blocks of downtown.

Several events happened while the march was being organized and word was spreading, adding to its size and militancy. Aaron Bushnell burned himself to death in his Air Force uniform on Feb. 25 at the front gate of the Zionist consulate in Washington, D.C., shouting “Free Palestine” as he doused himself with gasoline and ignited it. 

Just four days later, Zionist forces murdered more than 100 people and wounded more than 700 who were waiting for food from aid trucks. And, in the weeks leading up to March 2, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced to the world that a ground invasion of the southern city of Rafah was imminent.

While the flow of arms from the U.S. continues, the White House has been calling for a temporary pause in the war against Gazans. The majority of humanity is demanding an immediate and permanent end to the genocide. No one in the Biden administration has even hinted that the supply of weapons and funds should stop. 

The blood of more than 30,000 Palestinians is on Joe Biden’s hands. But the worldwide movement against genocide is growing in numbers and determination. Palestine will never die.  

On International Women’s Day, we salute Palestinian women and women worldwide struggling against U.S. imperialism and capitalist oppression.

It is imperative that we amplify the resistance of Palestinian women during the current genocide perpetuated by Israel and its puppet master, the United States.

Their heroic resistance and sacrifice remain foremost in our hearts and minds this International Women’s Day 2024.

Heavy rain didn’t stop tens of thousands from coming to Manhattan’s Washington Square Park on March 2, to demand an end to the genocide in Gaza. Signs, banners, and umbrellas filled the park.

The action was part of the Global Day of Action demanding “Hands Off Rafah! Ceasefire Now! Stop the Genocide!”

Zionist war criminal Benjamin Netanyahu and his enabler, Genocide Joe Biden, are starving the people of Gaza. People around the world saw how, on Feb. 29, Zionist troops killed 120 Palestinians who were lining up for food outside Gaza City.

Another 750 were wounded. Many of the dead had been killed by tanks running over them.

People crowded into Washington Square to listen to speeches. By 3 p.m., people were ready to march.

The UAW “Labor for Palestine” contingent led the way. Tens of thousands took over Sixth Avenue (Avenue of the Americas) and marched uptown. 

The demonstration filled the street for at least a half-dozen blocks. People chanted slogans including, “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free!”

Towards the end of the peaceful march, it was attacked by police, who arrested several protesters. Two were held overnight.

The Shut It Down 4 Palestine Coalition called the New York City rally and march. Among the participating organizations and endorsers were the Palestinian Youth Movement; The People’s Forum; Al-Awda NY: The Palestine Right to Return Coalition; Healthcare Workers for Palestine; December 12th Movement; and Black Alliance for Peace.

Also: DRUM NYC; For Our Liberation; Nodutdol for Korean Community Development; Anakbayan; Party for Socialism and Liberation; South Asian Left; Black Men Build; No Tech for Apartheid; Audre Lorde Project; Ridgewood Tenants Union; Uptown 4 Palestine; Mamas 4 a Free Palestine; Jews Against White Supremacy; Defend Democracy in Brazil; NYC Dissenters, Columbia University Students for Justice in Palestine; Columbia University Apartheid Divest; CUMC for Palestine; UAW Labor for Palestine; Labor for Palestine; and NYC City Workers for Palestine.

Palestine will win!