5th week of enormous Dallas Palestine protests
Dallas, TX – For the fifth straight weekend, Dallas saw record-shattering numbers at a rally in support of the people of Gaza, Palestine. The march was called to demand an end to the occupation of Palestine. The November 4 rally was one of the largest marches Dallas has seen since the Black lives matter protests in 2020. It wrapped around entire blocks in Oak Lawn, and iconic “gayborhood” in Dallas, and near U.S. Senator Ted Cruz’s Dallas office.
The rally brought in thousands of community members of all ages, including many families with young children. A local imam began the event with a call to prayer and interfaith leaders spoke of the war crimes committed against the people of Gaza by the state of Israel.
Members of the local Dallas Anti-War Committee were at the event gathering signatures for a petition calling for a Dallas city council resolution to be passed in support of Palestinians, calling for a ceasefire and an end to the occupation. When asked why he was attending the rally and passing out the petition flyers, Hobie Hukill responded, “I support Palestinians in their resistance against Zionism. I condemn the U.S. government as the chief enabler of Zionism. We must stop the war machine of the U.S. empire.”
The march made a stop at Senator Ted Cruz’s Dallas office to call out his demonization of Palestinians and his support for the Israeli occupation and siege. In a speech on October 18, Cruz called for the U.S. to send more monetary and military support to Israel and withhold aid from Gaza. This comes at a time of President Biden requesting an additional $14.3 billion to support the Israeli siege on Gaza and the state of Texas purchasing an additional $20 million in Israeli bonds.
Organizations across Texas are preparing for a march on the Texas State Capitol in Austin on Sunday, November 12. In a post about the upcoming rally, the Palestinian Youth Movement calls out the state government for allocating “$298 million annually to support Israel, funding war crimes, home demolitions, settlement construction, and the ongoing onslaught of the Gaza Strip.”
According to Al Jazeera on November 5, the day of the rally, at least 9770 Palestinians have been killed by the Israeli military since the start of the siege on Gaza, including over 4000 children.