15,000+ March with Palestine in Minneapolis
Minneapolis, MN – Over 15,000 demonstrators shut down the main arteries of Minneapolis' Uptown neighborhood on Sunday, October 15, marching in solidarity with Palestine. The crowd was overwhelmingly Palestinian, joined by the city's Somali community, anti-Zionist Jews, and members of all swathes of the multinational working class.
The size and power of the march made the neighborhood echo with chants of “Resistance is justified when Palestine is occupied!” and “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free!” The big turnout revealed the massive gap between the people of Minneapolis and their elected officials, who have closed ranks to defend Israel's illegal, colonial occupation of Palestine.
Leila Yeshaya of the Anti-War Committee stated, “It's ignorant and dangerous to say Israel and Palestine are equal sides, to say that the first shots were fired last weekend. Not only that Israel killed 22 Palestinians for every Israeli killed since 2008, not only that the Knesset erupts in anti-Arab chants every few weeks, but they are not living in the same conditions.”
Yeshaya continued speaking about the U.S. media’s distortions, “There is no day where Palestinians in the West Bank aren’t forced to confront occupation. There is no day where Gaza lives without fear of a rainstorm of missiles with nowhere to hide. There are millions of Palestinians cramped into Gaza or discarded to the West Bank that had homes that were repossessed or destroyed on land decided to be Israeli. I'm sorry but this is not Israel's daily constant reality.”
Sana Wazwaz of American Muslims for Palestine MN spoke to the crowd, “Israel now knows that when they don't have the facts on their side, they have to fabricate information, about beheading babies, about mass rape, all of which have been quietly retracted. But I don't want to see retractions anymore, I don't want to see “oops, sorry, that was wrong”. I want you to end the apartheid regime! Make it right, don't just retract, don't just condemn, make it right! Make it right and end the $3.8 billion in unconditional military aid to a genocidal machine!”
The US currently sends $3.8 million dollars in military aid to Israel each year, and President Joe Biden has proposed sending further aid packages to support Israel's current violence.
The march was organized jointly by the Minnesota Anti-War Committee (AWC), American Muslims for Palestine — MN (AMP-MN), and Students for Justice in Palestine — University of Minnesota Chapter (SJP-UMN). These groups are organizing another rally at the Minnesota State Capitol on October 18 at 5:30pm.