Dallas: Pro-Palestine sit in at office of group behind Gaza Humanitarian Foundation
Dallas, TX – Over 100 Dallas residents joined a protest against Boston Consulting Group (BCG) on Friday, July 25 to call attention to the firm’s backing of the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), which has killed over a thousand Palestinians seeking aid.
Attendees banged pots and pans, blared instruments and chanted slogans including “We know what your funding’s for: forced starvation, endless war!” to disrupt the workday inside the office building. The protest was organized by the Palestinian Youth Movement – Dallas Chapter in response to an International Day of Action against the forced starvation of Gaza by the U.S. and Israel.
The Boston Consulting Group, which has an office in Dallas, is one of the founders and backers of the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation. The GFH is a U.S. and Israeli-backed mercenary group that is tasked with facilitating the forced starvation of the Palestinian people and reportedly using the starving masses of people as target practice.
During the protest, a group of community members went inside the lobby of the building with sirens and began a sit-in. Dallas Police violently escalated by pepper spraying and tasing protesters and forcibly removing a young Palestinian woman’s hijab before slamming her to the ground, bloodying her face. The police brutally arrested 11 attendees and held them for hours into the night before booking them in the county jail.
Alex Ramirez with the DFW Anti-War Committee said of the protest, “From the start, the protest was met with swift repression. Security and police quickly detained and arrested several members of the noise demonstration inside. Outside, Dallas police escalated the situation further by targeting the support crowd, arresting bystanders witnessing their comrades being taken away. Officers tackled and pepper-sprayed protesters, injuring several – including one activist who had to be hospitalized. In the aftermath, the Dallas Police Department deployed an overwhelming response. Multiple squad cars shut down traffic on Harry Hines Boulevard, despite the fact that demonstrators were not in the street. Riot officers were also dispatched to the area, demonstrating the lengths to which the state will go to silence dissent and protect corporate complicity.”
After the arrests, dozens of Dallas residents went to the Lew Sterrett Justice Center to bring the noise demonstration to the jail to demand the immediate release of all 11 community members. People stayed throughout the night until all of the arrestees were released on Saturday afternoon.
Rick Majumdar of the Freedom Road Socialist Organization said at the jail support, “As the conditions in Gaza worsen, and the genocide claims more lives, the movement in the U.S. in solidarity movement in support for Palestine grows larger, and at the moment is facing repression from the Trump administration nationally, and Greg Abbott locally in Texas. Protesters are facing greater repression from the police, while immigrants and immigrant organizers alike are facing repression from ICE.
“It is at this moment that organizers stand in solidarity with Palestine and with people in the U.S. facing repression from the police. Freedom Road Socialist Organization-Dallas stands with the arrestees and says that they did nothing wrong in protesting a brutal manmade famine and genocide in Gaza.”
During the early hours of the morning, the Dallas Police Department closed the doors to the public jail lobby and forced all jail support attendees to stay outside of the building. J Edwards with Code Pink Dallas said, “They are locking protesters from entering the building to use the restroom. Being able to move freely is a human right, especially when it is a bodily need such as using the bathroom. This is only one instance of cops oppressing protesters for speaking out against those who were unjustly arrested on Friday for having the courage to stand up for the people in Gaza who are being intentionally starved by the Zionist entity.”
Ezri Dax with Jewish Voice for Peace DFW added, “DPD is exercising excessive restrictions on those who have come to Lew Sterrett in support of our wrongfully arrested comrades. They have locked down the public lobby and restricted bathroom access, forcing us to remain outside in 92-degree weather. They can't break our spirit though; we've been here since yesterday and will remain here until everyone is free!”
Reflecting on the importance of this protest, Alex Ramirez continued, “As the genocide in Gaza continues, so must the response from people across the United States – especially in Texas, where multiple institutions are directly or indirectly complicit in the violence. Standing in solidarity with Palestinians is not only a matter of international justice, but a moral imperative: their struggle for liberation echoes the struggles against state violence, surveillance and militarization that communities face here at home. To remain silent is to be complicit in the continued erasure of an entire people.”