Solidarity with Palestine

Minneapolis, MN – About 40 people joined the Twin Cities based Anti-War Committee, May 15, for its annual remembrance of Al-Nakba, or “the catastrophe” that occurred in 1948 when hundreds of thousands of Palestinians were forced from their homes.

Austin Jensen, of the Anti-War Committee (AWC) told the crowd that gathered in Loring Park, “Since 1948 the U.S. has given over $121 billion in aid to Israel. So what are the plans for 2018? Well, Obama has been offering the largest single pledge of military assistance ever offered in U.S. history. This aid package would see U.S. aid jump to $40 billion in another installment that would last ten years. So what does Israel choose to do with all this aid? It is used to maintain and fuel Israel's occupation, apartheid and ethnic cleansing of Palestinians from their own land.”

Burhan Isaaq stated, “It is an injustice to witness the murder of children and families. As we march on another stolen land, where the poor and oppressed are occupied in private for-profit prisons, where Black people are killed unarmed by state agents and in a country that aids and supplies a terrorist state like Israel with tax dollars- they also manufacture plots to arrest and build conspiracy charges against its Muslim immigrant population.” Isaaq also urged participants to support the three Somali youth who are now facing trial.

Other speakers included Sarah Martin from Women Against Military Madness, who addressed each of the major parties' candidates' stances on U.S. aid to Israel; Craig Wood from Veterans for Peace; Sophia Hansen-Day from the Anti-War Committee, who talked about Rasmea Odeh’s case and urged people to go to her Detroit hearing in June, and Sabry Wazwaz from the AWC who urged people to stay involved in the movement.

The rally was followed by a community march through the Loring Park neighborhood.

Al-Nakba is an annual commemoration of the displacement of Palestinians and the subsequent denial of the right to return to their homes. Palestinians have been under Israeli occupation for 68 years. The protest is one of many throughout the world from Ni’lin and Ramallah in Palestine to New York City.

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