Minneapolis, MN – On October 9, 500 people participated in an emergency rally outside the downtown office of Senator Amy Klobuchar to demand an immediate end to U.S. aid to Israel, following renewed Israeli military strikes on Gaza. The crowd included a sizable turnout from the Palestinian and Muslim communities. After the rally, protesters marched through downtown Minneapolis with a sea of Palestinian flags.

“Israel has been ethnically cleansing the Palestinian villages since its inception. So, we are here to say that we cannot treat this as a surprise if Israel has been, you know, reaping, you know, the seeds of unrest. They cannot oppress the people and then be shocked when the people respond,” explained Maysoon Wazwaz, the outreach coordinator for the Minnesota chapter of American Muslims for Palestine, who emceed the rally.

On October 7, Palestinian resistance fighters launched incursions into Israel-occupied territory outside the densely populated Gaza Strip. Footage showed Palestinian bulldozers demolishing the border fence built by Israel to contain Gaza, after the withdrawal of Israeli forces from the Palestinian-controlled enclave in 2005. In 2018, the Gaza border fence was the site of the Great March of Return protests, where hundreds of Palestinian refugees were killed and wounded by Israeli gunfire as they attempted to return to their homeland en masse.

Israel’s controversial far-right Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu responded to the renewed Palestinian resistance actions by declaring a “state of war,” vowing to inflict an “unprecedented price” on Gaza. Previous Israeli military attacks on Gaza have been marked by collective punishment of the 2.3 million Palestinians living in the enclave, through bombings of civilian infrastructure and the blockade of humanitarian supplies from entering.

Meredith Aby, a spokesperson for the MN Anti-War Committee, said to the crowd, “The reality is Israel just made it official yesterday by declaring war. Palestinians already knew this was a war. It has been since 1948 when their land was forcibly taken. This weekend the Israeli war minister announced that there will be no electricity, no food and no fuel into Gaza. We need to be loud in our defense of Palestine!”

President Joe Biden and politicians from both major parties quickly pledged support for Israel in the wake of the renewed fighting. Minnesota’s Senator Amy Klobuchar, a strong congressional supporter of U.S. aid to Israel, characterized the Palestinian resistance forces as “terrorists.”

Tracy Molm, a member of Freedom Road Socialist Organization, responded to the Democratic rhetoric in her rally speech: “I call on all of us to stand united and beat back the crocodile tears of Israel's supporters, like Amy Klobuchar. We must be clear that settlers are not civilians – they are the shock troops of war and occupation and exist on stolen land.”

The rally was initiated by the Minnesota Anti-War Committee and co-sponsored by American Muslims for Palestine, Students for Justice in Palestine at the U of MN, MN Peace Action Coalition, MN BDS Community, Middle East Peace Now, Veterans for Peace, Women Against Military Madness, and Freedom Road Socialist Organization.

Organizers called on the crowd to go to the MN Peace Action Coalition protest at the new Lockheed Martin building in Saint Paul on October 12 at 4:30 pm at Raymond Avenue and Energy Park Drive. Lockheed Martin is supplying many of the arms and planes being used by Israel.

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