Seattle, WA – On October 18, a crowd of 90,000 turned out for No Kings Day 2.0 at Seattle Center to protest the growing list of attacks by the Trump administration. They demanded immigrant rights, police accountability, and stops to U.S. war and intervention abroad, attacks on federal workers, social programs and services, as well as people’s basic rights to bodily autonomy and access to medical care.

In addition to the broadly anti-Trump messaging of Seattle’s No Kings protest, organizers with grassroots community organizations like UW Students for a Democratic Society (SDS), the Seattle Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression (SAARPR), and Seattle Against War (SAW), along with the Freedom Road Socialist Organization, joined together with other pro-Palestine organizations and activists to bring a loud and militant Palestine contingent comprising one of the more disciplined and serious sections of the march.

“Showing up here with the Palestine contingent means being visible and being defiant,” said Bria Lewis, a member of UW SDS. “So many people in power try to shut down a movement condemning the genocide of the Palestinian people by claiming it’s antisemitic to call it what it is. I don’t have family in Europe now because they were all killed 80 years ago. I can’t think of anything more antisemitic than causing unfathomable suffering on a large scale and claiming this is what the monolith of Jewish people believe in.”

A major achievement of the movement for Palestine in Seattle was securing a speaking spot for Palestinian activist Tariq Ra’ouf, who brought a sharp anti-genocide message to the 90,000-strong crowd stating “We all know that Trump is a liar, right? But what if I told you that it’s not just Trump who’s been lying to you? It’s not just the MAGA fanatics and the Republicans who’ve been supporting them.”

Ra’ouf continued, “When people across both sides of the aisle couldn’t admit that what was happening in Gaza was a genocide, and as I lost family member after family member after family member, the last of which was killed last week, I realized that I was being lied to not just by Trump, but by Democrats who were guilty of being paid by Israel to keep sending them more bombs!”

The Palestinian speaker and solid block of marchers waving Palestine flags represented a major shift in the prevalence of pro-Palestine messaging compared to the first No Kings event earlier this year. The change speaks to the tireless efforts of anti-war organizers and activists to build and sustain Seattle’s mass movement for Palestinian liberation and an end to the U.S.-backed Israeli genocide in Gaza.

Once the march got underway, chant leads from Seattle Against War led the Palestine contingent through the streets of downtown Seattle with a nonstop chorus of chants in Arabic and English, including “When Palestine is under attack, what do we do? Stand up, fight back!” and “Not another penny, not another dime! No troops in Venezuela, no bombs in Palestine!”

The contingent also loudly declared resistance to any future national guard deployment to Seattle with chants of “No Trump! No troops! Seattle isn’t licking boots!” UW SDS has preemptively called for an emergency response action in the case that the National Guard is sent to Seattle. The action will be at Federal District Court, 700 Stewart Street at 6 p.m. the day after such a deployment.

Ra’ouf’s speech drew a clear connection between these seemingly separate struggles. “You are the one that has the power in this world,” he concluded. “Not our politicians, not the National Guard, not our police. You are the one capable of telling them what is and isn’t acceptable. It is your labor that keeps the status quo going. So join your community to protest in front of the ICE facilities to prevent people from getting kidnapped. Join the Palestinian protests to send a message that our money should be spent on us, not on Israel. It’s time the world understands that when we say free Palestine, we want a free and better world for all of us.”

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