Columbia Heights, MN – On Monday, February 26, the city council of Columbia Heights voted 4-1 to pass a resolution calling for an end to Israel's genocidal campaign in Gaza. The Columbia Heights community packed the room, as it did at a previous city council meeting to provide public comment and encourage the council to vote in favor of the resolution.

Columbia Heights, MN – On February 12, the Columbia Heights city council heard public testimony for a resolution calling for immediate ceasefire in Gaza, as well as ending U.S. aid to Israel. The Twin Cities-based Free Palestine Coalition organized community members to pack the council chamber in support of the draft resolution.

Columbia Heights, MN – On April 8, over 250 people marched on Central Avenue in Columbia Heights to demand an end to Israeli violence against Palestinians and an end to U.S. aid to Israel.

Columbia Heights, MN – On May 15, over 2000 people marched in the streets to protest the Israeli regime’s latest onslaught against Palestine. The occasion was Nakba Day, commemorated on May 15 every year since 1948 when Zionist settlers ethnically cleansed over 750,000 Palestinians from their national homeland. The event was organized by American Muslims for Palestine-Minnesota (AMP-MN) and the Anti-War Committee (AWC), which were joined by Students for Justice in Palestine at the University of Minnesota (SJP-UMN), Jewish Voice for Peace-Twin Cities, Women Against Military Madness and others.

Columbia Heights, MN – Just outside city limits from Northeast Minneapolis, Central Avenue was awash with Palestine flags during Friday rush hour as Palestinian-Americans and solidarity activists commemorated Al-Nakba. Nakba Day, held each year on May 15, remembers the 1948 ethnic cleansing of hundreds of thousands of indigenous Palestinians from their national homeland by Zionist settlers. Around 60 cars and dozens of families drove in a long caravan through the heavily Arab-American neighborhood, with chants of “From the river to the sea…” echoing for blocks. The protest was one of many actions that happened internationally.

Columbia Heights, MN – Nearly 400 people protested along Central Ave on September 22 to demand an end to the atrocities being committed against Muslims in India by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his right-wing government.

Columbia Heights, MN – About 40 Palestinian-Americans, Palestine solidarity activists and immigrant rights activists rallied in Columbia Heights on May 16, to draw attention to the U.S. negative role in Palestine. Central Avenue in Columbia Heights is a main street for the Arab and Muslim community in the suburbs north of Minneapolis. The protest got a significant response from people returning home after work and shopping for food for their upcoming iftars.

Columbia Heights, MN – On May 23, 45 people gathered with banners and signs at the intersection of 43rd and Central in Columbia Heights to show solidarity with Gaza. Hundreds of cars honked their support as they drove by.

Columbia Heights, MN – On Oct. 9, 75 people gathered on Central Avenue here to protest the killing of four Palestinian youth, Huthaifa Sulaiman (18), Fadi Alloun (19), Abdul-Rahman Shadi Mustafa (13) and Mohannad Shafiq al-Halabi (19), by Israeli occupation forces on Oct. 4 and 5.

Freedom for Palestine!

Columbia Heights, MN – 175 people gathered here Sept. 5, in the heart of the Twin Cities Arab community, for a rally and march in solidarity with Palestine, organized by the Twin Cities-based Anti-War Committee (AWC). Just a week after a ceasefire agreement ended Israel’s 51-day assault on Gaza, community members demanded that Israel be held accountable for war crimes and that there be an end to U.S. aid to Israel. They also called for a renewed commitment to a Boycott Divest Sanctions (BDS) movement that can help bring an end to Israeli occupation and apartheid.