Pompano Beach, FL – On Saturday, March 2, over 200 cars traced a route across South Florida maintaining minimum legal speeds on interstates and along busy beachfront roads to protest U.S. support for Israel.

The caravan was launched in remembrance of the over 30,000 Palestinians who have been killed in Israel’s genocidal war in Gaza. In honor of the martyrs, dozens of cars carried posters with the pictures and personal information of individual Palestinians murdered by Israel.

The caravan was led and tailed by video trucks displaying the truth of Israel’s crimes and had several cars with speakers on megaphones making educational and political speeches were distributed throughout. Participants distributed flyers with information about the history of Palestine and its occupation by the Zionists.

The hundreds of vehicles brought traffic to a crawl and drew cheering crowds at two intersections. Shouts of “Free Palestine” and “Stop the genocide” were heard from both the demonstrators’ speakers and from beachgoers. Many vehicles were adorned with decorations that were prepared during the two hours it took for the drivers to gather. These included flags, posters and painted messages that read “30,000 killed by Israel,” “End all aid to Israel” and “Victory to Palestine.”

Efforts by police and Zionists to harass the demonstration failed to prevent the vehicles from completing the entire planned route despite multiple citations and a Zionist motorcyclist who broke a side-view mirror.

At the conclusion, organizers said that this rally was double the size of the first rally a month before and made calls for the new participants to join in the planning of a third car rally for Palestine in South Florida.

Many organizations contributed to the event such as South-Florida Freedom Road Socialist Organization, Palestine Car Rally, Al-Awda, Jewish Voices for Peace of South Florida, Students for Justice in Palestine at Florida International University, Democratic Socialists of America, and Jose Marti Youth.

#PompanoBeachFL #MiamiFL #FtLauderdaleFL #BocaRatonFL #SouthFlorida #AntiWarMovement #International #MiddleEast #Palestine #FRSO #JVP #AlAwda #SJP #DSA #JMY

POWIR [People's Opposition to War, Imperialism, and Racism] unequivocally stands in solidarity with 16 year old Palestinian youth activist Ahhed Tamimi and all other Palestinian child prisoners illegally detained in Israeli prisons.

Ahed has been targeted by the Israeli state for her family’s long standing anti-colonial activism that opposes the Israeli occupation and the continued annexation of their village lands by Israeli settlements. On January 1, Ahed was indicted with 12 charges for activism, including assault of an IDF soldier and incitement based on social media posts. This punishment has also been collectively extended to her mother Nariman and her cousin Muhammad Tamimi who was shot in the face with rubber bullets at an Anti-Trump action.

Since the year 2000, over 8,000 Palestinian children have been detained in Israeli jails. These children are often not allowed legal counseling or even allowed contact with their parents. Israel, using its “emergency rules,” operates under 1,500 military laws that can be arbitrarily changed. This often denies Palestinians the right for legal representation or trial, leading to indefinite detainment. Mass arrest is commonly used as a tool of collective punishment which is illegal under international law. Israel is the only country to prosecute children in military courts.

We stand against this practice and the larger colonization of Palestinian lands that has been ongoing for decades. We support all those, young and old, who resist Israeli occupation. We denounce the charges against Ahed and the criminalization of young freedom fighters, while violent while IDF soldiers are given free range to abuse Palestinians with no consequences.

In Solidarity,

People's Opposition to War, Imperialism, and Racism

“My daughter is just 16 years old. In another world, in your world, her life would look completely different. In our world, Ahed is a representative of a new generation of our people, of young freedom fighters. This generation has to wage its struggle on two fronts. On the one hand, they have the duty, of course, to keep on challenging and fighting the Israeli colonialism into which they were born, until the day it collapses. On the other hand, they have to boldly face the political stagnation and degeneration that has spread among us. They have to become the living artery that will revive our revolution and bring it back from the death entailed in a growing culture of passivity that has arisen from decades of political inactivity.” Bassem Tamimi, Ahed Tamimi's father.

#FtLauderdaleFl #AntiwarMovement #Palestine #PeoplesStruggles #Florida #POWIR #AhedTamimi #PeoplesOppositionToWarAndImperialism #MiddleEast

Ft. Lauderdale, FL – Over fifty people protested U.S. backed Israeli violence on July 6 at the U.S. Federal Building in downtown Ft. Lauderdale. The Israeli government is using airstrikes and the army to attack Palestinians. In tandem, Israeli settlers kidnapped, tortured, and burned to death a teenager. Then an Israeli police intelligence unit was caught on video, brutally beating a fifteen-year-old boy from Tampa, Florida.

In Fort Lauderdale, families with children waved Palestinian flags and held signs reading “Justice for Palestine” “One state is the only solution” and “Free Palestine.” The protest was held in support of justice and liberation for Palestinians. Leaders called on the U.S. government to stop supporting Israeli aggression and human rights violations. The U.S. government sends Israel $3.1 billion annually in aid, much of it military aid. The United States has spent $121 billion on Israel since it seized Palestinian lands and stole Palestinian people’s houses, businesses, and farms.

Members of Al-Awda South Florida, Students for Justice in Palestine – FAU, Broward Green Party, People’s Opposition to War, Imperialism, and Racism (POWIR), Dream Defenders, and religious leaders participated. Cars driving by honked in solidarity as the protestors chanted “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free!” and “Gaza, Gaza don’t you cry, Palestine will never die.”

The death toll of Palestinians continues to rise, the occupation of Palestinian land by armed Israeli settlers expands, and the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians continues. Anas Amireh, an organizer with Al-Awda South Florida, highlighted the sad story of two cousins. Tariq Abu Khdeir is a fifteen-year-old Palestinian-American from Tampa. He was beaten and arrested by masked Israeli police last week. He is now under house-arrest. Sadly, his sixteen-year-old cousin, Muhammad Abu Khdeir, was found dead on Wednesday, tortured, stabbed, then burned to death and dumped in a forest.

These brutal actions by armed Israeli settlers, some of them teenagers with automatic weapons, is propelling cities across the country to hold protests in solidarity with these two teenage boys. Solidarity activists are demanding the U.S. government stop funding Israel and calling for an end to the anti-democratic Israeli Apartheid system. The south Florida protest also called on U.S. corporate media to stop their biased reporting.

#FtLauderdale #FtLauderdaleFL #Palestine #PeoplesStruggles #Israel #Oppression #MiddleEast