Minneapolis, MN – On March 30, over 50 activists gathered to show solidarity with Palestinians in their struggle against Israeli apartheid and occupation. They waved Palestinian flags and dropped banners on the footbridge over Interstate 94 between the Walker Sculpture Garden and Loring Park – across all eight lanes of traffic – demanding an end of U.S. aid to Israel, an end of Israeli occupation, the right of return for Palestinians, and an end to vaccine apartheid. The response from people passing by was overwhelmingly positive with a lot of honks from cars.

The action coincided with Land Day, which commemorates the events of March 1976, when the state of Israel announced it was going to steal more Palestinian land. In response to that announcement, Palestinians – under a brutal 18-year military occupation at the time – organized a general strike and marched in protest from the Galilee to the Negev. On March 30, 1976, Israeli soldiers (IDF) shot into the crowds of unarmed protesters, injuring hundreds of the Palestinian protesting and murdering six. Hundreds more were arrested and taken to Israeli prisons.

The first Land Day was the largest organized protest against Israeli land theft up to that point. It was a giant leap for the Palestinian national cause and has been a day of commemoration ever since. Land Day’s significance in the Palestinian political calendar was compounded in 2018, when hundreds were killed and thousands injured by Israeli sniper fire as Palestinians demanded the Right of Return to their stolen land with mass protests in Gaza, called the Great March of Return.

Mariam El-Khatib from American Muslims for Palestine (AMP) told the crowd, “You know sometimes we say it’s been 45 years since Land Day, it’s been 73 years since Al Nakba, it’s been all these years since all these events, but it’s really important to recognize that Palestinians have been resisting every single year, and they resist every single day.”

El-Khatib continued, “Every day they’re going through checkpoints, every day they’re having to deal with the harassment of the soldiers, every day they’re having to deal with their existence being criminalized. We all believe it: Palestine will be free.”

Currently, 5 million Palestinians are living under Israeli military occupation in the West Bank and Gaza. For decades now, the Israeli regime has purposefully destabilized medicine, electricity, housing and water in these regions, and it’s no surprise that this vindictive policy extends to the COVID-19 response.

As a result, thousands of Palestinians are dying, and there is a malicious lack of a plan to distribute vaccines. This has been a year of immense hardships for Palestine.

“Palestinians show us that not giving up means something. Even as conditions worsen in Palestine, the political situation here is finally showing a glimmer of hope,” said Wyatt Miller of the Anti-War Committee (AWC), “Elected officials in U.S. Congress have made proposals to reduce aid to Israel. Things that were once politically taboo, like the Right of Return, are now part of the conversation. They’re trying to outlaw criticism of Israel on college campuses precisely because people are finally starting to pay attention.”

The protest was organized by the MN Anti-War Committee and American Muslims for Palestine MN; it was cosponsored by Women Against Military Madness, Jewish Voices for Peace, Climate Justice Committee, and Students for Justice in Palestine.

#MinneapolisMN #AntiwarMovement #Palestine #LandDay #GreatMarchOfReturn #AntiWarCommitteeAWC

Jacksonville, FL – On May 14, 25 community members rallied in front of the Duval County Courthouse to condemn the massacre of 60-plus Palestinians who took part in Great Return March protests, as well as the opening of the U.S. Embassy to Israel in Jerusalem.

Activists held signs and banners while speakers delivered messages of solidarity. A little bit of rain could not dampen the spirited event. Chants at the rally included: “There is only one solution! Intifada, revolution!” “Gaza, Gaza, don’t you cry! Palestine will never die!” and “From Palestine to Puerto Rico, occupation has got to go!”

Sara Haj-Yahia, a co-founder of Jacksonville Palestine Solidarity Network (JPSN), made the following remarks on the rally, “It is more crucial now than ever that supporters of Palestinian national liberation act, considering that 2018 is the 70th year of the Zionist colonial occupation of Palestine,” she added, “the U.S., Israel, and its allies are all beginning to move away from their liberal facades and into more blatant policies, causing conditions to deteriorate at expedited rates.”

Activists are also planning a film screening to further educate others about the struggle for Palestinian liberation. On Friday May 18, at 6:30 p.m., JPSN will be showing the film Junction 48 at the Center for Health Disparities building of Edward Waters College, located at 1401 Grunthal Street in Jacksonville.

#JacksonvilleFL #Palestine #AlNakba #GreatMarchOfReturn #Nakba70 #MiddleEast

Minneapolis, MN – Protesters stood outside the offices of Senator Amy Klobuchar, April 10, to call attention to the Palestinians being killed by the Israeli military. This emergency bannering comes as Palestinians are being killed during the Great March of Return, which began on Land Day, March 30, and will continue for six weeks until Al Nakba on May 15.

A statement from protest organizer, the Anti-War Committee, said, “It has been 70 years since the Deir Yassin massacre. In 1948, the Palestinian village was attacked by Israeli commandos and 100 women, men and children were slaughtered. Every year Palestinians demand the right to return to their homeland, but this year it coincides with a growing resistance movement in Gaza. We want folks in the Twin Cities to join us and stand in solidarity with Palestine to demand an end to U.S. support for Israel's war crimes.”

Meredith Aby-Keirstead, speaking for the MN Anti-War Committee, addressed the crowd of 25 people, “Yesterday marked the 70th anniversary of the Deir Yassin massacre. Today Palestinians are still protesting for the right to return to their homeland while they are shot at by snipers with live ammunition, are shot at with rubber bullets, and are tear gassed. We are here to draw attention to the recent Israeli military attacks on the Great March of Return in Gaza and to call for an end to U.S. aid to Israel.”

Aby-Keirstead continued, “Not only is the Israeli occupation of Palestine immoral, we are subsidizing it! According to the Congressional Budget Office the U.S. has provided Israel $134.7 billion in assistance and missile defense funding. Almost all U.S. aid to Israel is in the form of military assistance.”

Senator Klobuchar was unwilling to meet with the Anti-War Committee on April 10 and the committee plans to continue to pressure their senators to end U.S. aid to Israel and to demand freedom for Palestine.

#MinneapolisMN #AntiwarMovement #Palestine #AntiWarCommittee #AlNakba #LandDay #GreatMarchOfReturn #MiddleEast

Jacksonville, FL – Over two dozen students and community activists gathered on April 9 to begin holding events for Israeli Apartheid Week at the University of North Florida (UNF). Students for Justice in Palestine at UNF led a vigil to honor Palestinian martyrs killed by Israel with help from the Jacksonville Palestine Solidarity Network.

The vigil was held in front of the student union on campus with a symbolic apartheid wall constructed and painted in the background. Several activists gave speeches and led the audience through chants like “Free, free Palestine!” and “Netanyahu you can’t hide, we charge you with genocide!” Some of the speakers discussed how this year marked 70 years since Al-Nakba, “the catastrophe,” which saw many Palestinians forced off their land in 1948. Near the end of the vigil, the names of many martyrs were read aloud over the microphone before several Muslim, Christian and Jewish students led short prayers from their own traditions.

“Israeli Apartheid Week at UNF this year is an opportunity to raise awareness of Israel’s crimes while paying homage to the Palestinian resistance against them. The vigil, with the Separation Wall apparent in the background, started off this occasion in a solemn way. I look forward to the rest of the events this week,” said Albert Kishek, a local organizer with Jacksonville Palestine Solidarity Network and former member of Students for Justice in Palestine at Florida State University.

“The vigil had amazing energy and attendance. On 70 years of Nakba, it’s important for all revolutionaries to organize against the settler colonial state and draw the connections between imperialism overseas and repression at home, which we were able to draw by making the connections of state repression that targets Palestinians in our home and Black Americans in the belly of the beast,” said Sara Mahmoud, another organizer with JPSN and active fighter against police crimes.

Several more events are planned over the course of the week to raise awareness about Israeli apartheid and Palestinian resistance, including a local demonstration on April 14 at 2 p.m. in front of the Duval County Courthouse in downtown Jacksonville. This event is in solidarity with the Great March of Return.

#JacksonvilleFL #Palestine #JacksonvillePalestineSolidarityNetwork #GreatMarchOfReturn #IsraeliApartheidWeek #MiddleEast

Gaza officials report that on April 4, an Israeli drone strike killed a Palestinian youth in the border area.

This killing comes on the heels of a of the Israeli massacre, March 30, of at least 18 Palestinian participants in the Great March of Return. The death toll has continued to climb as protesters succumb to wounds. Israeli officials have praised the killings and threaten more.

Palestinian demonstrations against the occupation and for the Right of Return are continuing.

#Palestine #GreatMarchOfReturn #MiddleEast