Washington, D.C. – On Sunday, May 18, hundreds gathered at the north end of the Washington Monument to commemorate the 77th anniversary of the Nakba.

Al-Nakba, known in Arabic as “The Catastrophe,” began on May 14, 1948. The Zionist regime forced over 750,000 Palestinians from their land in a matter of months, displacing millions and beginning a reign of terror and dispossession of land for Palestinian people. With the assistance of the British, the Zionist regime massacred innocent Palestinians as it engaged in widespread theft of the land. Since then, hundreds of thousands of Palestinians have been killed, culminating in the current genocide in Gaza.

Palestinian Youth Movement (PYM-DMV) hosted the May 18 protest, capping off a week of actions commemorating the event.

The action brought out an inter-generational crowd, ranging from infants to elders, uniting their voices in power to demand the Palestinian right to return and a Free Palestine.

“In our millions and our billions, we are all Palestinian!” the crowd chanted in a call and response with the emcee between speakers.

“They don’t understand,” said Rafiki Morris, a storied muralist and member of the All-African People’s Revolutionary Party, “The power of this movement is when we all come together and act as one.”

“Our unity is our strength,” he continued, adding that the people’s power, “is the only thing we have, because the only thing left to throw at the system are our bodies.”

The action transitioned to a march to the Capitol. All along Pennsylvania Avenue protesters chanted, “The people united will never be defeated” and “Up! Up with liberation! Down! Down with occupation!”

The protest ended in front of the U.S. Capitol, as attendees were called to hold steadfast with the Palestinian people in their struggle to resist apartheid and occupation until liberation and return.

#WashingtonDC #Nakba #PalestinianYouthMovement

Los Angeles, CA – On Tuesday, July 2, protesters congregated outside and within the Los Angeles City Hall to disrupt the city council’s motion to provide $1 million to Zionist security forces.

Introduced by Council Members Katy Yaroslavsky (Council District 5) and Bob Blumenfield (CD-3), the proposed funding follows attacks by Zionists on Palestine solidarity activists. However, the successful mobilization of anti-Zionist forces led the city council to delay their vote on the motion.

The city council motion came up as a response to the Palestinian Youth Movement’s protest of a “real estate event” held on June 24 by My Home in Israel. That company markets Israeli settlements to American Jews. Like their attack on the UCLA Gaza solidarity encampments, Zionist counter-protesters came to the protest in West LA and initiated clashes with pro-Palestinian demonstrators.

National and local politicians willfully ignored this context, focusing on the location of the real estate event – the Adas Torah synagogue – in order to smear Palestine solidarity activists as “antisemitic.”

President Biden’s X account published, “Intimidating Jewish congregants is dangerous, unconscionable, antisemitic, and un-American. Americans have a right to peaceful protest. But blocking access to a house of worship – and engaging in violence – is never acceptable.”

Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass called upon LAPD to further patrol the neighborhood, vowed to secure funding for security, and described the protest as “Antisemitism in the heart of one of our Jewish communities.”

On June 26, Council Members Yaroslavsky and Blumenfields’ response to the clashes was the introduction of a motion to allocate $1 million to support the Jewish Federation, Magen Am, the Jewish Community Foundation, and/or additional organizations in order to increase “community security services, training, and grants” for the “Jewish communities of Los Angeles.” The proposed recipients of this funding have known links to both the Israel Defense Forces and LAPD as well as a track record of attacking demonstrators at Palestine solidarity actions.

During the press conference outside the city hall and the public comments at the July 2 city council meeting, activists spoke about their experiences of Zionist intimidation and violence at pro-Palestine protests throughout Los Angeles. Speakers also linked the IDF to LAPD through their common training and tactics. They recommended that the city council allocate these funds for affordable housing, green spaces, and other social needs in LA.

Luis Sifuentes of Freedom Road Socialist Organization led his speech with the chant, “Viva, viva Palestina.” He said, “Fascists can attack us for demonstrating our solidarity with Palestine with complete impunity. And now they’re trying to get millions, more money, for supposedly security. But it’s not going to stop here. They’re going to keep asking for more.”

While activists’ efforts led to the delay of the city council’s vote, a new proposal will likely expand the recipients to communities of various religious denominations but also increase the funding to $2 million. When the amended motion is up for a vote, the people of Los Angeles will mobilize once again to demonstrate their rejection of Zionism.

#LosAngelesCA #PalestinianYouthMovement #LAPD #IDF

Celine Qussiny from Palestinian Youth Movement explained that Palestinians have a right to resist and respond to the ongoing Zionist attacks and occupation. “This escalation is a direct response to 75 years of ongoing Nakba and ethnic cleansing. The Zionist entity bears full responsibility for this escalation.” She ended her speech with “the struggle for Palestinian liberation continues and will continue until the complete liberation and return of our people!”

President Joe Biden has called the operation a terrorist assault and has stated that the U.S. is “ready to offer all appropriate means of support to the government and people of Israel.”

In response to these accusations of terrorism, John Nonato from Anakbayan University of California, Irvine and Bayan Southern California, stated: “We understand that it’s the U.S. imperialists that are the number one terrorists. The U.S. imperialists funding the IDF [Israeli Defense Forces], the occupation forces that are also training the armed forces in the Philippines to suppress our people. We have a right to resist – it is not terrorism.”

#AnaheimCA #Palestine #PalestinianYouthMovement #Anakbayan #Bayan

Dallas, TX – On July 3, over 50 people gathered at Belo Garden Park in downtown Dallas to protest the recent destruction of Silwan, a Palestinian neighborhood in East Jerusalem, and the ongoing siege on Gaza by the Israeli apartheid state. The action was called by the Palestinian Youth Movement.

Chants at the rally included “Free! Free Palestine!”, “We don't want two states, we want 48!” and “Intifada! Intifada! Long live the Intifada!” Speeches were delivered by Nashwa Bawab of Palestinian Youth Movement and Fadya Risheq of American Muslims for Justice in Palestine. Nashwa Bawab of Palestinian Youth condemned the recent demolition of the Palestinian neighborhood of Silwan in East Jerusalem.

“Palestinians in Jerusalem have continued to face the threat of forcible evictions and home demolitions backed by the discriminatory legal and military systems of the Zionist state. Just this past week, Zionist military forces entered the Jerusalem neighborhood of Silwan with bulldozers prepared to begin their demolition of Palestinian shops and homes. The Zionist state demanded Palestinians to demolish their own homes, threatening to otherwise demolish them themselves. Palestinians defending their homes and shops were met with violence by Israeli occupation forces who used rubber-coated steel bullets, fired tear gas, and brutally attacked protesters with batons in a violent effort to disperse protesters demonstrating against the theft of their homes and livelihoods,” stated Bawab.

Nashwa Bawab also condemned the Palestinian Authority for assisting Israeli apartheid forces in imprisoning Palestinian national liberation fighters. “We must reject the geographic and political fragmentation of our people that has been created through Oslo. We must reject security coordination with the Zionist entity. We must affirm our people’s right to democratically engage in our struggle and to voice our opposition against the current policies of the Palestinian Authority, which is a product of Oslo. We must reject political assassinations, imprisonment of Palestinian activists, and the violent crackdown against Palestinian protesters by the PA. The weapons of our people should be wielded against our enemy, and never against each other.”

#DallasTX #Palestine #MiddleEast #PeoplesStruggles #Silwan #PalestinianYouthMovement