From West Philly to the West Bank: How Philadelphia Organizers Commemorate the Nakba
“From Philly to Palestine, occupation is a crime!”
Razan Idris
This year marks the 75th anniversary of the Nakba — or Catastrophe — where Palestinians were ethnically cleansed from their homeland in 1948. Last weekend, the Philly Palestine Coalition organized a march through Center City where, despite the rain, dozens of protesters filled city streets. Their chants — including “From Philly to Jenin, glory glory to Shirin!” — served as a reminder that resistance by Palestinians and their allies against Israel’s occupation is ongoing.
Following the murder of Palestinian American journalist Shirin Abu-Akhleh by Israeli military forces in 2022, Philadelphia-area organizations dedicated to Palestinian liberation - such as Temple Students for Justice in Palestine and Jewish Voices for Peace - organized a collective march commemorating the Nakba. Since then, their partnership has grown into the Philly Palestine Coalition, which focuses on joining hands between Palestinian, Black, and Indigenous organizers who are against occupation at large - or as they chanted, “From Philly to Palestine, occupation is a crime!”
The march began with a speech by Noura Erakat, a Palestinian American academic known for her solidarity work between the Black Lives Matter movement and Palestinian resistance. All the speakers at the Saturday march were Palestinian or Black organizers, and all but Erakat were long term residents of Philadelphia. So it was no surprise that connections between racial occupation in Philadelphia and Palestine were a key theme of the event.
One of the coalition’s speakers, Brice, a Black organizer and artist raised in West Philadelphia, reminded the crowd, “The Nakba is not just a day of mourning but celebration of resistance and how far it stretches, from Palestine to right here in Philadelphia with the fight for the UC Townhomes, the fight for Chinatown, and the commemoration of the MOVE bombing today.”
As the protestors marched downtown, they stopped in front of Sister Cities Cafe, where Palestinian organizers asked the crowd: “Who here knows that Philadelphia declared itself a sister city to Tel Aviv and sends funds to the Israeli state?”
After the crowd booed, Nicholas, a self-described black church radical raised in Northeast Philadelphia, boomed into the mic, “It is important to me as a Christian minister to uplift Palestinian voices because I was raised being exposed to evangelical Zionism. We need to stand against men such as John Fry who were on our televisions supporting Christians United For Israel, who prop up a white colonial project under the guise of religion.”
While Saturday’s marchers were largely left unbothered, protesters are no strangers to the virulent backlash that often faces Palestinian resistance. As on attendee, who asked to remain anonymous, says, “When you organize for Palestine, you don’t get callbacks on jobs any more.They added, “I’ve considered changing my legal name so that I can get off of online blacklists against Palestine activists, but at this point I don’t care.”
With that in mind, the Coalition is careful to preserve the anonymity of the march’s attendees to prevent backlash against individuals. For example, all photos posted online blurred out attendees’ faces. But even blurred photos couldn’t erase the joy of the marchers when a Palestinian-owned ice cream truck joined the crowd, bringing smiles to every face as they waved a Palestinian flag and handed out treats to the protestors.
“Our solidarity is beautiful,” concluded Brice. “It means much more than the nasty donuts at Sister Cities Cafe! Unlike the apartheid state, we are united beyond our ethnicities, gender identities, and places of birth in standing against oppression.”
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Razan Idris is a Sudanese-American PhD candidate in History at the University of Pennsylvania and the curator of the #SudanSyllabus, working on a project tentatively titled The Colors of the Earth: Blackness in 1930s Egypt