Philadelphians Speak Out in Support of Gaza
Staff Writer
“From the river to sea, Palestine will be free,” chanted an estimated 220 Philadelphians who marched from Rittenhouse Square to City Hall on October 8, at an emergency rally in solidarity with Palestine. The rally was organized by the Philly Palestine Coalition, a Philadelphia-based alliance of Palestinian, Black, and indigenous community organizations working to support Palestinian liberation.
Philadelphians march from Rittenhouse Square to City Hall on October 8 at an emergency rally in solidarity with Palestine. Photo Credit: Al Bustan Staff
Organizers say the rally was held in response to the previous day’s events: On October 7, Palestinian resistance fighters affiliated with Gaza’s Hamas government broke through the Israeli constructed border wall, which prevents Gazans from coming in or out of Gaza. Breaching the Beit Hanoun border crossing, the fighters entered Israel and are widely reported to have killed an estimated 1,400 Israelis (both civilians and soldiers) and taken an estimated 200 Israelis (mostly civilians) hostage. In response, Israel began bombing Gaza that same day, and has not stopped since. Over the past two weeks, Israel’s carpet bombing of Gaza has killed over 5,087 people, more than 62 percent of whom are women and children, according to the UN health agency. An additional 15,273 people have been injured and more than 1,000 people were reported missing and are presumed to be trapped or dead under the rubble.
“This is a humanity problem.”
Palestinians inspect the damage following an Israeli airstrike on the El-Remal area in Gaza City on October 9, 2023. Photo Credit: Naaman Omar\Palestinian News & Information Agency (Wafa) in contract with APAimages, CC BY-SA 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons
“What brings me here today is the need to support the Palestinian people as best as I can,” participant Zein Hassanein, an Egyptian-American, who is of both Jewish and Muslim descent, told Al-Bustan. “And that means bringing my drum and making noise and making it clear that the [Palestinian] people are being heard and amplified.”
Philadelphia-based artist and rapper Tone Trump, 39, addressed the religiously and racially diverse crowd, which included families with children. “This is not a Muslim problem; This is a humanity problem,” said Trump.
Justin Marshall, age 26, explained to the crowd that the October 7 attack on Israeli civilians coincided with the Jewish holiday of Simchat Torah. Marshall is an organizer with the Philadelphia chapter of If Not Now, an American Jewish organization speaking out against Israeli apartheid. Two years ago, on Simchat Torah 2021, he said, Israeli settlers rampaged through a Palestinian village in the Occupied West Bank. They were armed with handguns, knives, and rocks. They slit the throats of sheep, smashed windows, slashed tires, overturned cars, and shot their guns into the air, resulting in the hospitalization of a three-year-old boy. “As a Jew, to see our sacred holiday discarded as an expression of nationalistic violence and settler colonialism, it makes my heart ache,” he told the crowd. “Because in a world where Palestine is free, I know I would have spent last night dancing with my holy book, instead of preparing to give this speech to you all today.”
“There has to be a political answer.”
Philadelphians gather in front of City Hall on October 8 at an emergency rally in solidarity with Palestine. Credit: Al Bustan Staff
As a teenager, 28-year old Philadelphia resident, Ali Goss attended a summer camp called Seeds of Peace, where they met Palestinian friends, who explained the situation in Palestine. “I was like, 'Holy shit! This is really horrible.' There has to be a political answer,” Goss recalls, adding, “So I got really into that. And then I got banned from Israel.”
Sixty-four-year-old Michael Wilson, a contractor with a degree in Political Science, explained his reason for participating. “Being a Black American, it was very easy,” he said, explaining that a news article he read years ago exposed him to the Palestinian perspective. “I was like, whoa, I can feel this. Because I feel the same oppression on me. I always felt a close kinship with the Palestinian people, even though I had never met a Palestinian in person.”
“Speak up. Share. Don't be afraid.”
Smoke and flames billow after Israeli forces struck a high-rise tower in Gaza City, October 7, 2023. Photo by Ali Hamad\Palestinian News & Information Agency (Wafa) in contract with APAimages, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons
“Speak up. Share. Don't be afraid. Be loud. What's happening in Palestine is history,” said one of the rally organizers, who asked the crowd to show solidarity with Palestinians by amplifying Palestinian messages on their social media pages.
Hamas says its October 7 operation, named Al-Aqsa Flood, was launched in response to years of ongoing Israeli aggression against Palestinians: including settler violence, the blockade of the Gaza Strip, and the desecration of the Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem. According to Amnesty International, Israel’s 16-year long siege on Gaza has trapped Gaza’s 2.3 million residents inside, limiting the import or export of goods, creating conditions of mass unemployment, and extreme poverty. Amnesty International calls Israel’s continuing blockade of Gaza a flagrant violation of international law and a form of collective punishment. The United Nations describes Gaza as an “open air prison.”
At this moment, Gaza is facing a humanitarian crisis, according to Amnesty International. Israel announced that it would not restore power or allow water or fuel to enter until Hamas releases hostages. On October 14, Israel ordered an evacuation of northern Gaza, forcing residents to flee south within 24-hours. In Gaza today, an estimated 1.4 million people have been internally displaced; Clean water is so scarce that residents are rationing small amounts to drink; And the territory has no electricity for the 14th consecutive day, according to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).
Meanwhile, since the October 8th demonstration, thousands of Philadelphians—Palestinians, Palestinian Americans, and their allies—have continued to come out to subsequent demonstrations to speak out in support of the people of Gaza.
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