Saturday, November 4, 2023 (WAFA) – Tens of thousands of people marched and rallied today in Washington DC in support of the Palestinian people and calling for an immediate ceasefire amid Israel’s ongoing genocide campaign and ground offensive in the besieged Gaza Strip. The march, titled the “National March on Washington for Free Palestine” saw tens of thousands of demonstrators from across the US head to Washington DC’s Freedom Plaza to call for an immediate cessation of the Israeli aggression. Protestors filled and flowed beyond Freedom Plaza in front of the White House, with the crowd streaming for at least a half mile down the surrounding streets. The demonstration appeared to be one of the largest expressions of solidarity with the Palestinian people to date. From the stage, speakers led the crowd in chants of ‘Free, free Palestine! Free, free Palestine!’ and ‘Ceasefire now!’ The march, which comes alongside similar protests held today in other cities across the world, is part of an intensifying push to demand both a ceasefire in the Israeli aggression on Gaza and an end to US and western military aid to Israel. Brian Becker, director of the Answer coalition, addressed the crowd saying that US public support for the Palestinian people had ‘entered a new era unlike any that had come before it’. He drew a parallel with the anti-apartheid movement against South Africa four decades ago, saying that when it began the US Congress still considered Nelson Mandela a terrorist. But seven years later, Mandela was the president of South Africa. According to Becker, change happens ‘in leaps and bounds’ but not as a result of what happens in Congress or who is the White House, but what happens in communities and on the streets. ‘The change comes from us… We’re sending a strong message, a very strong message to Joe Biden: if you stand with genocide, we hold you guilty of genocide,’ he said. ‘When you kill 10,000 Palestinians not because of what they’ve done but because of who they are, when you commit genocide against a people, and destroy a people in whole or in part, you are guilty of genocide and that’s why we’re going to the White House.’
Source: Palestine News & Information Agency
