Editor’s note: On Nov. 4, hundreds of thousands of people came out in cities across the world to raise their voices around the demand for a ceasefire NOW to stop the Israeli government’s continuing assault on defenseless civilians, especially children, in Gaza, and the raids on the West Bank. More than 10,000 people have been killed, including more than 4,000 children. In Washington, D.C., according to the organizers, 300,000 people who came from at least 22 states protested on Nov. 4. Nine groups organized the protest and more than 500 groups supported it. Many participants risked their jobs and livelihood for making their voices heard.
Below are excerpts from recent public statements and comments made to the media by people and groups from around the country and in other countries who are demanding that Congress and President Biden demand a ceasefire.
“We are here to demand an end to the genocide against the Palestinian people, with three central demands. We’re calling for an immediate ceasefire, we are calling for an end to US military aid to Israel, and we are calling to lift the siege on Gaza, which for 17 years has suffocated the people of Gaza and turned Gaza into an open-air prison.” —Yara Shoufani, organizer, Palestinian Youth Movement, in Washington, D.C. Nov. 4
“On October 27th, as Israel expanded its ground invasion of Gaza, I joined thousands of people in Grand Central Station to call for a #CeasefireNow, one of the largest demonstrations in New York since this most recent conflict broke out. Protests continued all week. On November 4th, there was a mass rally and march in Washington, D.C., to call for an end to war and support the rights of Palestinians, with hundreds of organizations bridging a diversity of views and voices to plead for peace.
“Those marches were an inspiring indication of the broad coalition of Americans who desperately want to prevent genocide in Gaza and dream of lasting peace and freedom in Israel/Palestine. At the lead are Palestinians and Jews who refuse to be used as pawns and prop-pieces by military hawks. Alongside them are many Americans all too aware that, though they might not be directly affected by the nightmarish events now unfolding in the Middle East, they are still implicated in the growing violence there thanks to their tax dollars and the actions of our government.
“Together, we are collectively crying out: ‘Not in Our Name.’ Such marches undoubtedly represent the largest antiwar mobilization since the invasion of Iraq in 2003 and are weaving together diverse communities — young and old, Black, Brown, and White, Muslim, Jewish, and Christian, poor and working-class — in a way that should prove encouraging indeed for a growing peace movement. Right now, there are new alliances and relationships being forged that will undoubtedly endure for years to come. Yes, this remains a small victory in what’s likely to prove a terrifying global crisis, but it is a victory nonetheless.” — The Rev. Dr. Liz Theoharis, co-chair of the Poor People’s Campaign, in a recent article published at tomdispatch.com (see it here)
“What should I talk about? That we don’t have bread? That we don’t have water? We don’t have fuel. Nothing. We have only one thing: that we are being killed. And, of course, with a green light from the international community, from the U.S. administration. This is the situation. People are scared. From what? For being killed. Really, we are having now a second Nakba, if you know it. The first one happened in 1948. We feel that it’s another Nakba that we are going through….I’m so, so, so proud of the hundreds of thousands of Americans who went to demonstrate for us.
“We are here in the Gaza Strip. Believe us, we are following the news, and we feel, like, more comfortable when we’re watching on TV, like, thousands and hundreds of thousands of American people who went to the streets in order to support us, to express the sympathy and in solidarity with the Palestinian people here in Gaza Strip. That makes us more relaxed and comfortable that we are not alone, and that there are a lot of people who still have live hearts. That’s my message to you: Please keep going. We are listening to you.
“We are following you. I’m sure that no one can stop our voices, our voices for justice. Please keep doing what you’re doing now, because, in the end, I’m sure that the U.S. administration will listen to you and stop, or at least stop the green light that it’s giving to the Israeli government for killing us. But please, this is your money. This is the tax money that you are paying to the American administration. It’s used to buy bombs and rockets and providing it to [the Israeli] government. We are being killed by your taxes now. Please say no to your administration, say no to this unlimited and ongoing support.” — Fadi Abu Shammalah, Just Vision’s outreach associate in Gaza and the executive director of Gaza’s General Union of Cultural Centers, in an interview on Nov. 2 with Democracy Now!
“As a Jewish person, I’m speaking out that Israel does not represent me and they cannot speak for all Jews worldwide. There are so many of us who disagree and are disgusted by these policies and this genocide.” — A woman marching outside the White House on Nov. 4
“We just want everything to stop. We want people to live in peace. Everybody, especially the children, deserves a normal life, to live and laugh and love and to have dreams that they can pursue.” — A woman attending the Nov. 4 demonstration in Washington, D.C., who has friends in Palestine
“An injury to one is an injury to all, and American-made bombs are being used to kill the families of Americans in Palestine, in addition to thousands and thousands of other people, and, our government should not support that.” — Griffin Mahon, UAW organizer, NIH Fellows United, in Washington, D.C. Nov. 4
“The Oslo agreement and all this political work didn’t help the Palestinian people to live in peace. Seventy-five years of suffering, losing people close to you, finding them hurt all the time, and even after we get our [American] citizenship, I’m not able to visit my family there. My dad died in Gaza and I was not able to visit and see him because the border is always closed.” — Merveen Adwan, a Palestinian-American, in Washington, D.C. Nov. 4
“You go on social media and you see all these horrible videos of people suffering and children being injured and harmed by bombs and whatnot and it hurts my heart and, you know, I feel helpless in many ways. But joining forces and using my voice like this, empowers me and makes me feel like I am actually doing something to help the people. I’ve heard a lot of stories of people who receive harassment and backlash and professional backlash for expressing their views on Palestinian liberation [explaining why he wanted to remain anonymous].” — A senior who is part of Students for Justice in Palestine at the University of California Santa Cruz who was among college students demonstrating nationwide Oct. 25 to demand a halt to the attack on Gaza
“I want to salute each and every one of you for your steadfastness, for your resilience, for your commitment to Palestinian rights. Let us keep this pressure on. The reason why this genocide White House, why this complicit Congress, why the war-mongering media just shifted their tone in relation to the brutality, to the genocide that is taking place in Gaza, is because your voices have been heard. It’s because of your actions and advocacy. It’s not that God forbid they had a sudden conscience awakening. They don’t have a conscience. What they understand is pressure. What they understand is that we call them out. What they understand is that the people are unified, and we are unified in our position to bring this genocide in Gaza to a complete and immediate end now. Because we’re effective, they’re trying to intimidate us, they’re trying to silence us, and they’re trying to accuse our collective voices for justice as being antisemitic.
“I mean, we have brothers and sisters from the Jewish community here amongst us. Let us salute them. We know you stand on moral grounds. We know that you stand for your humanity, and we stand with you in our humanity. We’re not going to be intimidated. Yes, from the outset, antisemitism is immoral. Islamophobia is immoral. Any form of hate and bigotry is immoral. But you know what is more immoral and evil? To conflate our condemnation of Israel and its genocide policies with antisemitism. To conflate our opposition to Israel as an apartheid state, as antisemitism. To fuel Islamophobia under the pretext of pushing back against antisemitism. To deny the tremendous suffering of the Palestinian people who are being subjected to a brutal genocide by our own tax money, by our own weapons, to dehumanize the Palestinian people, to undermine their suffering, to subscribe to selective humanity, to use lies about beheaded Israeli children to justify the beheading of Palestinian children.
“To condone and justify the bombings and the murders of Palestinians in hospitals, in their homes, and in UN schools by weapons and bombs banned by the United States of America. To make us all complicit as Americans in the war crimes and genocide that is committed and being committed now in Palestine….We refuse to stand with a President who lied to us that he’s coming to restore America’s moral authority.
“If this is your moral authority, then the hell with you and your moral authority. Moral authority is human equality. Moral authority is freedom. Moral authority is dignity for all. Moral authority is not to bow to liars, criminals, or murderers. That’s what moral authority is. Keep the fight on. They’re not raising the white flag in Gaza. They’re not begging for mercy from their oppressors. They’re demanding justice and freedom. That’s what’s going to be achieved. Freedom is coming. This is inevitable. Palestine, by Allah, by whatever Lord you worship, is going to be free. Apartheid will be dismantled, imperialism will be defeated and liars will lose the elections.” — Dr. Osama Abuirshaid, executive director of American Muslims for Peace, speaking at the Nov. 4 demonstration in Washington, D.C.
“Look at us. Look at these thousands and thousands of people of conscience gathered in love and rage. We are united by our humanity. We are united by our commitment to humanity, and our absolute refusal to let Western powers and Israel bury it beneath their depraved pursuit of wealth and privilege. We’re placing our bodies on the railroad tracks that are trying to forge a future through genocide and annihilation. ‘Never again’ means never again for anyone right now. Our presence is even more remarkable in the face of harassment, intimidation, censorship, and outright lies about pictures that do not exist, denial of our dead, whose bodies have not had the dignity of burial, whose beloveds have not had the solace of mourning. And still, we gather.
“We are all here to charge this administration with genocide. Even though the majority of the world, the majority of Americans support an immediate end to the carnage and destruction of Gaza, only sixteen out of 535 members of this cowardly, decrepit Congress have endorsed a ceasefire….Israel and the United States are jointly complicit in the ongoing Nakba in Palestine. Together they are rendering international law worthless and irrelevant. Every single tribunal from Nuremberg to Rwanda, from Bosnia to Cambodia, every prosecution at the ICC was meant to atone for our moral failures to protect us from ourselves.
And today we fail to stop the skies from crashing down in white phosphorous flames onto Palestinian dreams, memories, potential, onto Palestinian babies not old enough to beseech you to have mercy upon them. We are here now with them and for them to demand a ceasefire. We are here because Palestine reveals the naked hypocrisy of Western universalism. It reveals our enduring colonial reality and it offers a glimpse into a future without colonialism. Palestine, where a valiant people have always existed, where survivors and fighters continue to affirm that they belong to a land upon which there is a life worth living. We are like olive trees, like the ones that our ancestors planted. Stand with us in this promise. We promise, Palestine still promises, that we will all be free.” — Dr. Noura Erakat, Palestinian-American Rutgers University professor, attorney and activist, speaking at the Nov. 4 demonstration
“We are deeply disturbed and shocked by the dehumanizing comments that President Biden made about the almost 7,000 Palestinians slaughtered by the Israeli government over the past two weeks. The Israeli government has openly admitted that it is targeting civilians and civilian infrastructure. Journalists have confirmed the high number of casualties, and countless videos coming out of Gaza every day show mangled bodies of Palestinian women and children – and entire city blocks leveled to the ground. President Biden should watch some of these videos and ask himself if the crushed children being dragged out of the ruins of their family homes are a fabrication or an acceptable price of war. They are neither. President Biden should apologize for his comments, condemn the Israeli government for deliberately targeting civilians, and demand a ceasefire before more innocent people die.” — Council on American-Islamic Relations Executive Director Nihad Awad, responding to Biden’s Oct. 25 comment that Palestinian figures about deaths in Gaza are not reliable and that civilian deaths are “the price of waging war.”
“We are opposed to violence, and each death occurring as the result of violence is a tragedy. We absolutely condemn antisemitism and Islamophobia. Our union’s members endorse the comprehensive statement of support from Jewish Voice for Peace, which provides powerful context on why we all must stand in solidarity with Palestinians. This statement reflects the diversity of our campaign; we are a union with Jewish, Palestinian and Muslim workers. We condemn the occupation, displacement, state violence, apartheid, and threats of violence Palestinians face. Furthermore, we condemn Starbucks for shamefully using this devastating humanitarian crisis to make false statements against our union and to vilify us.” — Statement from Starbucks Workers United
“We, members of the American labor movement, mourn the loss of life in Israel and Palestine. We express our solidarity with all workers and our common desire for peace in Palestine and Israel, and we call on President Joe Biden and Congress to push for an immediate ceasefire and end to the siege of Gaza. We cannot bomb our way to peace. We also condemn any hate crimes against Muslims, Jews, or anyone else…. The basic rights of people must be restored. Water, fuel, food, and other humanitarian aid must be allowed into Gaza, power must be restored, and foreign nationals and Palestinians requiring medical care must be allowed out of Gaza. The Israeli hostages taken by Hamas must be immediately released.
“Both Hamas and Israel must adhere to standards of international law and Geneva Convention rules of warfare concerning the welfare and security of civilians. There must be a ceasefire in Gaza. The cycle of violence must stop so that negotiations for an enduring peace proceed. The U.S. must act. We call on President Biden to immediately call for a ceasefire. The road to justice cannot be paved by bombs and war. The road to peace cannot be found through warfare. We commit ourselves to work in solidarity with the Palestinian and Israeli peoples to achieve peace and justice. Union members come from diverse backgrounds, including Jews, Muslims, and Middle Eastern communities. The rising escalation of war and arms sales doesn’t serve the interests of workers anywhere. In the end, we all want a place to call home and for our children to be safe. Working people around the world want and deserve to live free from the effects of violence, war, and militarization….” — Statement from United Food and Commercial Workers 3000 and United Electrical, Radio and Machine Workers of America
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