The world stands with Palestine again

Protests huge everywhere, even in European countries that repress solidarity.

Originally published by The Electronic Intifada, 16 October 2023

Mass demonstration for Palestine in Karachi, Pakistan’s largest city, on 15 October. S. Imran AliPPI Images

The Palestinian health ministry announced on Sunday that Israel’s bloodthirsty onslaught against Gaza was now killing one Palestinian every five minutes.

Israel has wiped out nearly 50 Palestinian families in Gaza. A million people have already been displaced from their homes.

Israel’s sheer brutality caused a global outpouring of disgust, and a massive wave of demonstrations over the weekend.

📸From Morocco to Brazil, thousands of people took to the streets on Sunday to participate in rallies in solidarity with Palestinians under Israeli bombardment in Gaza pic.twitter.com/V1ZvZcLndW

— Middle East Eye (@MiddleEastEye) October 16, 2023

Thousands protest in support of Palestine across West Asia, North Africa

Pro-#Palestine protests were organized in #Iraq, #Lebanon, #Bahrain, #Iran, #Jordan, #Yemen, and #Egypt in solidarity with #Gaza.https://t.co/0vnBClegeK

— Al Mayadeen English (@MayadeenEnglish) October 13, 2023

The scenes from across the Arab world are breathtaking. This is Tahrir Square in Baghdad, Iraq. May humanity come together to stop this slaughter. #FreePalestine pic.twitter.com/Cg0vP9Q5nA

— Paweł Wargan (@pawelwargan) October 13, 2023

Hundreds of thousands of Moroccans overwhelm the streets of Rabat in support of the people of Palestine who are facing genocide these days by the Israeli war machinery. pic.twitter.com/z9RE9WqzAd

— Quds News Network (@QudsNen) October 15, 2023

There were huge protests in the Arab world: Iraq, Yemen, Qatar, Jordan and Syria; as well in Iraq’s neighbor Iran, whose government arms the Palestinian resistance.

Online publication Africanews reported that there were also demonstrations in Algeria, Libya, and Morocco.

On the Jordanian border with the occupied West Bank, crowds gathered demanding the Kingdom let them through. They were tear gassed by Jordanian forces.

Amman, Jordan right now. What was once Israel's well-behaved Arab buffer state is now demanding: "Open the borders." #GazaGenocide pic.twitter.com/4i4D9Wa7u9

— Sharmine Narwani (@snarwani) October 13, 2023

خرج مئات آلاف الأشخاص اليوم، تلبية لدعوات نصرة فلسطين، ورفضًا للعدوان المستمرّ على قطاع #غزة.

إليكم مجموعة من صور هذه المظاهرات

هذه الصورة من وسط البلد في #عمان. تصوير مؤمن ملكاوي#طوفان_الأقصى pic.twitter.com/8kpNdT43bI

— 7iber | حبر (@7iber) October 13, 2023

"The said Hamas are terrorists?
All of Jordan are Hamas!" pic.twitter.com/Z51prNiS4O

— روني الدنماركي (@Aldanmarki) October 14, 2023

In the capital Amman, massive crowds demanded “Open the borders” and chanted “All of Jordan are Hamas.”

The majority of Jordanian citizens are Palestinians refugees and their descendants, those expelled by Israel since 1948. Israel and Jordan formally normalized relations through the Wadi Araba agreement in 1994, despite there being no restoration of Palestinian rights or an end to Israeli military occupation of the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

But while formal diplomatic relations exist between the two countries, this has never translated into a so-called warm peace among people.

There were also demonstrations in Turkey, Malaysia, Pakistan and South Africa.

VIDEO — Thousands of demonstrators, including many women and children, took to the streets of Istanbul as Türkiye's largest metropolis witnesses "Great Palestine March" in support of innocent Gaza civilians being brutally targeted by Israel pic.twitter.com/6X3P4iMva3

— DAILY SABAH (@DailySabah) October 15, 2023

Protest March in Cape Town,South
Africa

13 October 2023 pic.twitter.com/QtuNC0MBsl

— Al-Quds Foundation (SA) (@alquds_sa) October 15, 2023

The latter country’s president Cyril Ramaphosa stated that “we pledge solidarity with the people of Palestine,” and said that Israel had “been dubbed an apartheid state.”

Nelson Mandela’s grandson, Nkosi Mandla Mandela, sent “revolutionary greetings from South Africa” in a video message, saying that Palestinian support for the struggle against South African apartheid “enabled our own march to liberation.”

Thousands protesting in Amsterdam #Gaza #FreePalestine #Gaza_Genocide #Gaza_under_attackpic.twitter.com/C56jyBdCnl

— Malia Bouattia (@MaliaBouattia) October 15, 2023

But there were also massive protests throughout Europe and the United States, whose governments are the most staunch supporters of Israel and its crimes.

These came despite severe repression by the regimes.

The worst crackdowns were in Germany and France.

France unsuccessfully banned pro-Palestinian demonstrations altogether and Palestine solidarity protesters were dragged off the streets in Germany. Italian riot police beat protesters in Rome.

Britain’s home affairs minister suggested that waving a Palestinians flag could potentially be outlawed in some contexts. The mayor of London described graffiti reading “Free Palestine” as “hatred.”

London’s Metropolitan Police ordered shut a book event organized by the Palestine Festival of Literature and Amnesty International.

But despite – or because of – all this, huge numbers marched.

Thousands are gathering for a pro-Palestinian march in central London.@SkyNewsAdele spoke to one of the protesters who says the "root of this violence is the occupation".

Israel-Hamas war latest ➡️ https://t.co/5HylWXsPOL

📺 Sky 501 and YouTube pic.twitter.com/DZ1hxyrzEL

— Sky News (@SkyNews) October 14, 2023

The number of people demonstrating this morning and afternoon, in London, solidarity of the Palestinian people amid Israel's onslaught in Gaza and elsewhere in historic Palestine was well beyond what anyone expected. Tens of thousands of people. pic.twitter.com/arev3ZF3F8

— Mohamed Elmaazi (@MElmaazi) October 14, 2023

Organizers told The Electronic Intifada that 150,000 people protested in London on Saturday, with smaller protests taking place in Bolton, Birmingham, Bradford, Preston, Newcastle and Leicester.

Video posted online also showed large protests in the northern cities of Leeds, Manchester and Liverpool.

All out for Palestine in Leeds pic.twitter.com/dx7yscU6WU

— Waqas Tufail (@_WaqasTufail) October 14, 2023

5000 marching through Manchester today to stand with Gaza against Israel's ongoing genocide that murdered 700 Palestinian children in 1 week. Of Israel's bombing massacres in 2009, 2012, 2014, killing 250 unarmed protesters 2019, and 2021, this is now the worst #FreePalestinepic.twitter.com/t8MeoRPAqH

— MANPalestine Action (@ManPalestine) October 14, 2023

As well as England, there were also demonstrations in Wales and all over Scotland.

A second London demonstration is planned for next Saturday, organizers said.

In a Twitter thread, MintPress News journalist Alan MacLeod documented massive protests all over the United States on Saturday.

He posted video of tens of thousands in Chicago and New York, as well as large crowds in Los Angeles, San Francisco, Washington, DC, Dearborn, MI. and even in Kansas City.

New York City: Over ten thousand people attend a Palestine solidarity march. pic.twitter.com/cfkASwoEOk

— Alan MacLeod (@AlanRMacLeod) October 15, 2023

Some protestors have decided that marching alone is not enough.

In the UK, Palestine Action said they had carried out direct actions on at least four targets during the week.

BREAKING: Palestine Action drove the sole UK recruiters for Israel's largest weapons firm, out of their new Manchester office #ShutElbitDown https://t.co/fUqhMvnPtF

— Palestine Action (@Pal_action) October 11, 2023

They said they had driven the sole UK recruiters for Elbit, Israel’s largest weapons firm, out of their new Manchester office.

They also hit Elbit’s recruiters in Edinburgh, published a list of 50 targets in Britain and daubed the headquarters of the BBC with red paint – in protest of the latter’s pro-Israel coverage.

BREAKING: An actionists throws red paint over the Edinburgh offices of iO associates, the sole UK recruiters for Israel’s weapons firm Elbit #Gaza_under_attack pic.twitter.com/vKwMGib0RC

— Palestine Action (@Pal_action) October 11, 2023

BREAKING: Palestine Action spray the BBC in blood red paint, symbolising their complicity in Israel’s genocide of the Palestinian people through biased reporting pic.twitter.com/zSufVgoCwA

— Palestine Action (@Pal_action) October 14, 2023

Palestine Action expanded their campaign of direct action to the Unites States, hitting Elbit’s facility in Boston, Massachusetts.

BREAKING: Activists throw red paint and blockade the entrance to Elbit’s Boston facility, owned by Israel’s biggest weapons manufacturer.

In solidarity with Palestine, they #ShutElbitDown! pic.twitter.com/pzgFwLLDXL

— Palestine Action (@Pal_action) October 12, 2023

Just like in the last major escalation in 2021, the world stands with Palestine once more.

Watch this video from the protests in 2021: