Palestine solidarity activists have called for demonstrations in dozens of US cities on Saturday, protesting Israeli airstrikes in Gaza and the recent violence by Israeli police and citizens in Palestinian neighborhoods of Jerusalem. The protests fall on the 73rd anniversary of Israel’s declaration of independence in 1948.
While sizeable demonstrations have popped up in several US cities throughout the week, much larger protests are expected on Saturday as groups in more than 65 cities have signed onto a national call to action posted by the Palestinian Youth Movement and the Act Now to Stop War and End Racism (ANSWER) Coalition.
One journalist estimated 10,000 people in attendance at the DC protest.
Demonstrators protesting in solidarity with Palestine gather near the Washington Monument in Washington, DC, on May 15, 2021. The date marks 73 years since al-Nakba (“The Catastrophe”), the Palestinian name for the founding of the state of Israel in 1948.
“In response to the mobilization of tens of thousands of Palestinians to defend the right to live in the Palestinian neighborhood of Sheikh Jarrah in East Jerusalem and worship at the Al-Aqsa mosque, Israel has unleashed murderous actions all across occupied Palestine,” ANSWER said in a statement.
Large marches were also reported in the California cities of San Francisco and Los Angeles, and in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and New York City.
In Minneapolis, Minnesota, another sizable protest took place, coverage of which MintPress News editor Mnar Muhawesh Adley reported Facebook not only took down, but disabled her account over.
Their demonstrations accompanied large protests in London and other European cities, as well as in the West Bank, East Jerusalem, and Israel. In Paris, police attacked a banned protest with water cannons.
At least 145 people have been killed in Gaza by the Israeli bombardment, including 41 children, and more than 1,000 people have been wounded, according to local medical officials. In the West Bank, at least 11 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli police and civilians. In Israel, more than 300 people have been injured and seven killed.
A ball of fire erupts from the Jala Tower as it is destroyed in an Israeli airstrike in Gaza city controlled by the Palestinian Hamas movement, on 15 May 2021.
Palestinian Ambassador to the EU Abdalrahim Alfarra told Sputnik Saturday that Sven Koopmans, the European Union’s special representative for the Middle East Peace Process, would be convening a meeting with the Middle East Quartet of international mediators – Russia, the US, EU, and UN – on the conflict. However, the administration of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has repeatedly stated it is not interested in de-escalation, and he pledged in a Saturday speech to continue taking action against Hamas.
Sourse: sputniknews.com
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