Thousands Take to the Streets Across US and Canada In Solidarity with Palestine As War in Gaza Escalates

Tens of thousands of people across so-called North America and millions across the world are taking to the streets in solidarity with Palestinians under siege in the occupied territories following the outbreak of an escalating conflict between Hamas, the ruling body in Gaza, and the state of Israel.

Following a surprise attack by Hamas that left over 1,300 Israelis dead, Israel vowed it would destroy the “human animals” living in Gaza, and moved to cut off electricity, water, and supplies entering into what many describe as the largest “open air prison” in the world: the Gaza strip. Nearly 2 million people live in Gaza, half of them children, and Israel has now ordered that half of the population must now flee to the southern part of the territory or risk being slaughtered by the military. Those on the ground report that generators are running out of fuel, hospitals are running out of medicine, and people are without clean water – forcing some to resort to literally drinking from the sea. At least 3,000 Palestinians have been killed in the Gaza strip over the last few days, with many thousands more injured.

At the time of this writing, a blast has killed at least 500 people at the Gaza City hospital as President Biden is set to met with regional leaders. Biden and other US elites are pushing for billions in military aid to Israel, with currently no stipulations on how the Israeli military “responds.” Meanwhile, the US has begun to amass warships in the region, heightening the potential for the conflict to escalate further with neighboring states.

This push towards war and open ethnic-cleansing in Gaza is also taking place alongside increased amounts of misinformation on social media, targeted backlash against pro-Palestinian activists, and in a suburb of Chicago, a young Palestinian-American boy being stabbed to death in a racist murder by a man who reportedly stated, “You Muslims must die,” and then proceeded to stab him “26 times and his mother a dozen times.”

As a recent statement from Atlanta Antifascists wrote:

The recent murder of a Palestinian-American 6-year-old by an Islamophobe underlines how important it is to fight against the dehumanization of Palestinians and of the broader Muslim community. Media coverage and misinformation surrounding the war has contributed greatly to this dehumanization. In our long experience fighting fascism and the far-Right, we have seen how antisemitism and Islamophobia are highly complementary. Both forms of hatred have been stirred by the war. The neo-Nazi side of the spectrum exploits the war to demonize all Jewish people; they use the fight for Palestinian liberation as a ruse to push their antisemitic agenda against those they perceive as the greater threat, in this case the Jewish community. But make no mistake, they privately treat Palestinians as subhuman and plot to murder Arab immigrants. The Christian Zionist side of the spectrum pretends to care about antisemitism, but their vision of Palestinian genocide is connected to a fundamentalist eschatology in which all Jewish people will convert to Christianity or be sentenced to hell.

A Palestinian writing on CrimethInc. commented:

Today, a fifth aggression is happening in Gaza, and it is more brutal and catastrophic than anything that came before. Israeli airstrikes have already killed nearly 3,000 people and wounded more than 12,000. More than 45 families have been completely erased from the civil registry. Over one million people have been displaced and forced to flee their homes due to the Israeli bombs. Israel has cut off electricity, food, and fuel from Gaza and is bombing residential buildings, schools, mosques, hospitals, and ambulances. Entire neighborhoods have vanished.

People are starting to starve and have nowhere to hide, no way to escape. This is all happening with the clear and shameless support of Western governments, like the United States and the United Kingdom, who hurried to send military support to Israel. This is all happening while Israeli colonial propaganda is all over the international mass media trying to manufacture an anti-Palestinian campaign and frame it as a “war on terror” in order to legitimize mass ethnic cleansing and the ongoing Nakba that has been happening in Palestine for the past 75+ years.

Despite all these atrocities, we are also witnessing the voice of liberation and justice resonating in the streets across the planet, we are witnessing the power of the people. The people know the truth, and there’s no suppressing this knowledge.

We’ve seen thousands marching for the liberation of Palestine in the streets of London and Paris even after protests for Palestine were banned.

We’ve seen the streets of Lisbon and Porto filled with rage, love, and solidarity. We’ve seen the tens of thousands of our brothers and sisters rallying for Palestine in Iraq, Yemen, Jordan, Morocco.

Today, every effort to bring the truth into the light matters. Every Palestinian flag raised matters. Every expression of solidarity matters. Every effort of organizing for Palestine matters. Every “from the river to the sea” matters.

Yes, these days are painful beyond comprehension but we know today more than ever, that liberation is inevitable.

It’s only a matter of time. Palestine will be free.

In that spirit, here’s our roundup of solidarity actions and demonstrations from across North America. This post will be updated in the coming days as the situation evolves and changes. In the wake of the recent horrific bombing of the Gaza City hospital, thousands are currently in the streets, rallying outside the White House, and taking action – with more demonstrations planned.

Seattle, WA

Anarchists put up posters in Seattle, according to a post on Puget Sound Anarchists. “On Saturday night 100 posters declaring hatred for Zionism and love for Palestinian resistance were wheatpasted up and down The Ave in the University District of so-called Seattle, done in solidarity with the insurgency in Gaza.”

Portland, OR

Hundreds rally in solidarity with Palestine in Portland.

San Francisco, CA

Mass march takes to the streets of San Francisco. Civil disobedience in front of federal building leads to arrests.

Thousands again take to the streets on October 21st as lock-downs again take place in front of the federal building.

Oakland, CA

Over 1,000 students took part in a walkout organized in solidarity with Palestine.

Sacramento, CA

Rally in solidarity with Palestinian people.

Los Angeles, CA

Mass march hits the streets in Los Angeles. Clashes break out with far-Right Zionists. Vishal P. Singh reports: “Fascist militants in support of Israel attacked pro-Palestine marchers in Los Angeles while being protected by LAPD. The fascist pro-Israel militants deployed pepper spray and bear mace multiple times in the fight. Journalists were also hit by the pro-Israeli militants.”

Banner drop in solidarity with Palestine.

San Diego, CA

Thousands hit the streets in solidarity with Palestine.

Tempe, AZ

Rally in solidarity with Palestine.

Tucson, AZ

Rally in solidarity with Palestine.

Dallas, TX

More than 1,000 take to streets in support of Palestine.

Chicago, IL

Over 15,000 take the streets in solidarity with Palestine.

On October 21st, mass protests again take place in Chicago, as thousands take to the streets.

Minneapolis, MN

Thousands rally in solidarity with Palestine.

Dearborn, MI

Upwards of 10,000 march in solidarity with Palestine.

Lexington, KY

Rally in solidarity with Palestine.

Atlanta, GA

In Atlanta, “hundreds of people took to the streets of Downtown Atlanta on Thursday in support of Palestine, calling for an end to the Israeli occupation of Palestinian territory and apartheid against the Palestinian people.”

North Carolina

According to a communique posted to the website, Scenes from the Atlanta Forest, an anonymous group claimed credit for vandalizing a US Naval office. The post reads:

In solidarity with the ongoing Palestinian uprising we vandalized the building of a US Naval Officer office in central North Carolina. We painted the doors with the message, “Free Palestine” and smashed the windows. We stand with all the oppressed people of the world who fight for liberation, and recognize the violence of the colonized cannot be equated with the violence of the colonizer. We don’t believe there is a state solution to colonization, and while there are many things we don’t know we are sure that the US war machine is and always will be one of the main roadblocks to freedom all over the world, and so it is on us, in the belly of the beast to do what we can to attack it.

Free Palestine, USA out of everywhere

Chapel Hill, NC

Clashes broke out when pro-Israel supporters crashed a larger rally in support of the people of Palestine on the Chapel Hill UNC campus.

Fort Lauderdale, FL

Miami, FL

Rally organized outside of Israeli consulate on October 18th.

Tampa Bay, FL

Solidarity rally with Palestine.

South Florida

Banner drops in solidarity with Palestine.

Virginia:

Direct actions took place against various construction sites working on the Mountain Valley pipeline. A report wrote on the connections between the struggle against the MVP and the fight to free Palestine:

Today’s action highlighted the connection between MVP, the military industrial complex, and the massacare happening in Gaza. MVP would ship fracked-gas to the Pentagon and fuel multiple military bases as well as the Radford Army Ammunition Plant in Virginia. The plant is operated by BAE Systems, a British weapons corporation that supplies Israel with white phosphorus munitions, fighter jets, and other weapons that are being used to murder Palestinians.

We will continue taking action for the land, for the mountains, for Palestine, and for all of people impacted by colonization and climate change.

Washington DC

Thousands march on White House, demanding end to US aid to Israel and for a ceasefire. On October 14th, thousands marched through DC demanding an end to the occupation.

Thousands again converged on the night of October 17th as this roundup was being finished. rallying outside of the White House.

Reporting from DC, Joshua Hill wrote:

Over a thousand Jews organized with IfNotNow and Jewish Voice for Peace, along with countless other people of conscience, rallied in Washington to decry the genocide Israel is perpetrating in Gaza and declare that the U.S. government must use its might to push for an immediate ceasefire. They then walked to the White House, blockaded the entrances, and many got arrested. Both the courage and the words of everyone who attended, and in particular of those who put their bodies on the line, inspired me to write to you today.

MSN later reported:

Hundreds of protesters were arrested on Capitol Hill today as they demonstrated inside the Cannon Office Building, chanting for a ceasefire in the Israel-Hamas war.

The demonstrators initially protested on the Capitol grounds, but then made their way into the rotunda of the office building, where a number of media outlets have crews for correspondents to do standups during congressional proceedings. Capitol Police said that demonstrations are not allowed in Capitol buildings and that three protesters were arrested and charged with assault on an officer during processing.

On October 21st, mass protest of tens of thousands again took to the streets, demanding a cease-fire and de-escalation.

Boston, MA

Thousands take to the streets in solidarity with people in Palestine.

North Hampton, MA

From a local news report:

A group of local anti-war activists staged a protest in Northampton at L3Harris Technologies Thursday morning, blocking access to the facility for workers there. The group Demilitarize Western Mass staged this protest, assembling at 5:30 in the morning to block access to the defense contractor’s parking lot, demanding that the $17-billion tech manufacturer and defense contractor make major changes.

Cambridge, MA

At Harvard University, “More than 1,000 demonstrators rallied in Harvard Yard in support of Gaza Saturday ahead of an expected ground invasion by Israel, condemning the University for a lack of support of Palestinian students and complicity in what they described as “genocide.”

On October 12th:

Several protestors chained themselves to the door of a defense contractor in Cambridge, Massachusetts, Thursday morning in protest, they said, of the company’s involvement in Israel’s military campaign.

There were around 50 protestors at the Elbit Systems office in Cambridge, three of whom locked themselves to the company’s front door with what appeared to be bicycle U-locks. Demonstrators were holding signs calling for the company to be shut down and accusing it of profiting “from genocide.” One sign featured the Palestinian flag.

Pittsburgh, PA

Hundreds take to the streets in solidarity with Palestine.

Philadelphia, PA

According to a communique posted to the website, Philly Anti-Capitalist, an anonymous group claimed credit for vandalizing a military recruiting office. The post reads:

A military recruitment office in Upper Darby was attacked with paint. We wrote slogans and threw red paint on the facade. Born from our love, grief, and rage, this was a letter to Gaza and those in solidarity with the Palestinian uprising against colonial power. This wasn’t done to only send a message to imperialists, consider it an attempt to warm passersby chilled by the cold logic of genocide. In the face of massive non-disruptive protest, we hope we can inspire others to act more directly and confrontationally. Those pushing imperialism and islamophobia are being watche and can expect resistance.

RIP Ganda, killed by the same Amerikkan imperialism that feels entitled to exploit and kill without repercussion.
For Gaza with love

New York City, NY

Thousands rally in New York against the occupation, arrests take place outside of the Brooklyn home of Democratic Senator Chuck Schumer. Protests, rallies, and vigils continue to be organized. Anarchist graffiti with messages in support of Palestine hits the streets.

San Juan, Puerto Rico

Rally in solidarity with Palestine. Hundreds march on Israeli consulate.

Montreal, QC

“10,000 people strong – marched in downtown Montreal to the Israeli consulate. The protest was also in defiance of the fear-mongering campaign against Palestine solidarity protests in Montreal, Canada, and beyond,” reports No Borders Media.

Toronto, ON

Thousands take to the streets in solidarity with Palestine.

Vancouver, BC

Over 500 take to the streets in solidarity with Palestine.

Calgary, AL

Mass protests take place in solidarity with Palestine.

Photos: Vishal Singh, Ash J and André Querry via No Borders Media