Massive march in Washington, as millions take part in global protests against the genocide in Gaza

Millions protest worldwide against the genocide in Gaza

Thousands of people gather in Trafalgar Square in London in opposition to the US-NATO backed Israeli genocide, November 4, 2023. [Photo: SEP Britain/WSWS]

For the fourth week in a row, millions of people on every inhabited continent have flooded town squares, train stations and the streets demanding an end to the genocide in Gaza being conducted by Israel with the support and oversight of the US-NATO axis.

Refusing to remain silent as 1,000 children a week are murdered in Palestine by the IDF, and under threat of arrest, fines, loss of employment and slanderous charges of “antisemtism,” millions of people of every ethnicity, including many thousands of Jews, took to the streets Saturday to peacefully protest against Israeli’s ethnic cleansing campaign. In four weeks, Israel has murdered some 11,000 Palestinians, including over 5,000 children.

The massive protests are taking place in the major imperialist centers, the capitals of the powers that constitute the chief allies of Israel, including London, Berlin, Paris and Washington D.C., where some 300,000 took part, making it the largest protest against war in the US since the 2003 demonstrations against the US invasion of Iraq.

Protests were held in New York City, Chicago, Los Angeles, and dozens of other cities. In addition to the hundred of protests throughout Europe, North America and west Asia, protests are currently taking place or have already been held in Auckland, New Zealand; Brasilia, Brazil; Sydney, Australia; Johannesburg, South Africa; Santiago, Chile; Kingston, Jamaica; Lima, Peru; and Seoul, South Korea, among other cities.

Significantly, hundreds of protesters in Tokyo surrounded the Israeli embassy to Japan demanding an immediate ceasefire or the closure of the embassy.

The global character of the protests and the participation of wide layers of the population, including many young people, are a rebuke not only to the current mass murder campaign, but to the the dispossession and ethnic cleansing of the Palestinian people for 75 years.

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A sign from the Belfast, Northern Ireland rally on November 4, 2023, where thousands of people protested against the genocide in Gaza. [Photo: SEP Glasglow/WSWS]

Despite the mass and global character of the protests, the major media conglomerates continue to ignore, slander or downplay them. At the same time, capitalist politicians from the governing parties of every country complicit in the massacre refuse to endorse a ceasefire, a central demand of the protests.

In a news conference with Jordanian and Egyptian foreign ministers on Saturday, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken rejected a ceasefire saying, “It is our view now that a ceasefire would simply leave Hamas in place, able to regroup and repeat what it did.”

After being given the green light by Blinken, the Israeli military, armed with MQ-9 Reaper drones and an array of other US-supplied weapons, continued to pummel Gaza with artillery and air strikes. Videos posted by Palestinians on social media show the Israeli military striking civilian targets, with hospitals, universities, churches and mosques at the top of the list.

Israeli ground forces are attempting to encircle Gaza City, leaving a bloody trail of civilian deaths in their wake. Inflicting collective punishment on the civilian population, Israel Defense Forces (IDF) troops are specifically targeting the last remaining bakeries in Gaza in an attempt to starve the population.

Demonstrations calling for a ceasefire erupted in Israel on Saturday, a rebuke to all the imperialist liars who falsely equate the Zionist state of Israel with all Jewish people.

In Tel Aviv, dozens of left-wing protesters held signs calling for a ceasefire and an “everyone for everyone” exchange of hostages, such as that offered by Hamas for weeks but rejected out of hand by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

In Jerusalem, hundreds protested outside Netanyahu’s residence demanding he resign over the “security failure” of October 7 and the subsequent casualties suffered by the IDF in Gaza. The IDF has acknowledged at least 28 dead soldiers in the current ground offensive. However, that figure is expected to soar as the invasion continues.

In Berlin, enormous crowds took to the streets, marching from the Alexanderplatz to Potsdamer Platz, waving Palestinian flags and denouncing the Israeli government, actions that have been criminalized in Germany. One protester held a cardboard sign reading, “How many children is it OK to kill in Gaza? 3,760?”

Johannes Stern, editor-in-chief of the World Socialist Web Site in Germany, reported that thousands were on the streets in Berlin, with many more joining the protest as it continued throughout the day.

Some 10,000 pro-Palestinian demonstrators marched in Rome, Italy. Similar-sized crowds were also observed in Paris and Strasbourg, France.

As was the case last week, hundreds of thousands of people demonstrated in London, massing on Trafalgar Square.

Hundreds of pro-Palestinian supporters occupied the Charing Cross train station in the British capital.

At the massive rally in Liverpool, Muhammad told the WSWS he and his wife came to the rally to support the “freedom of the Palestinians” and to “spread the truth and stand up for the truth.”

At the same rally, Jahoel, originally from Derry, said he was the rally to stand in solidarity with the people of Gaza and Palestine, “while the Zionist bombs are dropping on helpless children and helpless babies.

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“[Kier] Starmer, I’m not in Labour, but what he is doing is showing no backbone. He’s doing what every politician here is doing: ignoring the plight of innocent people dying, innocent men and women dying in Gaza.”

In Scotland, hundreds more occupied Edinburgh’s Waverly train station. Thousands of protesters took the streets in Leeds and engaged in a sit-down demonstration at the railway station.

More than a quarter million demonstrate in Washington, D.C.: “You can’t convince the American people that this is right.”

In Washington DC, the cockpit of world imperialism, tens of thousands of people massed outside Freedom Plaza against Israeli’s genocide.

Reporters for the WSWS conducted several interviews with the protesters at the Washington D.C. demonstration.

“We have family overseas that have been, unfortunately, slaughtered, by the Israeli government. And we are here demanding ceasefire,” one protester said.g

“Its a humanitarian matter, it’s about humanity as a whole,” another protester said. “It’s not about religion.”

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Another rally-goer told the WSWS, “The US and Israel are collaborating to commit genocide against Palestinians and we will not stand for that. Joe Biden has been clear in his statements for many decades that he is on the side of Israel and he is on the side of genocide. That is not even a question. He has said it. He has demonstrated it.”

“I think that Bernie Sanders serves US imperialism,” she added.

“We are here to show our support for Palestine” a young man told the WSWS. “What’s going on over there is not right. And it’s even more appalling that our own government, who is predicated on being the ‘land of the free and home of the brave,’ is supporting such atrocities.

“Something like this where you have children dying all the time, this is not what we stand for. You can’t convince the American people that this is right.”

Continue reading at https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2023/11/04/anov-n04.html

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