On July 24, thousands of Americans of all ages, ethnic backgrounds, and faiths, and from across the political spectrum, assembled in Washington DC to peacefully protest Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s address to a joint session of Congress happening that day, (see video of the mass protest).
Organized by a coalition that included Answer Coalition, the Palestinian Youth Movement, the US Campaign for Palestinian Rights, and the People’s Forum, the day began at 11 am with a program featuring a diverse array of speakers who addressed protestors from a large, raised stage, under a giant “Free Palestine” banner, flanked with banners reading “Stop Arming Israel” and “Ceasefire Now” on either side. The
speakers included a Jewish Rabbi, a Christian minister, Palestinian-American activists, a representative of the United Postal Workers Union, Jewish Voice for Peace, and many others. Amongst their many demands cheered on by protestors were the immediate release of all the remaining hostages and of all Palestinians arbitrarily detained in Israeli facilities without charge or trial.
One protestor who did not have a speaking role but who nevertheless made a tremendous impression was Marione Ingram. An 87-year-old Holocaust survivor, Ingram has also attended protests at the White House and was featured on Democracy Now! in November, telling host Amy Goodman, “What Israel is doing will not end this conflict. It will only exacerbate it.” At the July 24 protest, Ingram carried a handmade sign that read, “Holocaust and war survivor says, ‘PEACE NOT WAR’ in our name.”
As expressed in signs and chants as they marched toward the Capitol, protestors called for ending US military aid to Israel as day after day bombs manufactured in and supplied by the United States are dropped on residential buildings, UN-run schools, hospitals, displaced persons camps, and other sites where Gazans have sought refuge in Israeli-designated “safe zones.” Ten months into the war on Gaza, which the International Court of Justice has determined to be a plausible genocide, protestors sent a message to the people of Gaza that they are not forgotten and a message to their own government that they reject the unconditional financial, military, and diplomatic support it provides to Israel as it perpetrates this relentless war. Rather than being feted by Congress, protestors called for Netanyahu to be arrested for war crimes and crimes against humanity.
The event was one of the largest pro-Palestinian, anti-war demonstrations in this country—organizers put the number of participants at 10,000—since Israel launched its devastating war on Gaza ten months ago, following the terrorist attack on Israel on October 7, 2023. Throngs of protestors flocked in from across the country, some traveling overnight on busses from as far away as Maine, North Carolina, and Illinois.
The impetus for so many people to travel such a long way for this particular event was outrage over the decision by senior leadership of both parties in both chambers of Congress—including New York’s own Senator Charles Schumer—to grant the rare honor of addressing a joint session of Congress to a man the chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court has found reasonable evidence to believe is responsible for such atrocities as starvation as a method of warfare, intentionally directing attacks against a civilian population, murder, and extermination. In this sense, the protest was aimed as much at Congress—and the Biden administration, which continues to send billions of dollars worth of weapons to Israel even while claiming a ceasefire is imperative—as it was at Netanyahu himself. Indignation over Congress’ flouting of
international law, its betrayal of this country’s supposed commitment to universal human rights, and its hypocrisy in how it has responded to other leaders charged with similar and even lesser offenses, bolstered the protestors’ endurance in the oppressive heat and humidity.
Without knowing it at the time, residents of NY CD-16 participating in the protest were answering the call of their representative, Jamaal Bowman, who said in an Op-Ed in The Guardian, published on the day of the event, that the majority of Americans support a permeant ceasefire and “we should all be yelling in the halls of Congress until our leaders have no choice but to listen.”
That’s ultimately what this protest was: a demand for leaders to listen, only instead of yelling in the halls of Congress, protestors yelled in the streets of DC. Anti-war residents of CD 16 are heartened to know that their own representative is one of the brave, principled few in Congress who does listen and who takes a strong stand against aiding and abetting violence, destruction, and injustice, and for a ceasefire, peace, and justice for Palestinians.
Note: Whereas the overwhelming majority of protestors were peaceful and orderly, it was reported in the Washington Post and other media outlets that 25 people were arrested on July 24. Charges against 11 of these individuals have been dropped. In addition, Vice President and presidential candidate Kamala Harris condemned the burning of the American flag that took place in front of Union Station, as well as pro-Hamas graffiti and rhetoric at that site, none of which was observed by this reporter, I was never there.
