By: Omar Thabet
On Saturday, October 14, the Palestinian Youth Movement and Students for Justice in Palestine organized an All out for Palestine rally in Dearborn, Michigan.
This rally was to raise awareness about the current bombardment of civilians in Gaza, Palestine. These attacks have led to many people all across the world protesting and pleading for a ceasefire, because they feel like a genocide is taking place towards the Palestinian people.
The Yemeni Liberation Movement show their support for the Palestinian people.
Genocide in Numbers
As of Friday, October 20, more than 3,785 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza, according to the Palestinian Ministry of Health in Gaza, with the majority of the casualties being women and children.
On Tuesday, the total death toll of Palestinians took a major spike after a Gaza hospital was targeted and blasted. Israel immediately took credit for the blasts, then later retracted their statement after receiving online backlash for the attack.
According to multiple news outlets, it was predicted that over 500 Palestinians died from the blasts at Al-Ahli Baptist Hospital, with hundreds more probably still stuck under the rubble.
Over 1.1 million Palestinians have been displaced from their homes since October 7. A lot of them have no water, food, a place to sleep or access to the internet and to the outside world.
The Gaza Strip is considered the largest open-air prison on the globe.
All of this information is what drove the Palestinian Youth Movement and Students for Justice in Palestine to hold a rally.
Local Jewish residents also showed their support for Palestinian people during the rally.
The Rally
Over a thousand people attended the All out for Palestine rally this past Saturday.
The rally began at Ford Woods Park around 2 p.m. Rally goers then marched their way down Ford Road to Fordson High School. They eventually made their way back to the park at 5 p.m., which is around the time the rally ended.
We had the chance to interview some of the protesters who were at the rally. We had recommended that they not use their last names and/or remain anonymous due to security reasons.
One of the organizers for the rally, Sherin, said the goal for this rally was to bring awareness to what’s going on in Palestine.
“We see Palestinian activists here in the United States being attacked by Zionists,” Sherin said. “They call them terrorists, they try to shut them down, putting them on blacklist websites.”
Sherin then added, “So the goal here is to let everyone know don’t be afraid of the small consequences. Our people are dying. They have no water and no food; they are being targeted by bombs and all of the borders are shut down. So, what we can continue to do here is spread awareness and let people know in the United States what is going on, so we can stop sending our tax money to the genocide.”
There were plenty of passionate speakers at the rally who demanded justice for Israel’s actions, leading chants that the rally goers followed.
Some of the chants were:
-“From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free!”
-“Not another nickel, not another dime, no more money for Israel’s crimes!”
-“Free Free Palestine. Free Free Palestine!”
All across the rally you’d see protesters holding different kinds of signs in support of the Palestinian people. Protesters were also holding Palestinian flags, as well as other flags from other countries, including Lebanon, Iraq and Yemen flags.
When we spoke to a local Lebanese resident on why he attended the rally, he said, “There’s a bunch of us Arabs here in Dearborn and we are all a family at the end. Rather you’re from Yemen, Lebanon, Syria or Saudi Arabia; we are all a family. We should all be one hand together.”
There were Jewish residents who attended the rally to support the Palestinian people as well.
When asked why they were in attendance, one Jewish resident said, “Judaism is not equated with Zionism. To be an anti-Zionist Jew is to be a Jew that is in alignment with collective liberation for all people.”
She then added, “All of my grandparents were the only survivors from their family from the holocaust. I know the pain of that and how it has affected my family in terms of intergenerational trauma every day. And the fact that that’s going on right now, today, and has been my whole lifetime, and it’s being done in my name, is something that I am not okay with.”
Many women were the leaders and in the forefront for this rally!
What’s Next
Many Arab and Muslim leaders in America and all across the world are calling for a ceasefire to stop the killing that is happening in Palestine.
When we asked Mohammad, who is another SJP organizer for the rally, what end result he wanted to see from all of this, he said, “Eventually, the end result of this entire thing is we want Palestine to be free.”
“Regardless of what the media says in terms of ‘it’s a complicated issue’. ‘It goes back to blah blah blah’. It’s not. It’s very simple. It’s a matter of having the basic human decency to be able to call out oppression when you see it and anything beyond that is just nonsense,” Mohammad added.
“I want to see my people go back to their homes before 1948,” Sherin added. “I want that genocide to be over. I need the blockade in Gaza to be lifted. I need the illegal apartheid along the west bank to be broken down. I need all of the segregation laws to be lifted against the Palestinians who are currently living in land 48.”
Below are some links to keep you informed on what is going on in Palestine:
SZ.3/EP. 7 of OZ Media’s MotivateMe313 Podcast II Current State of Palestine
