US protestors descend on Washington to call for Gaza ceasefire

Demonstrators from throughout the US descended on the US capital Saturday afternoon to demand President Joe Biden press the Israeli government for a ceasefire. 

Organisers, led by the American Muslim Task Force for Palestine, estimated the turnout to be around 400,000, which would make it the largest pro-Palestinian demonstration since a similar one in November, though this time as freezing weather grips the US east coast.

The march, which started at Freedom Plaza in downtown Washington, DC, went to the White House, where protesters continued chanting late into the night as they waved Palestinian flags and held signs reading "Ceasefire Now", "Let Gaza Live", and "Free Palestine". It was planned to commemorate the grim milestone of 100 days of war, as the death toll in Gaza and the West Bank approaches 24,000.

"It's very important to take this directly to Biden," Walter Smolarek, media coordinator with the ANSWER Coalition (Act Now to Stop War and End Racism), a protest umbrella group, told The New Arab. 

"Biden's policy flies completely in the face of public opinion. This is politically devastating for him. It's become even more important with the bombing of Yemen," he said.

Since the war began, the ceasefire movement has continued to grow. A congressional resolution at the beginning of the conflict calling for a ceasefire garnered around 12 signatures. Now, more than 60 members of the House and Senate publicly support a ceasefire, in no small part from the advocacy of their constituents.    

Moreover, a November poll by Reuters/Ipsos found that around 68 percent of the American public support a ceasefire. Broken down by political party, that's around 75 percent of Democrats and 50 percent of Republicans.

Prior to the start of the march, Palestinian Americans who have lost family in Gaza, Arab leaders and prominent allies made remarks to the growing crowd downtown. One by one, they took the stage and gave impassioned speeches about the situation in Gaza.

"We are the voices of the dead, the cries from under the rubble, and the hope of those fighting for their lives," said Iman Jodeh, a state representative from Colorado, before a roaring crowd. 

"Ironically, and perhaps serendipitously, we are steps from where MLK [Martin Luther King Jr.] proclaimed that he had a dream, that he had seen the mountaintop," she said.

"We remind America of the fierce urgency now, and it would be fatal for the nation to overlook the urgency of this moment. While we must keep talking about Gaza, let's not forget about the rest of Palestine," she said, as she made reference to the barrier wall between the West Bank and Israel, often called the apartheid wall. She then noted South Africa's solidarity with Palestinians, as it presents its case of alleged Isreali genocide in Gaza to the International Court of Justice (ICJ). 

Mazen Badr, a resident of northern Virginia, felt compelled to speak up after recently losing 10 members of his family, including his mother and sisters, to an Israeli rocket attack in late December in Gaza, where he had spent his childhood.

"I owe it to them to speak out to the only power in the world that can do something," he told The New Arab after the demonstration. "We owe it to the people who are dying and suffering in Gaza."

Badr, who was born in Gaza, recalls a childhood of living with his family near the Mediterranean Sea and spending his days going to the beach. He describes Gaza as beautiful. When the occupation began in 1967, the enclave started having curfews and other military restrictions.

From his home in the US, he finds himself frustrated by the Western news coverage of the war, seeing it as mainly focusing on one day, the 7 October Hamas attack on Israel, without giving the full context of what has happened in the 75 years leading up to this current conflict.

"This needs to be told to the rest of the world. I'm just not sure they're seeing what I'm seeing," said Badr, referring to Palestinians and others in the region watching stations like Al Jazeera, while Westerners are watching a very different media viewpoint.

"When my mother was killed, the next day she and the family were buried in body bags. The day after that, they said they had buried the second half of her. These stories need to be told. The world needs to know," he said.

Amid the difficulty of retelling his family's recent tragedy, he said he was moved by Saturday's turnout.

"People from everywhere came," he said. "Whether or not they were from Gaza, they were very engaged. We just need to continue to be engaged."