Above photo: Minnesotans resisting genocide during the Holidazzle Festival in downtown Minneapolis. Emily Newberg/Fight Back! News.
Minneapolis, Minnesota – On Saturday December 21 close to 100 people rallied in downtown Minneapolis to say, “All we want for Christmas is an end to the genocide.” The rally was organized by the Minnesota Peace Action Coalition and took place across the street from the WCCO TV studios, within sight of the Minneapolis Holidazzle Celebration, in the Nicollet Mall district of downtown.
Fourteen months into Israel’s genocide in Palestine the death toll has reached over 45,000 people, and attacks on civilians, their homes and refugee camps continue to be a daily occurrence. On Friday December 20, Israeli airstrikes killed 25 people in the Gaza Strip, with one strike in particular hitting the home of the Khalla family in Jabalia Al-Nazla. The result was the death of ten members of their family, including seven children – the oldest age six, according to civil defense spokesman Mahmoud Basal. Meanwhile in Jenin, a city in the occupied West Bank, Palestinians awoke to find the Bir al-Walideen mosque had been set on fire by Israeli settlers. The words “Death to Arabs,” among other slogans, had been spray-painted on the building’s facade.
Incredibly, this all continues to take place during a month in which we’ve also seen the collapse of the Syrian government in Damascus, swiftly followed by a rampant Israeli bombing campaign on Syrian airfields and naval bases, rendering any new government that takes shape essentially defenseless in the face of Israel’s incursions into sovereign Syrian land. The Israeli Defense Forces bragged about the operation being the largest in the history of its air force, claiming to have destroyed 70 to 80% of the Syrian state’s strategic military capabilities.
Representing the Anti-War Committee at Saturday’s rally, Layna Crandell spoke about the contradiction between the joy many Americans feel during the holidays, and the horrors that Palestinians are facing this December.
Crandell stated, “While we are celebrating with our friends and families this holiday season, families in Palestine lose children, mothers, fathers, grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins. While we are celebrating, children in Gaza say that they wish they were dead. While we are celebrating, exchanging presents and taking time off work, our country plunders resources abroad with cheap labor, destroys nations’ sovereignty through destabilization efforts, and bombs civilians for U.S. geopolitical and economic interests. Because to our government, the interests of the ruling class are more important than people’s lives.”
Mike Madden of Veterans For Peace also spoke to the crowd. He pointed out how many U.S. officials appear to be above the law when it comes to supplying weapons and support for Israel’s crimes, when Israel has been declared to be committing genocide by the International Criminal Court. He proceeded to juxtapose those officials with Robyn Harbison, a Minneapolis activist and member of Women Against Military Madness and the Minnesota Abortion Action Committee who is currently facing a bogus and trumped-up felony charge for his participation in the occupation of Halimy Hall at the University of Minnesota in October.
In comparison to U.S. politicians’ “above the law” status, Madden explained, “And then there is the flip side of the coin: those honorable people who are doing all they can to stop the genocide, only to have the rules and laws turned against them for minor and fabricated offenses. In their effort to uphold international law, these anti-genocide activists are being unfairly bludgeoned with the law in order to silence criticism of the real criminals; those who are committing genocide in Palestine, and their enablers in Washington DC.”
Educators For Justice In Palestine at the University of Minnesota was represented at the rally by Sima Shakhsari. Shakhsari stated, “As we get close to Christmas and as people shop for Christmas presents, let’s not forget that our tax dollars and pensions are being invested in a genocide in Palestine, where Jesus was born. Rather than buying into the spirit of capitalism, let’s make sure not to buy from companies that are complicit with the genocide in Gaza. In a time when all Gaza’s universities are demolished, what I want this Christmas is for the University of Minnesota to divest from Israel’s genocide in Gaza and to drop suspensions and charges on students who are being punished for standing for justice.”
Rallygoers also heard speakers from the organizations Women Against Military Madness and Families Against Military Madness. The Minneapolis Ceasefire Choir led Christmas carols with revised lyrics which called for an end to the genocide. Hundreds of Holidazzle goers shuffled by the rally, with dozens stopping to listen and some even participating.
The coming weeks will no doubt be a critical juncture for Minnesotans who support Palestinian liberation as we see a transition into Trump’s second presidency in January. The solidarity for Palestine across vast sections of the people’s movements must continue to remain a centerpiece in our organizing and a major thorn in the side of those who hold power and seek to maintain the status quo.
This includes the need for outspoken opposition to Minnesota’s complicity in genocide via the State Board of Investment chaired by Governor Tim Walz, and more broadly the United States facilitation of the genocide in Palestine. This is why the work of coalitions like MPAC are so important to our movement. Their organizing this holiday season proves that regardless of religious affiliation and despite freezing temperatures, Minnesotans will continue to show up and demand an end to the genocide.