Above photo: Protesters rallied in a key retail district in New York City to disrupt Black Friday shopping. Wyatt Souers.
Calling for a permanent ceasefire in Gaza.
Across the United States, thousands disrupted retail shopping on the widely profitable “Black Friday” consumer holiday.
Thousands took to the streets across multiple US cities to disrupt Black Friday, the most profitable retail shopping day of the year, to demand a permanent ceasefire in the Gaza Strip.
November 24, marked the first day of the four-day humanitarian pause in the enclave. Displaced families have begun to travel back to their homes in the north of Gaza, even as Israeli forces opened fire on them, killing at least two Palestinians who were traveling back north. Videos have been circulating on social media of Palestinian political prisoners being released by Israeli forces, including many children and women. Freed child prisoners from the Ofer prison received celebrations in the streets of Ramallah following their release.
Demands continue to grow for a permanent ceasefire. “The steadfast resilience and resistance of the Palestinian people,” read a statement signed by the Palestinian Youth Movement, National Students for Justice in Palestine, The People’s Forum, ANSWER Coalition, and the International Peoples’ Assembly. It continues, “Nevertheless, a pause is just that: a pause… We must intensify our commitment and efforts until every single one of our demands is fulfilled: a permanent ceasefire, an end to the siege on Gaza, and an end to all US, Canadian, and European aid to Israel.”
These five groups were part of a coalition which organized major disruptions of Black Friday shopping all across the United States. Demonstrators took over the Westfield Mall in San Jose, California, the entrance to the Providence Place Mall in Rhode Island, and the Puma storefront in Boston (Puma being the main sponsor of the Israeli Football Association), and the City Creek shopping center in Utah.
Protesters in Los Angeles, joined by musicians such as Kehlani, took over ‘The Grove’, one of the primary centers of consumerism in the city. While thousands converged on Herald Square in Manhattan, New York City, outside of the Macy’s department store, halting Black Friday traffic.
“Today is Black Friday, the most profitable day for the capitalist US economy. The day where they rack in billions in profits,” said Samar, an activist with the Palestinian Youth Movement, at a rally in Washington Square Park that would later march to Herald Square. “They profit, and they profit while genocide is being waged against the Palestinian people. And they ask us to take part in their sick ritual of mass consumption.”
On November 23, on Thanksgiving Day, demonstrators also staged disruptions of the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade in New York City. Pro-Palestine activists including journalists, artists, and writers calling themselves the Writers’ Bloc staged a sit-in on the parade route, holding a banner that read “Genocide then, genocide now.” Around half a dozen protesters glued themselves to the road along the parade route, spilling fake blood and disrupting the event for “liberation for Palestine and the planet.” Several were arrested out of the two groups of demonstrators. Multiple disruptions occurred on the parade route, with several activists staging disruptions in the sidelines and the grandstands of the parade.
“We are the White House’s worst nightmare…And they don’t know what to do with the millions of brave courageous and living people that have filled the streets for the past six weeks…They cannot deceive us with Black Friday deals, with Thanksgiving meals, with the upcoming holiday celebrations,” said Layan Fuleihan of the People’s Forum. “The Macy’s Day Parade was stopped multiple times. It was filled with Palestinian flags…we are the majority, the vast majority.”