Above photo: Thousands rallied outside the US Capitol on April 5. Jason Bixon.
Refusing To Be Silenced By Trump Administration Attacks.
“We are the majority,” declare organizers of a mass demonstration outside the United States Capitol building opposing the genocide in Gaza and Trump’s attacks on students
Thousands rallied in the heart of the US capital Washington, DC on April 5 to oppose Trump administration attacks on free speech and student activism, and demand an end to Israel’s relentless genocidal onslaught against Gaza. Students, organizers, journalists, artists, and workers came to Washington, DC from across the country to call for the release of pro-Palestine students such as Mahmoud Khalil and Rumeysa Ozturk from ICE detention and to declare their fearlessness in the face of Trump’s attacks.
The march was endorsed by over 200 organizations including the Palestine Youth Movement, the ANSWER Coalition, the People’s Forum, Democratic Socialists of America, Jewish Voice for Peace, US Palestinian Community Network, American Muslims for Palestine, and the US Campaign for Palestinian Rights.
“Mahmoud is in good spirits. This will not break him. And it will not stop him from advocating for Palestinian rights,” Khalil’s longtime friend Jasmine read a statement from Khalil’s wife, Noor Abdalla, who could not attend the demonstration because of her upcoming pregnancy due date. Khalil has at this point been in ICE detention for a month, over 1,000 miles away from his expecting wife, for the crime of being a leading activist for Palestine during the Columbia Gaza Solidarity Encampment. Khalil and his legal team are fighting for his release on bail so that he can witness the birth of his first child. “Mahmoud is a victim of a system that punishes dissent, silences activism, and seeks to erase the truth when it comes to Palestine. His detention is not just an attack on him, but on all of us who are part of this movement.”
According to the statement from Noor Abdalla, her husband Mahmoud Khalil remains in good spirits. Attendees of the “March on Washington for Palestine” maintained high morale right alongside him. Although Trump’s targeted attacks on students have only escalated, with more and more international students learning that their visas have been revoked each day, students who attended Saturday’s demonstrations remained undeterred from participating in pro-Palestine activism.
Students And Workers Remain Unafraid
“Now is not the time for people to go hide and retreat in fear,” asserted Lauren Chua, president of the MIT Graduate Student Union (MIT GSU). “We really need to defeat these attacks decisively, so that Trump doesn’t feel emboldened to pick us off one by one,” Chua told Peoples Dispatch.
Chua acknowledged the fear that Trump has attempted to instill in international students and all students across the US. “Rumeysa was abducted in our backyard. The video sent shockwaves across Boston and the greater US.” But as Chua describes, the response to Tufts University student Rumeysa Ozturk’s kidnapping by ICE agents has been strong. “The next day, thousands of people showed up to say we’re not gonna stand here idly by when gangs of masked ICE agents can just abduct someone in broad daylight,” Chua said, describing the mass rally that took place at Tufts on March 26 to oppose Ozturk’s detention by immigration authorities.
Grant Miner, the president of Columbia’s graduate student union, UAW Local 2710, used part of his speech to call out leaders in the Democratic Party for what he expressed was insufficient support for the cause of the student movement and the cause of Palestine.
“[Senator] Cory Booker has the gall to call himself pro-labor, but I’m sure you saw him speaking for 25 hours straight or whatever. Did the name Mahmoud Khalil or Rumeysa Ozturk leave his mouth one time? No! He’s out here trying to get into the Guinness Book of World Records,” Miner said, referring to Booker’s speech on the Senate floor last week against Trump, which broke the record for the longest speech in the US Senate.
But workers and students should not rely on Democratic Party politicians, according to Miner. “If that’s one thing that’s been abundantly clear over the past month, it’s that nobody, especially not these politicians, is coming to save us, but the good news is [that] we don’t need anybody to save us,” Miner said, addressing the crowd. “All we need is for the people to stand together and get organized, fight back! They can’t run the country without us, but we sure as hell can run the country without them.”
Miner, like Mahmoud Khalil, was also targeted for participation in the Gaza Solidarity Encampment at Columbia University last spring. He, alongside 22 other students, were expelled, suspended, fired, or had their degrees revoked by Columbia following a letter sent by the Trump administration to the university, demanding that the institution target pro-Palestine students or risk losing USD 400 million in funding. In a previous interview with Peoples Dispatch, Miner described this letter as a “ransom note” to the Columbia administration.
Indeed, rather than chill the student movement, students across the country have found inspiration in students like Khalil and Ozturk, and others struggling for the liberation of Palestine. “It’s not gonna deter us,” said Elijah, who is a part of a recently formed student organization called the Southern Labor Youth Movement, of Trump’s use of immigration authorities to detain students. Elijah is also a student at the University of South Alabama. “History has shown us that students and young people lead social movements like this. This unlawful detainment of the students, this infringement on freedom of speech, it’s not gonna deter us, and we’re gonna keep fighting back.”
The crowd of thousands channeled their energy into a march through Washington, DC, stopping at the headquarters of Immigration Customs and Enforcement (ICE) in Washington, DC.
“We are here to say that the fight for Palestine and the struggle for Palestinian liberation is united with the struggle for immigrant rights,” said Layan Fuleihan, Education Director at the People’s Forum and lead organizer with the Shut It Down For Palestine movement, addressing the crowd which had stopped outside of the ICE building. “We are here to send a clear message to Trump, to Rubio, to everyone inside this building, that when they attack one, and when they attack two, they have to face all of us.”
“We Are The Majority”
“We are not the minority, we are the majority. Less than half of the people of this country say they’re sympathetic to Israel, the lowest in decades,” said Eugene Puryear, journalist and organizer, addressing the crowd on Saturday. “A majority of people of this country are opposed to Trump’s Gaza plan of ethnic cleansing.”
Gabby Ballard, an organizer with the Party for Socialism and Liberation, used part of her speech to address a trend on social media in which Black content creators created videos encouraging others in the Black community to abstain from protest on April 5. “There is a coordinated effort to pull Black people out of the struggle,” Ballard said. “But we remember our history. Every, every, every successful struggle in the United States for human rights has been won with Black people standing shoulder to shoulder, making it happen. Every Black rebellion has been an anti-capitalist struggle, because we were the original capital.”
Monadel Herzallah, who has lost over 34 members of his own family members as a result of Israel’s genocide in Gaza, addressed the crowd on behalf of the US Palestinian Community Network. “We reject any attempt to push Palestine to the back burner,” Herzallah said. “We will continue to demand that Palestine is in all agendas across the nation and across the world.”