After three months of carnage, the US continues to support Israel’s genocide in Gaza. While the bombs rain down, tens of thousands are killed, more are seriously injured, and millions are displaced, protests have raged across the country and around the world, with demonstrators calling for an immediate ceasefire, an end to US aid to Israel, and an end to Israel’s occupation of Palestine. Building on the previous, record-breaking March on Washington for Palestine last November, dozens of organizations held a second march on Saturday, Jan. 13, with tens of thousands converging on Freedom Plaza in downtown Washington, DC (organizers estimate the number of people who attended over the course of the day is in the hundreds of thousands). Reporting on the ground once again, TRNN Editor-in-Chief Maximillian Alvarez returns to DC to speak with demonstrators at the March on Washington for Gaza.
This podcast also includes clips from Palestinian-Americans who spoke at the rally, courtesy of BreakThroughNews . Watch the full livestream of the rally.
Speakers include: Mazin Badr; Xana; Yasmeen El-Agha; Colleta Macy; Iysha Macy; Adam Abosherieah; Dr. Alaa Hussein Ali; Faisal Saleh; Randa Muhtaseb; Willow Defreitas Kick; Abed Ajrami.
Studio Production: Maximillian Alvarez
Post-Production: Alina Nehlich
Transcript
The following is a rushed transcript and may contain errors. A proofread version will be made available as soon as possible.
Speaker 1:
Free, free Palestine.
Group:
Free, free Palestine.
Speaker 1:
Free, free Palestine.
Group:
Free, free Palestine.
Maximillian Alvarez:
This is Maximillian Alvarez for The Real News Network, reporting from Downtown Washington, DC. It is Saturday, January 13th. I’m standing in Freedom Plaza, at the March on Washington for Gaza. Tens of thousands of people have descended upon Washington, DC, from all over the United States and beyond, to call for an immediate ceasefire, and to demand an end to Israel’s violent, 75-year occupation of Palestine, and to hold the United States and the Biden administration accountable, for their complicit support of that genocidal violence. We’re here on the ground for The Real News Network, talking to folks about why they’re here, and why this is important.
Group:
[Inaudible 00:00:53].
We are one, Palestinians.
Mazin Bdour:
My name is Mazin Bdour. I’m a small business leader, and a father of two wonderful children, and two sweet grandchildren, North Virginia. I was born and raised in Gaza, where I spent my summers playing by the Sea of Gaza, with my friends.
I’m also a descendant of refugees from Palestine, Palestinian village of Cartia, from where my mother and father were displaced, expelled, in 1948 Nakba. Every morning, in my way to work, for as long as the cell phone existed, I used to call my mother in Gaza, to hear her voice. It comforted me.
But since the beginning of the brutal Israeli bombardment and aggression, all I heard and felt over the phone was the fear in her voice and the sound of constant bombardment. Suddenly, our lives were reversed, as I was the one who was trying to comfort her.
On the evening of December 23rd, Israel bombed my sister’s house in central Gaza, killing 10 of my closest family members at once. My loving mother, Aziza, two of my sisters, one of them is blind, their husbands, five of my nephews and nieces, including my niece, Asma, who was getting ready to get married in November.
My mother had survived more than a dozen wars, becoming a refugee over and over, within her Palestinian homeland. They had dreams and lives to live. They loved, and they were loved in return. Until their final moment, they displayed the generous and resilient spirit of Gaza, that Gaza embodies.
They left their house, to make room for another displayed family, and chose to shelter together instead, at my sister’s house. As fate would have it, their house survived, and so did the newly displayed families. But my family did not.
Seconds before she was killed, my sister sent her 28-year-old son, a survivor of six Israeli wars and assaults in Gaza, to deliver food to her hungry neighbors. That generous, selfish act, is what ended up saving his life.
My family was buried in body bags, in a mass grave. We learned that the second half of my mother’s body was found the next day. She had two burials. Even in death, we are denied dignity.
I’m often asked what people can do to ease our suffering, and my answer remains the same. Do what you’re doing now. Speak up. I call on my fellow Americans, do not just demand, but force an immediate and permanent ceasefire.
We demand that President Biden and the Congress to end military funding, and weapons transfers to Israel, that killed my family and all the other families. Thank you.
Group:
[inaudible 00:05:30].
Peace right now, peace right now, peace right now, peace right now.
Xana:
Okay, so hi. My name is Xana.
Maximillian Alvarez:
Well, Xana, we’re here for the Real News Network here in Freedom Plaza, the March on Washington for Gaza. We’ve got tens and tens of thousands of people here who have descended on Washington, DC, calling for a ceasefire, calling for an end to Israel’s violent occupation of Palestine.
And we wanted to go around and talk to some of the folks on the street about who they are, what brought them here, and what we’re seeing right now.
Xana:
Okay. So, hi. I’m 20 years old. I go to college. I’m descendants of people who immigrated here from Gaza. I’ve been to Gaza a couple of times, and I’ve experienced firsthand the bombs there.
And because of the pain, I feel for my family, and people who I’ve never met, but I consider my family, I’m here.
Maximillian Alvarez:
I know there’s no way to communicate to people who haven’t gone through that, what it’s like. But I guess, for anyone listening to this right now, since you have gone through that, what would you want to communicate to people about what life in Gaza was like before October 7th?
Xana:
I’d like to really enunciate that the bombings didn’t start on October 7th. They don’t just happen, because Hamas do something. They didn’t happen, because Israel won an election, or it’s happening in Ramadan, or it’s happening, because somebody wanted to leave, but they couldn’t leave. It’s a daily occurrence, if not monthly. And it’s not new.
Maximillian Alvarez:
It’s not new. But what we are here witnessing in DC does feel new. It does feel like more people are waking up to this, even though we’re talking about, it took 75 years to wake up, but again, thousands of people are here, they’re awake. I wanted to just ask if it feels different to you, as someone whose family … This is not new to you and your family.
Xana:
To put it in layman terms, absolutely, yes, 100%. It’s so much newer, as when I was a kid. It would be maybe a couple of thousands, at most, at protest. I’ve never seen this in my lifetime, only of 20 years, and maybe even more.
But yeah, it’s definitely a waking call, and it’s something that is great that us people believe in this. And I think the next initiative is to have people in Congress and Senate, and the President’s job, to really view this as a really big issue.
Maximillian Alvarez:
And I know I got to let you go. So I promise, final question. Just for folks who are listening to this, who couldn’t make it out to Washington, DC today, do you have any final words to folks out there, about why they should get involved in this fight, and what they can do, even if they couldn’t make it to DC today?
Xana:
So Palestine isn’t an Arab issue, or a Muslim issue, or a regional issue, it’s a human issue. And it’s to fight for human rights, whether those people be brown, white or anything in between.
And I think that anyone who has heart or humanity should know the universal feeling of pain and empathy. And anyone at home who doesn’t know too much about this, I really hope this educated them to do more research, and hopefully, I’ll see them next time.
Speaker 1:
Free, free Palestine.
Group:
Free, free Palestine.
Speaker 1:
Free, free Palestine.
Group:
Free, free Palestine.
Yesmin:
My name is Yesmin [inaudible 00:08:48], and I’m a law student at Northwestern University in Chicago, but Gaza is where I call home, and where my heart lies. My family is one of the largest in Gaza. We’ve been there for over 500 years. We have over 9,000 members, most of whom live in Khan Yunis.
Israel has shattered our past, our present, and our future. Just in the last three months, Israel killed 120 members of my family. 31 of them were children. The youngest was just a few months old.
In the weeks leading up to their deaths, they suffered immensely. Two of my relatives left their home to find desperately needed food. They came back to discover that Israel had bombed their home, and that their mother, father, sister were all killed and buried under the rubble.
As the surviving brothers desperately dug through the rubble by hand, for the dismembered body parts of their family members, of their parents, of their beloved sister, Israel dropped another bomb on their house, killing both of the brothers as they dug for their family.
Yasser and Rua were two siblings, age six and 14, whose dead bodies were only removed from their demolished home a few days ago, one month after an Israeli air strike killed them in their home.
Their younger brother, who was only a few years old, was the one who discovered their bodies. He sobbed into his mother’s arms, as he told her, “Their eyeballs are decayed, their eyes are emptied from their sockets.” This is the lasting memory he has of his two older siblings.
Hundreds of my family members are now sleeping on cardboard, in the cold streets. Many of us are taking refuge in hospitals and in schools. One of my family members is 81 years old, and he froze to death in the street.
Elderly family members of mine put out a plea, because they are starving to death, surrounded by Israeli soldiers, who refuse them access to water and food and medication. They are begging for their lives.
The hospitals and schools that hundreds of my family members are sheltering in have nevertheless been targeted by Israeli air strikes. Many have been killed in these hospitals and schools.
My aunt, Samar, went out in search of life-saving medication for my mentally disabled uncle. He’s been on medication his entire life. For the first time in his life, he’s off of it. He’s facing severe withdrawal symptoms, seizure-like symptoms, convulsions.
Group:
Shame.
Yesmin:
When she went out to find medication for him, she was shot at by Israeli tanks. She witnessed others in the street, killed right in front of her eyes. It could have been her. This is the same aunt who has been volunteering, giving everything she has to help others.
She goes to Honora schools, asks, “What do your children need?” She goes out and finds it, and gives it to the mothers whose children are freezing in the street. Their hearts remain pure.
When I visited Gaza last year, my aunt made a handmade thobe for me, but I wasn’t able to take it back with me. When my grandparents evacuated just a couple of days ago, they faced severe, severe hardship at the Mabar and Rafah. And still, even in the 18-hour ordeal of trying to get two elderly people out, my aunt remembered to send my thobe with my grandparents.
She told me, “If I can’t make it out of Gaza alive, at least the thobe can make it out alive, and you will have something to remember me by.” She’s preparing me for her death.
Group:
Shame. Shame.
Yesmin:
Nothing remains for the survivors. Where once there were streets, businesses, and buildings with the [Arabic 00:14:28] name emblazoned on them, including my own home, my grandmother’s centuries-old home, there is now only dust.
Group:
Shame. Shame.
Yesmin:
For the sake of the surviving members of my family, desperately clinging to life, we need an immediate and permanent ceasefire now.
Group:
Ceasefire now. Ceasefire now. Ceasefire now. Ceasefire now. Ceasefire now. Ceasefire now. Ceasefire now.
Yesmin:
A permanent ceasefire means a free Palestine, an end to the illegal occupation. We must demand that President Biden stop providing financial, military, and political cover for Israel to continue to partake in the genocide of my family and my people.
[Arabic 00:15:36]. Palestine is ours. It’ll always be ours. Free Palestine.
Group:
Free Palestine, free Palestine. Free Palestine, free Palestine. Free Palestine.
Colleta Macy:
My name is Colleta Macy. I am from Warm Springs, Oregon. I’m a tribal citizens of the Confederated Tribe of Warm Springs.
Iysha Macy:
My name’s Iysha Macy. I am a descendant of the Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs, and I’m also half Mexican.
Maximillian Alvarez:
Awesome. I’m half Mexican, too.
Colleta Macy:
So I represent the Wasco, Warm Springs, and Nez Perce.
Iysha Macy:
I represent Warm Springs and Aztec.
Colleta Macy:
And Wasco.
Iysha Macy:
And Wasco.
Maximillian Alvarez:
Hell, yeah. And y’all came, all the way out to DC today.
Iysha Macy:
Yes.
Maximillian Alvarez:
We’re here for the March on Washington and Gaza, from Oregon, you said?
Iysha Macy:
Yes.
Colleta Macy:
Yes.
Maximillian Alvarez:
Okay, so that’s quite a trip.
Iysha Macy:
Yeah.
Colleta Macy:
Oh, yeah.
Maximillian Alvarez:
Awesome. So can I just ask, yeah, if you could say a little more about what brought y’all out here, and what we’re seeing right now?
Colleta Macy:
We’re standing in solidarity with Palestine. We share the same struggle as Indigenous peoples, and we are five decades into our genocide, and they’re 75 years into theirs.
And we can’t let what happened to us happen to them. So we’re standing in solidarity, and lifting them up, and yeah, just trying to make a difference, and be good humans.
Iysha Macy:
Humanity is humanity. We all bleed the same blood. We all have the same insides. It’s just, humanity is humanity. You don’t have to be Palestinian to support Palestine.
You don’t have to be Indigenous to support the Indian people. It doesn’t matter who you are as long, as you got that hope and that faith, that we can thrive as society, and we know we could do better, and we don’t have to constantly repeat old patterns that’s given us more oppression than ever before.
Maximillian Alvarez:
Yeah, we can try something different.
Iysha Macy:
Oh, yes. Oh, yeah.
Maximillian Alvarez:
We don’t have to keep doing the same shit, century after century.
Colleta Macy:
Seriously, seriously.
Maximillian Alvarez:
On that note, I mean, since I got you both here, I want to ask the question, because, for our lifetimes, it has been nearly impossible to get this many people to care about the struggle for Palestinian liberation, the fight against the Israeli occupation, so on and so forth.
And I feel that has something to do with the fact that we are living and standing in a successful settler colonial project, that literally accomplished what Israel’s trying to accomplish right now.
Iysha Macy:
It really makes no sense. Why the hell do we have to live like this? We’re all human, we’re all struggling to survive, and it’s just like, more oppression plus more oppression, it just makes more, I don’t know, it makes more bullshit for everybody.
Everyone from three years old, on up to 35 or 85, 100, they’re still talking about their struggles. They’re still talking about their fucking dilemmas and their money problems, and just everything.
And it’s just, you have to jump after a loophole, and loophole and loophole, just to get where you need to be, where you want to be in life. I’m 22, and it’s just like, “What the fuck am I doing? I don’t want to be here. I don’t want to pay for this genocide. I don’t want fucking to put money towards something that doesn’t benefit society. It doesn’t benefit myself, or my future generations.”
So that’s fucking humanity. Humanity sucks right now, but for the better, we got the future generations. We got all these people. I never seen so many people here in support of one thing. It’s insane, it’s beautiful.
Just being on this side of the United States and seeing this much support for just Palestinians and Indigenous peoples, it’s beautiful. I’m mindblown. And I was feeling so down in Oregon, because you don’t see that much of that.
You don’t see a lot of the culture. It’s a fucking desert out there. Everybody does not give a shit, because they’re so brainwashed and whitewashed to their own thinking of, “Oh, if it’s not happening to me, then I don’t give a shit.”
And I’ve seen a lot of that within my own school. I go to college, and I’ve pointed that out to the students, and it’s just like, “Oh, we don’t give a fuck. It’s not us.” Yeah, it’s insane. I’m like, “Holy cow.”
I was feeling bad for humanity. Humanity’s going to crumble. But now that I see this other side of just people, I’m just like, “Okay, I have faith. I have faith all over again.”
Colleta Macy:
There you go.
Maximillian Alvarez:
Right. I mean, that’s always the case. I mean, it’s a dog fight for who gets to claim, “This is what humanity is, and what we’re about.”
Colleta Macy:
Exactly, yeah.
Maximillian Alvarez:
And right now, we’re fighting against people who think that the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians, and the mass slaughter of women, children, men, elderly people, young people, is somehow what humanity is about.
Colleta Macy:
Yeah, yeah.
Maximillian Alvarez:
So, you’re right. I mean, I think we are standing amidst a sea of tens of thousands of people who were saying no to that.
Colleta Macy:
Yeah.
Iysha Macy:
No. Hell, no.
Colleta Macy:
Yeah. Hell, no.
Iysha Macy:
Hell, no. The Indigenous people have been through this enough. Even before, I was born, before you were born, before your grandma was born, before my grandma’s grandma was born.
It’s insane of how many years this has been going on. I’m just like, “Why haven’t we learned anything yet?” But it seems something’s changing.
Colleta Macy:
I think, so what we call Palestine in the Indigenous and Indian country is the head of the spear. Once we liberate Palestine, that means all Indigenous nations will be liberated, and it is picking up momentum. When we free Palestine, we’re going to free all Indigenous peoples, including here on Turtle Island.
We need to dismantle this government, get everybody out, and start over. I think our Indigenous people need to take over, for real.
Maximillian Alvarez:
Oh, yeah. Well, on that note, I just wanted to sort of ask, because you started by mentioning the genocide we’re watching unfold in Palestine right now, and the connection that you feel to that, as someone whose people were genocided here, in-
Colleta Macy:
And we’re still here.
Maximillian Alvarez:
And we’re still here.
Colleta Macy:
We’re still here.
Maximillian Alvarez:
Right, so I wanted to ask if … Just hang on one sec.
Okay, sorry. I promise I’ll let you guys go.
But yeah, but basically, any final words that you wanted to say on that, the connection that you feel to the struggle for Palestinian liberation, your message to anyone out there who’s listening to this, who couldn’t make it to DC, about why they should get involved in this fight, and what they can do?
Colleta Macy:
Honestly, the world needs to wake up. It needs to wake up. You need to see this is all a colonial construct. This has been happening long before the Nakba happened. The Palestinian has been going through this long before the Nakba, and so have our Indigenous peoples.
We got put on reservations, they got put in refugee camps. Everybody needs to wake the fuck up, and get the fuck out here on these streets.
Iysha Macy:
This could be your brother, your sister, your cousin, your niece, your nephew. These people really, they need us just like we need them. We need each other. Humanity is going to crumble without humanity. So, from one love to another, you’re here in my heart, and that’s all that matters.
I’m glad to be here for you, and free Palestine, free Indigenous peoples from their constant oppression. The oppressors are going to get it.
Colleta Macy:
One last thing, the Palestinians stood with us during 1975. When Leonard Peltier was going through everything on the Pine Ridge Reservation, they actually did a letter, stating that they were with us, and they were standing with Indigenous peoples, oppressed peoples. So now, it’s our turn to stand with them, and we need to lift them up.
Group:
[inaudible 00:22:53].
Speaker 1:
Palestine will be free.
Group:
Palestine will be free.
Speaker 1:
Palestine will be free.
Group:
Palestine will be free.
Speaker 1:
Biden, Biden you will see …
Group:
Biden, Biden, you will see …
Speaker 1:
Palestine will be free.
Group:
Palestine will be free.
Adam Abosherieah:
Hello, everybody. My name is Adam. I’m a pharmacist, I’m an American, and a Palestinian from Gaza. I never thought my family would live through an experience of a genocide, until November 22nd, when over 100 family members has died, actually, by Israel.
Israel took my life, my soul, by killing my 83 years old father, mother, and a brother. My father was the salt of earth. Israel killed a man who loved life, loved peace, loved people, loved nature, and most of all, he loved his grandkids.
My five-year-old asked me one day, “Baba, who are all these 19 pictures you’re looking at?” And I have to hold down my tears. They were 19 family members, picture of 19 family members that were slaughtered by Israel. Thank you, thank you.
My cousin Yasser was not just a cousin. He was more than a brother to me, and he was killed by Israeli bombing along the side of his wife, six kids and two grandchildrens.
The tale of each family member who was murdered is a testimony of ongoing genocide of my Palestinian people. My Palestinian people, whom I love, they were all killed in one day.
The most troubling aspect of Israel, mass killing of my Palestinian family, is when they bombed the first house and my family member and friends came, to assist in actually digging out the people who were killed, and the remains of those who still under the rubbles. Israel bombed them again and again, until they killed over 104 of my family members.
Dozens of my family member bodies are still under the rubbles. President Biden can easily put a stop to this genocide to the Palestinian people. He can easily pick up the phone, and call Israel to stop this madness, stop the genocide of the Palestinian people.
We call on the US government to end their participation, complicity of Israel, crime against humanity, and we demand a full, swift accountability to US, Israelis officials, who actually were involved in this Palestinian genocide. Thank you so much. Long Live Palestine.
Group:
[inaudible 00:26:56].
Dr. Alaa Hussein-Ali:
[Arabic 00:27:15]. Peace be upon you all. I’m praying for the peace for the whole entire world.
My name is Alaa Hussein-Ali. I’m a physician from Michigan, my roots and my childhood were in Gaza. I have lost over a hundred members of my family in this genocide, more than 60 children, half of them under the rubbles.
I’m going to share one of the stories that happened in November. My brother Mohamed and his pregnant wife, Ruba, and their three children, who are small angels, five, three, and one, Ruba family lived with them, in Al-Rimal area, in Gaza.
The bombing and the air strikes were all over around them. So they decided to evacuate to the south, with the promise from the Israeli government that it’ll be safe before they left. As you know, the Israeli government stopped the food, water, medicine, electricity, internet, phone calls. Everything was stopped.
The trip from the north to the south is the most dangerous trip that anybody can experience. My brother went out looking for water, for this dangerous trip, and the hours go by. He never came back. He was killed by an Israeli sniper. He was shot several times in his chest, and he was found five days later, in one of the hospitals in Gaza.
My sister-in-law, newly widowed, still mourning, decided to remain in her home. She said, “I’m not going to leave to the south anymore. Life doesn’t have any meanings.” Her family, her father was begging her to go with him to the south. She said no.
Her father took the rest of the family, 17 members, and they went in a big truck, to the south. But the Israeli government decided otherwise. They’re not going to let them reach the south.
Just before there, they air striked them, and the whole 17 were killed. They were in pieces. They were collected flesh by flesh, and limb by limb.
Ruba lost her entire family, lost my brother, her beloved husband, her family. She has been displaced, since then, seven times, from house to house.
Group:
[inaudible 00:30:52].
Dr. Alaa Hussein-Ali:
Displaced seven times, from house to house, from a tent to a tent, homeless, alone, with three children, pregnant, in her six month of pregnancy, and need of an emergency C-section at birth, and no hospitals there, no anesthesia. She will face the death at the time of labor.
I was planning to return to Gaza this winter with my family to see my brother Muhammad. I haven’t seen him for 20 years. And he was murdered, killed with a cold-blooded soldier.
Group:
[inaudible 00:31:44].
Dr. Alaa Hussein-Ali:
And the worst is, I paid for that bullet that killed my brother, with my money, taxes, dollar that I pay every year, by continuing to arm Israel, and failing to call for a ceasefire. President Biden has my family’s blood on his hands.
Group:
[inaudible 00:32:28].
Dr. Alaa Hussein-Ali:
We demand that Biden administration and Congress call for an immediate and permanent ceasefire. We demand that they stop sending weapon to Israel to kill our beloved one.
And we call on all of you to stand with us, and hold our government accountable, so our children can grow up, and our families can live. Thank you, and [Arabic 00:33:20].
Group:
[inaudible 00:33:20].
Speaker 11:
Hey, hey. Ho, ho. The occupation has got to go.
Group:
Hey, hey. Ho, ho. The occupation has got to go.
Speaker 11:
Hey, hey. Ho, ho. The occupation’s got to go.
Group:
Hey, hey. Ho, ho.
Maximillian Alvarez:
So, Faisal, thank you so much for talking with me as we stand here in Freedom Plaza in Washington, DC, at the March on Washington for Gaza.
I just wanted to ask if you could tell our listeners a little bit about yourself, what brought you here, and what we’re seeing right now?
Faisal Saleh:
Well, I come from a Palestinian family from a village near Jaffa, called Salama. My village was expelled in 1948. My parents, who had 10 children at the time, ended up in the West Bank as refugees.
I was born three years afterwards, in ’51, and I grew up in the West Bank. It was a very difficult life with my family, who lost everything they had, all their properties, but somehow, we managed all to grow and get educated.
I came to the US, to finish my last year of high school, and stayed on, and worked in business for many years. Then I was retired and I worked exclusively on the museum, which I founded five and a half years ago.
What you’re seeing here is a big demonstration, where people are coming out to let the administration, and the representatives in Congress, to wake up, wake up. The whole world is standing with the Palestinians in Gaza, and against the genocide. Meanwhile, our administration and our representatives, the majority of them are still unaware, or at least, they pretend they’re unaware that there’s a genocide going on.
According to the Genocide Convention, they can be complicit in that. And anybody that knows about a genocide, and does nothing about it, could become complicit, and can be prosecuted and tried for genocide.
Maximillian Alvarez:
And Faisal, given what you and your family have been through, and given how far back that pain goes, you are living proof, right, that the violence of Israeli occupation did not start on October 7th, right?
Faisal Saleh:
No.
Maximillian Alvarez:
So what does it mean to you, to be here in Washington, DC, seeing so many people finally taking this cause?
Faisal Saleh:
Well, it is heartwarming, because for years and years and years, we watched as nobody reacted, nobody raised a finger to help Gaza. But we’re seeing a significant change among the American people. The American people are finally realizing what’s going on, and we’re seeing a lot of support for Palestine, particularly in the young generation.
Unfortunately, the mainstream media has not done a good job explaining to people what’s going on. And they have been really cheerleaders for Israel.
The days of journalism in the US have gone. The days of Walter Cronkite, Dan Rather, Peter Jennings, the people that used to speak to power, and challenge their stories, and cross-examine them.
Now, the CNN reporters, they just nod their head up and down, when the Israelis are telling them a bunch of lies and things, that even a seven-year-old can tell, that’s false, and made up and contrived.
Maximillian Alvarez:
And I wanted to just ask, because I don’t want to keep you for too long, but as you mentioned, you are the director of the Palestine Museum.
Faisal Saleh:
Yeah.
Maximillian Alvarez:
I wanted to ask if you could just say a little more about that, and the importance of institutions like that, to educate people here in the United States, about the struggle for Palestinian liberation.
Faisal Saleh:
Yeah, I founded the museum five and a half years ago. At that time, there weren’t any Palestinian museums in the Western Hemisphere, period. At the same time, there were 77 museums in the US that support the Israeli narrative. So it was very important for us to fill that vacuum, and create an artistic presence for Palestine in the US.
And our mission is really to tell the Palestinian story through the arts. We feel that the arts is a more effective way to communicate with people. We believe that our job is really to humanize the Palestinians. Because, like I said, the media had dehumanized us, and marginalized us and ignored us, unless there was something bad to say about us.
That is changing, not because of the media, but because of the people, and what’s going on with the social media. People are bypassing the mainstream media. Young people are not watching TV, they’re not reading the New York Times. They’re watching Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook. That’s where all the feeds from Gaza come in, straight.
So, by bypassing the biased media, the Palestinians are able to tell a story through social media, and more importantly, through the arts. We have exhibits. We have exhibits at the Venice Biennale, in Italy, and we have an exhibits starting in London, and we do a lot of online programming every weekend. So our voices are being heard by a large number of people globally.
Maximillian Alvarez:
Hell, yeah. Well, solidarity with you in that fight, brother. As the editor-in-chief of the Real News Network, we very much see ourselves as part of that fight, to get the voices of Palestinians out there.
Faisal Saleh:
Right.
Maximillian Alvarez:
I just wanted to ask, by way of rounding out, for folks who are listening to this right now, who couldn’t be in Washington DC today, do you have any parting words for folks out there about why they should keep the fight up, and what the ultimate goal should be?
Faisal Saleh:
Well, I mean, you only have to be a human, to see what’s going on, and to see all these thousands of children being killed, and things destroyed. There is no question in anybody’s mind that this is a genocide, and let’s just call it what it is.
I know Biden and company and most of the people in Congress have been bought out, and they’re not able to say anything about it. And it’s a shame that that’s going on.
We like to see the people in Congress open their eyes, and wake up, wake up. It’s time for a wake up for them.
Group:
Free, free Palestine. Free, free Palestine.
[inaudible 00:40:16].
Randa Muhtaseb:
[Arabic 00:40:17], DC.
Group:
[inaudible 00:40:20]
Randa Muhtaseb:
May God’s peace and blessings be upon you all, and our people of Palestine, and especially, our families and loved ones in Gaza. My name is Randa Muhtaseb. I’m a new mother, and a physical therapist, living here in Maryland. I’m a proud Palestinian American from Gaza, the homeland of my mother.
You’re looking at a picture of our beloved cousin, Ahmed Skake, a dedicated husband and a loving father who is no longer with us. On October 10th, Israel ordered Ahmad’s family to evacuate their home. Ahmad and his pregnant wife, Lena, as quickly as humanly possible, gathered all their belongings, and their three- and five-year-old daughters, to flee to an area that was supposed to be a safe zone.
Israel bombed the building next to them, in the safe zone, where they had seeked refuge. Pregnant Lena instinctively threw her pregnant body over her young daughters, to try and protect them. Within minutes, Lena found herself in an ambulance with her daughters.
The only thing that consoled her, while hearing their cries, is that it meant that they were still alive. That being said, they were all heavily injured. Lena and her children were sent to Al-Shifa Hospital, screaming from pain, during an emergency C-section that was performed on Lena. She was without anesthesia.
Lena had discovered that her long-awaited, six-month-old fetus son, that Ahmed never got to see, was killed as the result of the injuries that she has sustained from the blast. In fact, doctors found shards and fragments from the explosions, piercing all the way down into her uterus.
Group:
[inaudible 00:42:41].
Randa Muhtaseb:
Meanwhile, Ahmad was nowhere in sight. 10 hours later, his body was found under the rubble. The Israeli air strike on the building, in the safe zone, murdered him.
But that’s not all. Ahmed was one of over 36, and counting. Since we have absolutely no way to connect with our families in the north, they were all buried under the rubble within that month. Those who survived from my family, and those that I continue to stay in communication with, as much as we can, also endure the daily torture.
Israeli soldiers abducted another one of my cousins and his family at gunpoint, stripped them down naked, and brutally tortured them, and humiliated them, as they fled south, to seek refuge from the violence in the north, while they were walking down the humanitarian passages. That being said, just before they were even able to flee and leave the north, his six-year-old son endured a gunshot wound, with a bullet that stayed in his forearm, that was raising a white flag.
They were following every single order to pass through safely, and yet, he had to walk with his mother after his father was abducted, a 10-hour walk on foot, a 6-year-old boy with a gunshot wound in his forearm, that carried the white flag, that they were asked to, to make sure that they stay safe. But it’s all lies on lies.
I am here today, and I’m very honored to be standing in front of a crowd of people with conscience, with people who are ready to speak truth to power. And I’m here to say, “No more.” No more of our tax paying dollars to bomb our homes, kill our families, torture and ethnically cleanse our people.
Group:
No more.
Randa Muhtaseb:
No more.
Group:
No more.
Randa Muhtaseb:
My message to President Biden and Congress, our collective message to President Biden and his administration, is to say, permanent ceasefire now.
Group:
Permanent ceasefire now. Ceasefire now, ceasefire now, ceasefire now, ceasefire now, ceasefire now, ceasefire now.
Randa Muhtaseb:
Ceasefire now. And no more. No more weapons, no more military funding to Israel. No more.
Group:
No more.
Randa Muhtaseb:
The people of Gaza are just like you and I. My message today for everybody who’s new to the Palestinians struggling, is to look every day in the mirror and say, “It could have been me. It could have been my family. These people are just like me. They deserve to live without humiliation, without the constant threat of bombardment, without the constant threat of a deliberate and intentional starvation on the grounds of Gaza. And finally, without the constant threat of their bodies being ripped apart, to pieces, on their last day on earth.”
Group:
Ceasefire now, ceasefire now, ceasefire now.
Randa Muhtaseb:
[Arabic 00:47:00]. Again, I would like to finalize with, may peace be upon you, may peace be with Palestine, and the people of Gaza, long live Palestine. [Arabic 00:47:13], DC.
Group:
[inaudible 00:47:17]
Willow Defreitas Kick:
My name is Willow, I’m 14. I’m from Alexandria, right outside of DC. I’m here, because the genocide that Israel’s committing, in Palestine and in Gaza right now, is just absolutely horrendous. And I think that whoever, everybody who is not standing for it, are absolutely terrible people.
I don’t even know the death toll right now, but it’s I believe, almost 30,000 in what, a hundred days? Something like that. And it’s just, God, I don’t even have the words to describe it.
Israel has killed more journalists than was killed in World War II. It’s just a attack against freedom and democracy and the world, really. And it’s just crazy.
I’m really glad to be here right now. I’m usually a lot more extreme than some of my family and friends are. And seeing just thousands and thousands of people surrounding me, and agreeing with my views, and I think it’s common sense, but apparently it’s not.
Maximillian Alvarez:
Well, and it wasn’t, when I was your age, right?
Willow Defreitas Kick:
Yeah.
Maximillian Alvarez:
Because when I was 14, 9/11 had just happened, and I was also in high school, but I was a bigger dumb ass than you are. I wasn’t marching anywhere. I was buying what the media was telling me. So I just wanted to ask, among your friends, and in your school, is this an issue that matters to a lot of people?
Willow Defreitas Kick:
It definitely is. I’ve always been very, very politically conscious. I mean, I went to my first protest when I was in a stroller. I grew up-
Maximillian Alvarez:
We got Mom over here, who’s nodding and agreeing.
Willow Defreitas Kick:
I grew up going to protest all the time. At my school, it’s definitely very liberal. But what I’ve seen is that there are still a lot of people who support Israel, and just try to ignore however many children they’ve killed.
There have definitely been a lot of disagreements over it. And I do try to keep a straight face, but it’s hard because there’s just so many people who don’t understand the atrocities Israel’s committing right now, and it’s crazy.
Maximillian Alvarez:
Well, and in terms of understanding those atrocities, I mean, can I ask where you and other people your age, who know what’s going on, where are y’all finding out about that? I imagine you’re not watching CNN, or reading the New York Times every day.
So is it on social media? I guess, how is the information about the genocidal violence happening in Gaza right now, reaching you and your friends?
Willow Defreitas Kick:
Yeah, for sure. Unlike other people in my age group, I do read the New York Times, and the crappy Washington Post.
Maximillian Alvarez:
All right, present company excluded.
Willow Defreitas Kick:
I remember when I found out that Israel had declared war on Gaza, on Palestine. Whoop, there’s a child right across from me, crying. I was in school. I had just entered my first, second period, and I just saw this, and it was like, “Oh, my God.”
But a lot of the people in my age group didn’t really find out until after school, when they were looking at TikTok or Twitter, sorry, X, few hours later. I do try to get most of my information from more reliable sources, and people who are actually on the ground in Gaza.
I know that a lot of people in my age group and older just get it off of social media, and that’s fine. I totally understand that it’s the most accessible source of information, for a lot of teenagers. If I do see something on the internet, I just try to fact check it, and make sure these people are not lying.
Maximillian Alvarez:
Good practice, good rule for all of us. And as someone, a journalist in the media, I wholeheartedly endorse this practice and I know I got to let you go, and I really appreciate you standing here in the cold talking to me.
I just wanted to ask for folks who couldn’t be here in DC today, especially younger folks out there, do you have any kind of final words about what you’ve seen here today, or why you would want folks in your age group to get more involved in this fight?
Willow Defreitas Kick:
Yeah, for sure. I mean, with boycotting, that’s been a very, very big thing that a lot of young people are doing. You can just see the change that it’s bringing.
I mean, Starbucks, one of the biggest boycotting targets, is putting out deals every single day, and saying that they’re almost going out of business. And that is because of the change that we have brought by boycotting Starbucks.
A lot of young people think that protesting and boycotting isn’t going to do anything, but just being surrounded by 10,000 people, I don’t even know how many people are here, the energy that is around here is so amazing. And it’s all these people who are here, for one common goal, to free Palestine.
Speaker 15:
From the river, to the sea …
Group:
From the river, to the sea ….
Speaker 15:
Palestine will be free.
Group:
Palestine will be free.
Abed Ajrami:
This is beautiful. [Arabic 00:52:44]. God bless you all.
Speaker 17:
Thank you.
Abed Ajrami:
Greetings of peace upon you all. My name is Abed Ajrami, a Gazan Palestinian American, residing in Texas, with a wonderful family, wife, and three children. I also have a large family in Gaza that has shrunk in size in the last three months. One of my wonderful family members in Gaza is my nephew Ahmed.Ahmed is six foot tall, is athlete who excels in sand volleyball, and soccer.
Ahmed has a special relationship with Gaza Beach. He’s in love with the sand, with the waves, and with the sea breeze. Often, he took his wife Fida, his three kids, and his 70 years old mother Halima, my sister, to the beach.
There, he would teach his children how to play soccer, how to swim, while his wife Fida, and his mother, Halima, sipped freshly made mint tea. Ahmed is now laying in a hospital bed, paralyzed.
Group:
[inaudible 00:54:18].
Abed Ajrami:
He’s paralyzed from the waist down, due to the Israeli indiscriminate bombing. The same bombing killed Halima, his mother, his wife Fida, and his three children, ages 13, five years old, and 11 months old. You heard that, right? 11 months old.
To add insult to the injury, Ahmed couldn’t get the necessary medical care for the wound of his abdomen, or for his broken spine, nor for the emotional trauma of paralysis, and the loss of his family. The Shifa Hospital, where he was awaiting surgery, was attacked and invaded by the Israeli troops, forcing him to hastily be transported to a hospital in Rafah, where he remains now.
The Rafah Hospital lacks medications and supplies, and listen to this. His screams of pain were heard throughout the hospital corridors, when the surgeon cleaned his wounds, and stitched those abdominal wounds without anesthesia.
Ahmed knows he can never walk again. He knows he will never feel the softness of beach sand under his feet again. Nor the warm hugs of his mother and wife, nor hear the giggles of his three children, all of them were buried without saying a final goodbye.
He told me on the phone, he’s dying to be carried or wheeled to his favorite spot on Gaza Beach. What he wanted is to be left alone there, that he would close his eyes, and just imagine his kids running around. Imagine his wife and mom sipping freshly minted tea, while chatting. Feel the sea breeze, and hear the sound of waves.
I promised Ahmad, I will be his voice, and I will share his story with y’all. This is Ahmad.
So I tell you, Ahmad, I will send you this video. I will send it to his hospital bed. And as I promised, I am sharing his story with everybody here.
I also promised him that some day, I will take him to his favorite spot on Gaza Beach, with both of us, will close our eyes, feel the sea breeze, listen to the waves, and imagine, imagine that the dead are alive, and peace has prevailed, and Palestine is free.
Until then, I ask you in the name and the names of the 60,000 Ahmeds that were injured in Gaza, I ask the world, in the names of the 30,000 Halimas and Wafas that were killed in Gaza, to please stop this madness, stop this genocide.
The time to call for a ceasefire is yesterday. And we are here today, and we demand an immediate and permanent ceasefire.
Ceasefire now. Ceasefire now. Ceasefire now. Ceasefire now.
And for God’s sake, free, free Palestine. Free, free Palestine.
Group:
Free, free, free Palestine. Free, free Palestine. Free, free, free Palestine. Free, free, free Palestine.
This post was originally published on The Real News Network.