Over the past two weeks, tens of millions of people around the world have participated in mass demonstrations, protests and marches against the US and NATO-backed Israeli genocide against the Palestinian people in Gaza.
The international and mass character of the protests is a reflection of the broad sympathy workers and youth around the world have for the Palestinian people.
Millions of workers and youth of all religions and ethnicities are horrified by and outraged at the terror-bombing campaign being conducted by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF). The IDF’s campaign, with the support of the Biden administration and all the imperialist powers, is in preparation for an expected ground invasion that will cost thousands of lives.
As of this writing, the Ministry of Health in Gaza has reported more than 4,100 people killed since October 7, including over 1,600 children. Nearly 13,000 people have been injured, including 3,983 children and 3,300 women.
While the mainstream press has largely ignored or tried to downplay the protests as only occurring in a few countries that have large Muslim populations, in reality they have taken place on every continent, except for Antarctica, in hundreds of cities nearly every day.
On Friday, as they have for over a week, thousands of protesters took to the streets in Seoul, South Korea where they chanted in Korean and English to “Free, free Palestine.”
In Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia over 1,000 people rallied in the capital demanding a stop to Israel’s war crimes. Protesters chanted, in English, “Free, Free, Palestine” and “Down, down, Israel” while marching towards the US embassy. Outside the embassy, protesters denounced Biden’s backing of the Netanyahu regime, without which the IDF would be incapable of carrying out their ethnic cleansing campaign.
Protests continued to take place in the United States, including among students. On Friday in Dearborn, Michigan, home of the largest Muslim population in the US per capita, hundreds of students walked out of class to protest the war.
Detroit Free Press reporter Niraj Warikoo reported that all three high schools in Dearborn had walk-outs this week in support of Palestine, with “hundreds” of students walking out at Dearborn and Edsed Ford High on Friday, and at Fordson High on Thursday. Crestwood High in Dearborn Heights also had walkout.
On Wednesday, an estimated 1,500 Bay Area students in California walked out of class in support of Palestinians.
Student-led walkouts occurred in San Francisco, Oakland, and the surrounding suburbs encompassing dozens of schools.
In New York City, thousands of people took to the streets Friday night chanting “Hey hey, ho ho, the occupation has got to go.” Many were carrying signs accusing President Joe Biden of carrying out a genocide of the Palestinian people.
Significantly on Friday, thousands of Egyptians, in the face of the El-Sisi dictatorship, took to Tahir Square in Cairo, Egypt where the denounced not only the Zionist government of Israel, but the former general turned-dictator’s attempt to corral the mass movement behind his administration.
Prior to the demonstrations, government-friendly media outlets had circulated information on public areas where protests, which are illegal, would be allowed. Tahir Square, the site of massive protests in 2011 that eventually toppled the dictatorship of Hosni Mubark, was not one of the “approved” protest sites.
“We’re not here to give a new mandate to anybody,” France 24 reported the crowd chanting. “It’s a genuine demonstration.”
In Jakarta, Indonesia, well over a thousand demonstrators marched from several different mosques to the militarized US embassy where they denounced US support for Israeli war crimes. AP reported that protests also occurred outside the United Nations mission, which is located a few miles from the embassy. Waving the red, green and black flag of Palestine, protesters chanted “Save Palestinians.”
Major protests also took place throughout the Middle East including in Doha, Qatar; Driaz, Bahrain; and Samaa, Yemen, where hundreds of thousands took to the streets.
In Ankara, Turkey, where the government has called for three days of mourning following the intentional bombing of the al-Ahli Arab Hospital by the IDF, thousands of protesters flooded the streets demanding a stop to the genocide. On Thursday, Israel withdrew its diplomats from Turkey over security concerns.
Outside the US embassy in Tunis, Tunisia on Friday, thousands of Tunisians refuted the US and Israel’s lies justifying the slaughter. Protesters held signs pointing to US lies that justified invasions of Iraq, Afghanistan, Syria and Libya while pointing out that “None of us is free until Palestine is.”
Since the IDF assault on Gaza, Al-Jazeera has documented protests in support of Palestinians taking place in Adelaide, Australia; Algiers, Algeria; Amman, Jordan; Athens, Greece; Auckland, New Zealand; Baghdad, Iraq; Barcelona, Spain; Beirut, Lebanon; Berlin, Germany; Brasilia, Brazil; Calgary, Canada; Cape Town, South Africa; Damascus, Syria; Dublin, Ireland; Geneva, Switzerland; Glasgow, Scotland; Islamabad, Pakistan; Kargil, India; Mumbai, India; London, England; Manama, Bahrain; Mexico City, Mexico; Paris, France; Rome, Italy; Tehran, Iran; The Hauge; and in Tokyo, Japan, among dozens of other cities.
Dozens of protests are scheduled to be held throughout North America, Europe, Asia, Africa and the Middle East over the weekend.
(Courtesy: World Socialist Web Site, the online publication of the International Committee of the Fourth International.)
