WASHINGTON, Jan 14 : Tens and thousands of demonstrators rallied and marched in Washington, D.C., on Saturday to demand an end to Israel\u2019s deadly military campaign in Gaza, marking almost 100 days since the start of the Israel-Palestinians war that is killing 250 Palestinians per day. The march, one of the biggest in this capital city, was led by a coalition of pro-Palestinian groups who are calling for a permanent cease-fire in Gaza, an end to US funding for the Israeli military, and for Israel to be held accountable for war crimes and violations of international law.<\/p>\n
At a rally on Freedom Plaza, speakers shared stories of victims in Gaza, and marchers walked several blocks before arriving in front of the White House. Protesters carried signs listing the names of Palestinians killed and accusing President Joe Biden of participating in a \u2018genocide\u2019. Israel\u2019s siege of Gaza has killed more than 23,800 Palestinians, according to Gaza\u2019s health ministry, since it declared war on October 7. One of the organizing groups in Washington, the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), said that they had sent a letter to the White House calling on the president to secure a \u201ccomplete and verifiable ceasefire,\u201d the release of all hostages in Gaza and political prisoners in Israel, and the termination of unconditional US financial and diplomatic support for the Israeli government. The letter also called for Israeli officials to be \u201cheld accountable for the Gaza genocide\u201d and the initiation of credible negotiations for a just and enduring peace by ending the Israeli occupation of Palestine. The rally in Washington is the second in the US capital since the current Israeli offensive began on October 7. The Gaza Health Ministry has estimated that at least 23,708 Palestinians have been killed, mostly women and children, and 60,000 wounded in the Israeli action, the vast majority civilians. Earlier this week, South Africa accused Israel of genocide in a case brought to the International Court of Justice, charging that Israel\u2019s far-right government was \u201cintent on destroying the Palestinians in Gaza\u201d and creating conditions \u201ccalculated to bring about their physical destruction\u201d. Among those addressing the crowd in Washington, by video link, was Al Jazeera journalist Wael al-Dahdouh, whose wife, daughter, two sons, and a grandchild were killed by Israeli airstrikes. Also speaking were long-shot US presidential candidates Cornel West and Jill Stein, as well as the daughter of Malcom X, Ilyasah Shabazz. Al-Dahdouh spoke about the dire conditions Palestinians in Gaza are struggling to exist in while under Israeli bombardment. \u201cThe people are paying an exorbitant price and are living a disastrous life,\u201d he told the crowds in Washington. \u201cPeople do not have sustenance, food or drink, a place to sleep, a bathroom, or what is necessary for a life\u2014not for a decent life, but rather what is basically necessary to maintain life.\u201d Al-Dahdouh himself was injured in an Israeli airstrike that also killed his camera operator, Samer Abu Daqqa. \u201cThe whole world must look at what is happening here in the Gaza Strip,\u201d he told Al Jazeera last week. \u201cWhat is happening is a great injustice to defenceless people, civilian people.\u201d Mohamad Habehh, a director of development for American Muslims for Palestine and lead organizer of Saturday\u2019s event, told the Washington Post that organizers had picked this weekend to honour the upcoming Martin Luther King Jr. federal holiday in the US and to mark 100 days of war by Israel in Gaza. \u201cWe\u2019re past three months of constant killing,\u201d Habehh said. \u201cWe feel that it is important for us to come on this holiday weekend in the spirit of MLK (Martin Luther King Martin Jr.). \u2018Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere\u2019, that we stand up against the injustice that\u2019s going on in Gaza right now, and stand up against the atrocities that are being supported and promoted by our government.\u201d Speaking at the rally, Taher Herzallah, the director of outreach for American Muslims for Palestine, said the conflict in Gaza had given the people of the global south the clarity to \u201crise together in unison\u201d. In New York, the United Nations said it was working flat out to meet the dire needs of hundreds of thousands of displaced civilians \u201cthrough one door\u201d at the Rafah crossing, a restriction imposed by Israel that has to change, said the UN newly-appointed Resident Coordinator on Saturday. At least 200 truckloads each day are needed, and despite the \u201coutstanding\u201d efforts of national and international partners, UN humanitarians are stuck having to bring all supplies through a single choke point on Gaza\u2019s southern frontier with Egypt, built as a pedestrian crossing, said Jamie McGoldrick.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
WASHINGTON, Jan 14 : Tens and thousands of demonstrators rallied and marched in Washington, D.C., on Saturday to demand an end to Israel\u2019s deadly military campaign in Gaza, marking almost 100 days since the start of the Israel-Palestinians war that is killing 250 Palestinians per day. The march, one of the biggest in this capital …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":59807,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-59801","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59801","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=59801"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59801\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":59810,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59801\/revisions\/59810"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/59807"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=59801"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=59801"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=59801"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}