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This increased security underscores the outrage of millions of U.S. citizens that he has been invited to speak at the U.S. Congress as he conducts a genocide in Gaza.
Unbelievably, the U.S. Congress invited the war criminal Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to address a joint session of Congress on July 24, thereby solidifying the complicity of the Executive and Legislative branches of the U.S. government in the genocide of Gaza.
An open gate of fence is pictured that will be closed for Netanyahu's trip to the U.S. Capitol. (Photo: Ann Wright)
Incredibly, the security arrangements for one person, Benjamin Netanyahu, surpass those implemented for 32 heads of state during the recent NATO anniversary in Washington, D.C.
While the NATO meetings involved high fences around the Washington Convention Center, the security for Netanyahu's visit includes fencing off the entire U.S. Capitol complex, placing barricades in front of the House of Representatives and Senate buildings, and around the Watergate complex where he stayed.
All states have the obligation not to recognize as legal Israel’s presence in the OPT and not to render aid or assistance in maintaining the situation created by the continued presence of Israel in the OPT.
Additionally, the Capitol buildings will be closed to the public all day on July 24, an occurrence even rarer than the security measures taken for the annual Presidential State of the Union address to a Joint Session of Congress.
This increased security underscores the outrage of millions of U.S. citizens that he has been invited to speak at the U.S. Congress. But, the outrage has not turned violent, unlike the January 6 riot on the Capitol by supporters of former U.S. President Donald Trump.
The prosecutor for the International Criminal Court has requested an arrest warrant for Netanyahu for his role in the genocide of Palestinians in Gaza. Over 39,000 Palestinians have been killed since October 7, 2023 with tens of thousands still buried under the rubble of their homes.
The recent Lancet report estimates that over 186,000 have been killed by Israeli military action in the past nine months.
Virtually all medical clinics and hospitals, schools, universities, and residential buildings have been destroyed by the brutal Israeli attacks on Gaza. Even the United Nations headquarters building in Gaza has been targeted and destroyed by Israeli forces using U.S. aircraft and weapons. The UNRWA schools and clinics have been destroyed in the Israeli plan to leave Gaza uninhabitable to force Palestinians to leave Gaza so that Israeli settlers can take over. In the past two days, at least 89 Palestinians have been killed in Khan Younis.
Adding further to the crimes of Netanyahu and the Israeli government, on July 19, 2024, the most recent pronouncement of the International Court of Justice, "Legal Consequences Arising from the Policies and Practices of Israel in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, Including East Jerusalem," held that:
We are most powerful when we dismantle the systems designed to isolate, disconnect, and distract us from uniting against the genocide in Gaza.
Being in Washington, D.C., the heart of the beast, meant that establishing and maintaining our encampment was a formidable task. Situated just a 15-minute walk from the State Department and the White House, we were perpetually under surveillance. Yet, it was precisely for this reason that we needed to be there—to confront the institutions that uphold the empire. No bomb falls in Gaza without the State Department's consent; no child is maimed by airstrikes without the White House's approval. Just around the corner, the architects of genocide convened to plan further carnage against my people in Gaza.
The camaraderie forged at the encampment was unforgettable. Time seemed to stretch and warp—two weeks felt like months, even years. In our modern world, uniting in large numbers for a powerful cause such as Palestinian liberation is rare. At the George Washington University encampment, friendships and solidarity blossomed quickly. Everyone understood that daily routines were distractions from what truly mattered: standing up for Gaza, for Palestine, against the relentless and systematic violence of a depraved Zionist state intent on massacring an innocent population, punishing them for their mere existence.
I am from Gaza. Dozens of my relatives have been murdered by the Israeli regime. I could never have imagined the scenes we experienced at Shohada' Square (Martyr's Square), our name for the "University Yard" where our encampment stood.
Gaza, and by extension our encampment, taught us that true liberation is achieved by consistently prioritizing the group's welfare over individual gain.
After enduring the struggle for a free Palestine alone for most of my life, the encampment finally gave me a family of individuals who understood that Gaza's plight is an existential issue that we must all attend to. For the first time in almost a decade of living in North America, I felt at home. We did not have to feign a sense of normalcy, nor did we shy away from challenging the state responsible for the most live-streamed genocide in human history. So the tents were put up, adorned with Palestinian flags and banners. Every day, the air was thick with the scent of shared meals and the hum of voices engaged in discussion. The encampment was not just a group of individuals; it represented a collective force bound by a shared struggle and an unbreakable commitment to Palestinian liberation.
For this, university president Ellen Granberg and Mayor Muriel Bowser of D.C. ordered the local police department to raid our encampment, to brutalize and vigorously pepper spray the students and supportive community. All because they dared to be unwavering in their demand for the liberation of Palestine.
The support from our local D.C. and extended DMV (DC, Maryland, and Virginia area) community, especially in the early days of the encampment, revealed the unbreakable interconnectedness of our fight. This principle must guide every action and decision, especially in moments of opportunity and peril. Our time at the encampment revealed a profound truth: We are most powerful when we dismantle the systems designed to isolate, disconnect, and distract us from uniting against the genocide in Gaza. During our two weeks together, we forged bonds that transcended the constraints of a system fixated on capital over humanity. We discovered a deeper, radical connection that challenges these structures.
Contrary to the "outside agitator" narrative propagated by mainstream media, the encampment unveiled the geographic and psychological divisions meant to keep us apart. These divisions prevent us from fully embracing and fighting for each other's freedom and true liberation. The encampment stands for Gaza, for Palestine, and for the liberation of Palestinians from settler-colonial hegemony. It is the heart of our struggle. It symbolizes a broader fight for collective liberation and the realization that a better future is attainable for everyone. Each day at the encampment was dedicated to thought, learning, exchanging ideas, and sustaining one another.
This movement was never confined to students alone. At George Washington University, our supportive D.C. and extended DMV community had the opportunity to bolster our cause for Palestinian liberation. Whether or not everyone fully grasped this cause as part of our larger struggle, they profoundly understood it when they united to bring it to life. The encampment taught us the imperative of challenging the systems facilitating the ongoing genocide against Palestinians in Gaza.
As committed citizens and active participants in the fight for collective liberation, we must balance the line between reasonable risk and self-preservation. Prioritizing individual safety and comfort over collective sacrifice is the path most tread because it is what we are taught. This mindset allowed the university to call in a brutal Metropolitan Police force to terrorize, beat, and pepper spray students and community members. President Granbeg, the complicit university administration, and Mayor Bowser demonstrated their priority of maintaining genocidal policies over divesting from them.
Simply put, the encampment showed that our strength as a collective lies in our numbers, and our power is magnified when we act in unison. We must continually reflect on and challenge how often we prioritize personal comfort over the collective good. This is how we honor the sacrifices made by my people and family in Gaza. Gaza, and by extension our encampment, taught us that true liberation is achieved by consistently prioritizing the group's welfare over individual gain.
Within the encampment, people understood that they are united in this struggle. As a Palestinian from Gaza, I have come to understand the rationale behind prioritizing sacrifice for Palestine. This is not a symbolic point or an abstract act of courage but a settled understanding developed over the last nine months that my life is no more valuable than any life lost or enduring in Gaza. As a Palestinian in the diaspora, the student encampments represented the forefront of our opposition to imperialism and colonialism in the U.S., embodying the spirit of our fight. We must look past a rudimentary view of our student movement as a focal point but rather understand what the students did was intertwined with the local community that understood the importance of opposing imperialism from within its place of origin.
Our struggle is one, our liberation is intertwined, and with our combined fights and sacrifices we will soon see a free Palestine, inshAllah.
Organizers held rallies in the U.S., Europe, and Asia to mark Nakba Day and condemn Israel's bombing and starvation of Palestinian civilians.
As one United Nations official on Saturday said that "brand new words" are needed to adequately describe the devastation Israel has wrought across Gaza in its U.S.-backed military assault, tens of thousands of people across the globe marched in solidarity with Palestinians to demand an end to the "ongoing Nakba."
The marches were held to honor Nakba Day, which was marked on May 15—the 76th anniversary of the mass displacement of 700,000 Palestinians who were forced from their homes when Israel declared statehood in 1948. The protesters demanded a cease-fire in Gaza, where Israeli forces have killed at least 35,456 people since October, the majority of them women and children.
Protesters in London carried signs reading, "Solidarity is a verb," and "The Nakba never ended" as they marched through Whitehall, close to the home and office of Prime Minister Rishi Sunak.
Palestinian photojournalist Motaz Azaiza, who covered the first months of Israel's bombardment and evacuated Gaza in January, joined the marchers and told the crowd that mass protests around the world have given Palestinians hope.
"I didn't believe that I would stay alive to stand here in London today in front of the people, who saw me there under the bombing," said Azaiza. "Occupation is using all the weapons against us, the bombs, the killing, the starvation, the apartheid in the West Bank, and now killing the people and forcing them to leave their lands... I did my best to show you, and I believe you will do more, we all together will do more to stop this genocide."
In Dublin, Ireland, where politicians have harshly criticized Israel and its supporters for the assault on Gaza and the near-total blockade on humanitarian aid that has pushed parts of the enclave into famine, more than 100 civil society groups supported a march organized by the Ireland-Palestine Solidarity Campaign.
Irish Palestinian Zak Hania, a researcher and translator who was trapped in Gaza until earlier this month when he was finally granted permission by Egyptian and Israeli authorities to leave, thanked the crowd for choosing "to stand with justice and to stand with an oppressed people."
"I am proud to be an Irish Palestinian," said Hania. "I am proud to see all of you. It is part of my healing... We inherited a dream from our parents. We are trying for all our lives to fulfill our dreams and our parents' dreams. My parents are dead, but I will work to fulfill their dreams. Their dream is to have a free Palestine."
Other protests included a rally outside the German embassy in Bangkok, a march of about 400 people in Washington, D.C., and a demonstration in Brooklyn where police violently arrested at least 34 people, according to The New York Times.
Nerdeen Kiswani, founder of pro-Palestinian group Within Our Lifetime, told the Times she witnessed "police indiscriminately grabbing people off the street and the sidewalk. They were grabbing people at random."
Independent journalists posted videos on social media of police officers punching and kicking protesters.
The latest show of global outrage toward the Israeli government and the Western leaders who have supported its assault on Gaza came as U.N. humanitarian aid officer Yasmina Guerda told U.N. News about her latest deployment to Rafah, where 900,000 people have now been forced to flee following Israel's incursion in the city.
"We would need to invent brand new words to adequately describe the situation that Palestinians in Gaza find themselves in today," said Guerda. "No matter where you look, no matter where you go, there's destruction, there's devastation, there's loss. There's a lack of everything. There's pain. There's just incredible suffering. People are living on top of the rubble and the waste that used to be their lives. They're hungry. Everything has become absolutely unaffordable. I heard the other day that some eggs were being sold for $3 each, which is unthinkable for someone who has no salary and has lost all access to their bank accounts."
"Access to clean water is a daily battle," she added. "Many people haven't been able to change clothes in seven months because they just had to flee with whatever they were wearing. They were given 10 minutes notice and they had to run away. Many have been displaced six, seven, eight times, or more."
The daily reality described by Guerda is continuing to unfold as the Israeli forces have prevented 3,000 aid trucks from entering Gaza in the past two weeks, according to the Government Media Office in the enclave. The closure of the Rafah and Karem Abu Salem crossings for the past 13 days, since Israel launched its new offensive in Rafah, has also prevented nearly 700 injured and sick people from leaving Gaza for treatment.
"This constitutes a clear danger in light of the collapse of the health system," said the office.
On Sunday, U.N. humanitarian chief Martin Griffiths warned that the blockade on aid is leading to "apocalyptic" consequences, with the famine that has taken hold in parts of northern Gaza close to spreading across the enclave.
"If fuel runs out, aid doesn't get to the people where they need it, that famine, which we have talked about for so long, and which is looming, will not be looming any more," said Griffiths. "It will be present."