Dallas- Over the past two days, demonstrations have spread throughout America commemorating what those organizing these demonstrations called “a year of genocide and a year of resistance,” on the occasion of the first anniversary of “Al-Aqsa floodAnd the Israeli aggression against Gaza Strip Besieged.
In Dallas, one of the largest cities in the state of Texas, a massive demonstration was launched that moved through the streets of the city center in the presence of diverse segments that included Arabs, Muslims, Mexicans, black Americans, white Americans, a number of indigenous people, and others.
In one of the keynote speeches during the demonstration, Dr. Omar Suleiman, one of the well-known Muslim preachers in America, said that there was something strange inherent in commemorating the anniversary.
In America and Canada, for example, Suleiman says that they have no problem commemorating the indigenous people and the genocide that happened to them and placing statues as a memorial to what happened, as long as the occupation of the land continues, and as long as this memory is in the past, and recalling it does not affect the current reality.
Demonstration messages
Sheikh Suleiman added that he prefers to commemorate the liberation, not the memory of the tragedies, and that this memory be commemorated at the Wael Al-Dahdouh School of Journalism and the Hind Rajab School of Humanity. He continued that liberation requires intense efforts from everyone, and that activists not be influenced by what he called the “Zionist propaganda machine” that is trying to “distort our right” to defend the Palestinian cause.
In turn, she said Thanks Jill The presidential candidate in the upcoming elections, and the Jewish doctor who rejected the Israeli war on Gaza from day one. She is proud of the ongoing demonstrations in support of Palestinian rights, which were not affected by the counter-propaganda from supporters of genocide, as she described them.
In her speech, Stein pointed out the importance of this presence being reflected in the upcoming elections, so that both parties know Democrat andRepublican It is not necessary or inevitable to vote for two parties, each of which supports the Israeli war on Gaza, and that this is one of the important means of delivering clear and unambiguous political messages that will bear fruit in the future.
For his part, Dr. Hatem Bazian, a professor at the University of Berkeley in California, said, “We must all remember that this land (America) is not ours, and it is not theirs (supporters of Israel), but rather it is for the indigenous people who were exterminated by the American colonial machine.”
Bazian, an American of Palestinian origins, added that the Palestinians are the people best able to understand what the indigenous people went through. He explained in his speech that the Palestinians and every free person who supports the Palestinian cause must continue the struggle, because this cause – in his opinion – will not liberate Palestine alone, but will liberate the entire world.
The context of the demonstrations
These demonstrations come in a more complex context in American geography specifically, for several reasons: The first is that the demonstrators see that the American administration is a partner in the Israeli war on Gaza, and that this war is being conducted with tax money paid by the Americans, according to Dr. Bazian.
The second relates to the approaching presidential elections at the beginning of next November, with the intense debates and polarizations that accompany them, in which war was an essential component, in light of calls from Muslims and Arabs – the latest of which is a statement by the “American Muslims for Palestine” organization and a statement by more than 30 American Muslim preachers – not to vote. For a candidate who supported the Israeli war on Gaza, and to vote for others who do not support it.
The third of these reasons is that this anniversary coincides with another war launched by the Israeli army against Lebanon, coinciding with the continuation of the war in Gaza.
Constant pressure
Students were clearly present in the demonstrations in American states and cities. Students attended the University of Texas at Dallas, which witnessed a sit-in in the university's corridors last semester before the police forcibly dispersed it.
Ahmed Abu Ras, a lawyer and head of the American Muslim Foundation for Palestine in Texas, says that the genocide nullified what the Zionist movement in America tried to achieve.
Abu Ras added to Al Jazeera Net, “They spent hundreds of millions of dollars to create an anti-Palestinian narrative in the United States. These arguments were constantly used in the media to justify the ongoing genocide.”
He explained, “The American public has woken up to the fact that their government and their representatives are serving a foreign country. The Israeli lobby does not care about Americans, many of whom have begun to change their positions and their view of the Israeli lobby and its destructive role in America.”
The lawyer continued by saying, “The Zionists have isolated themselves from the global arena, and it is only a matter of time before their system and colonial project collapse completely.”
In turn, Haneen Ibrahim, a student at the University of Texas at Dallas, and a member of the Student Movement for the Liberation of Palestine, said, “Today marks one year since the war of genocide, and Arabs and Muslims living in America have an important and essential role to play, especially since they live in the country that most supports Israel in its war.”
Hanin asserts that what is happening in Palestine is not new, but this war has opened the doors for Americans to know the truth about what has been going on since 1948, and that Muslims and Arabs have an important role in educating people and making them aware in order to bring about real change in the American social and political scene.
She also says, “This awareness had an impact on what we witnessed in various parts of American universities, to make them stand with the Palestinian right, and we still have a major task ahead of us as students to pressure American universities in order to withdraw the investments of these universities from the occupied Palestinian territories.”
The audience insists that continued protest and pressure on universities and institutions that support the Israeli occupation army is the least that can be done in an attempt to stop the war on Gaza.
The momentum and impact of these protests will increase in light of the upcoming elections, as the Democratic candidate’s campaign seeks to… Kamala Harris To heal the rift with Muslims and Arabs in light of the close results of opinion polls between them and the Republican Donald Trump In the next elections.
With the ability of these votes to change the results in a number of swing states such as Michigan, Wisconsin, Georgia, Pennsylvania, Minnesota, Arizona, and Florida, the importance of Arab and Muslim votes increases.