RESISTANCE TO COLONIZATION IS JUSTIFIED!
For Palestinians, Al-Aqsa is more than a place of worship. The most holy Muslim site in Jerusalem is a symbol of resistance and freedom. Built in the 7th to 8th century, Al-Aqsa is a core part of Palestine's long history, rich culture & national identity, although not all Palestinians are Muslim. Al-Aqsa is loved and revered by Palestinians, and as the third holiest structure of the Islamic Faith, it is revered by Muslims all over the world.
On April 4th, Palestinian worshipers while praying during a holy day of Ramadan at Al-Aqsa were raided by Israeli police forces who fired flash grenades and tear gas into the mosque and then began shooting innocent people with rubber bullets and savagely beating them with metal batons, arresting at least 350 Palestinian worshipers. Several dozen people were badly injured. Later, on Wednesday April 5th there was a second attack.
On Friday, April 7th, Benjamin Netanyahu, Israel's fascist dictator announced the commencement of his military operation codenamed “Strong Hand”, then launched multiple air strikes, dropping bombs on Gaza & the West Bank in Palestine, Syria & Lebanon., focusing on suppressing Palestinian resistance to Israel’s terrorist attacks on Palestinian civilians and children. In recent weeks Netanyahu’s issued calls to sacrifice a goat at Al Aqsa Mosque. In response to the Israeli threats of an animal sacrifice and desecration of Al Aqsa, Palestinians have been holding nightly prayer vigils inside the mosque.
During the annual holy month of Ramadan Israeli occupation forces routinely raid Al Aqsa Mosque and violently evict the indigenous Palestinian people.
In response to the inhumane & racist attacks, protests have occurred throughout the weekend all over the world, including here in Boston, Massachusetts on April 9, Easter Sunday, which is also the 75th anniversary of the Deir Yassin Massacre of 1948 during Nakba. In 1948 more than 700,000 Palestinians, about half of Palestine's Arab population, were expelled from their homes and land and forced into exile in refugee camps in Lebanon, Jordan and other Arab nations.
The attacks on Al-Aqsa Mosque are an attack on the Palestinian, Arab and Muslim identity of the holy site as well as an attack on the identity of Jerusalem. Palestinians in Jerusalem are subjected to ongoing campaigns of ethnic cleansing, forced displacement, mass arrests and attempts to strip them of their residency in their own home city. Jerusalem has been illegally annexed by the settler colonial project, the same future it envisions for the entire West Bank of occupied Palestine.
The Boston protest, organized by multiple Massachusetts university chapters of Students for Justice in Palestine and Palestinian Youth Movement, is part of a global movement to defend Al-Aqsa. 100s of people gathered in front of Trinity Church in Boston's Copley Square to stand in solidarity with Palestinians and in support of the ongoing resistance against colonization, occupation and genocide, by any means necessary!
For 75 years the Palestinian people have been suffering living in an oppressive apartheid state! We can not allow this inhumane system to continue! Palestine must be free.
Lea Kayali, a Harvard Law School student and organizer with the Palestinian Youth Movement whose own grandparents were forced out of their homeland during the Nakba of 1948 , on the steps of Trinity Church in front of a large banner that says "Free Palestine" urged the crowd to “shake the conscience of our society" by getting involved in the global resistance to free Palestine.
“Here in America, most of us don’t carry the burden of living under colonialism,” Kayali said in her speech. “Most of us don’t have the burden of choosing how to resist, or how to live, or how to grieve. ... For those of us who don’t live with that daily struggle, whether you’re Palestinian or not, we have a responsibility to remain steadfast in solidarity.”
Demands include end the siege on Al-Aqsa mosque and all of Palestine immediately, release all Palestinians detained & imprisoned by the Zionist occupation forces, and end US complicity in funding and arming Zionist occupation, apartheid and colonization of Palestine.
Massachusetts chapters of SJP organizing the event include Harvard Law School Justice for Palestine, Boston University Students For Justice in Palestine, Harvard Palestine Solidarity Committee, MIT Coalition Against Apartheid, UMass Boston Students For Justice In Palestine, Tufts University of Students For Justice In Palestine, and others.
In solidarity were several members of Jewish Voice for Peace, Boston , Alliance for Water Justice in Palestine, Answer Coalition, International Action Center Boston, Boston May Day Coalition, the Community Church of Boston & others.
The struggle is not over. We will continue to push back against ALL Zionist aggression on Palestine until return and liberation!
It is critical for people around the world to come together to defend Al-Aqsa, to defend Jerusalem, and to defend Palestine from the river to the sea from the brutal and inhumane colonialist onslaught.
Palestinian Dabke Dance. Copley Sq. Boston, Massachusetts
JOIN THE RESISTANCE!
Are you a Palestinian or Arab youth between the age of 18 and 35? Join the Palestinian Youth Movement.
"The Palestinian Youth Movement (“PYM”) is a transnational, independent, grassroots movement of young Palestinians in Palestine and in exile worldwide as a result of the ongoing Zionist colonization and occupation of our homeland."
Are you a college or university student? Join your institutions Students for Justice in Palestine.
Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) is a pro-Palestinian college student activism organization in the United States, Canada and New Zealand. It has campaigned for boycott and divestment against corporations that deal with Israel and organized events about Israel's human rights violations. As of 2019, SJP had over 200 chapters at American and Canadian universities. Some SJP chapters in the U.S. have adopted the name Palestine Solidarity Committee or Students for Palestinian Equal Rights. In Canada, some SJP chapters have adopted the name Students Against Israeli Apartheid (SAIA), or Solidarity for Palestinian Human Rights (SPHR).
