Pro-Palestinian Rally in Washington Seeks End to US Aid to Israel

Pro-Palestinian demonstrators gather on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington on May 29, 2021. AFP
Pro-Palestinian demonstrators gather on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington on May 29, 2021. AFP
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Pro-Palestinian Rally in Washington Seeks End to US Aid to Israel

Pro-Palestinian demonstrators gather on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington on May 29, 2021. AFP
Pro-Palestinian demonstrators gather on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington on May 29, 2021. AFP

More than 1,000 rallied Saturday in Washington in support of Palestinians and calling for an end to US aid to Israel.

The demonstration on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial came as a ceasefire that ended 11 days of intense fighting between Israel and Hamas in the Gaza Strip has so far held.

"We are hoping to send a clear message to the United States government that the days of supporting the Israeli state without repercussions are over," one of the demonstrators, 39-year-old Washington lawyer Sharif Silmi, said as he stood in the crowd where many protesters held red, white, green and black Palestinian flags.

"We will stand against any politician that continues to fund weapons to Israel. We will oppose them, we will vote against them, we will fund their opponents, until we vote them out of office," said Silmi.
Lama Alahmad, a resident of neighboring Virginia who is of Palestinian origin, said US public opinion is turning in favor of the Palestinian cause.

"There is a huge change" going on in the US with regard to the Palestinian cause seeking a sovereign homeland, AFP quoted Alahmad as saying.

"We just want the world to recognize that we are human beings. We are not terrorists," said Alahmad, a 43-year-old stay at home mother who grew up in the United Arab Emirates before moving to the US around 20 years ago.

Silmi insisted there was now broad opposition in the US to how Israel treats the Palestinians, which he likened to apartheid in South Africa.

"People have now woken up, and we're resisting. Whether young Jews, young Muslims, young Blacks, young whites, there is a generational shift. And people are working across ethnic groups, racial groups, to work for change and freedom and liberation for Palestinian people," Silmi said.



UN Rights Chief ‘Gravely Concerned’ by Lebanon Escalation

Smoke billows above Beirut’s southern suburbs following an Israeli airstrike on November 26, 2024, amid the ongoing war between Israel and Hezbollah. (AFP)
Smoke billows above Beirut’s southern suburbs following an Israeli airstrike on November 26, 2024, amid the ongoing war between Israel and Hezbollah. (AFP)
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UN Rights Chief ‘Gravely Concerned’ by Lebanon Escalation

Smoke billows above Beirut’s southern suburbs following an Israeli airstrike on November 26, 2024, amid the ongoing war between Israel and Hezbollah. (AFP)
Smoke billows above Beirut’s southern suburbs following an Israeli airstrike on November 26, 2024, amid the ongoing war between Israel and Hezbollah. (AFP)

The UN rights chief on Tuesday voiced concern about the escalation of hostilities in Lebanon, where his office said nearly 100 people had been reported killed by Israeli airstrikes in recent days, including women, children and medics.

Israel has been locked in fighting with Lebanese armed group Hezbollah since Oct. 2023, and fighting has escalated dramatically since late September of this year.

"UN Human Rights Chief Volker Turk is gravely concerned by the escalation in Lebanon with at least 97 people reportedly killed in Israeli airstrikes between the 22nd and 24th of November," Jeremy Laurence, a spokesperson for the Office of the High Commissioner of Human Rights, told a Geneva press briefing.

He said that at least seven paramedics had been reported killed in three Israeli strikes in the south of Lebanon on Nov. 22-23, adding to 226 healthcare worker deaths since Oct. 7, 2023. He did not specify how many of the recent deaths had been verified by UN human rights monitors.

Israel says it targets military capabilities in Lebanon and Gaza and takes steps to mitigate the risk of harm to civilians. It accuses Hezbollah, like Hamas, of hiding among civilians, which they deny.