By ANSWER Coalition
Photos: YouTube Screenshots
July 24, Washington D.C. – Tens of thousands of protesters gathered from all across the country in Washington, D.C. on July 24 for a powerful rejection of the speech by war criminal Benjamin Netanyahu to a joint session of Congress. The demonstration demanded that Netanyahu be arrested for the destruction of Gaza and the massacre of Palestinians. The labor movement was a major presence at the demonstration. Brandon Mancilla, Director of Region 9A for the United Auto Workers, and American Postal Workers Union president Mark Diamondstein spoke at the opening rally just one day after seven national unions representing 6 million members called for an end to U.S. military aid to Israel.
While protesters were peacefully marching just minutes after leaving the rally site, they were the subject of an unprovoked attack by police. To provide a false justification for this blatant violation of First Amendment rights, White House Deputy Press Secretary Andrew Bates smeared the demonstration with lies about its conduct and politics.
Layan Fuleihan, Education Director of The People’s Forum and a main organizer of the march who was herself pepper sprayed, said, “As soon as this mass assembly began to march towards Congress, police attacked. Not only does the Biden-Harris administration direct US tax dollars to fund the Israeli war machine, they unleash pepper spray on people who object. Dozens of marchers exercising their First Amendment rights were subject to a brutal and unprovoked police attack. Now the White House is directly slandering the protest as ‘violent and antisemitic.’ Everyone who was there knows this is an outright lie.”
Brian Becker, National Director of the ANSWER Coalition who was also pepper sprayed by police, remarked that, “The disgraceful spectacle inside the Capitol was matched by a disgraceful spectacle outside. All of downtown Washington, D.C. was converted into ‘Fort Netanyahu’, with massive fences and barricades blocking all the surrounding streets so as to deprive the people of their right to protest near the war criminal’s whereabouts. They even innovated new ways to waste tax dollars by bussing in NYPD officers to ‘serve and protect’ Netanyahu for a day.”
The national demonstration was organized by a broad coalition including the Palestinian Youth Movement, ANSWER Coalition, U.S. Palestinian Community Network, American Muslims for Palestine, The People’s Forum, Palestinian Feminist Collective, Arab Resource and Organizing Center, Al-Awda: The Palestine Right to Return Coalition, U.S. Campaign for Palestinian Rights, International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network, Palestinian American Organizations Network, American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee, Palestinian American Women’s Association, CodePink, Jewish Voice for Peace, Palestinian Assembly for Liberation, and Writers Against the War on Gaza.
