Ceasefire collapses
As rush hour approached its peak through downtown Minneapolis on March 18, a cold and windy day, chants from protestors reverberated off buildings downtown. “Free, Free, Palestine!” could be heard from blocks away.
With only a 4-hour notice, around 200 people responded to a last minute call from organizers for an emergency protest over Israel bombing Palestine this month.
That same Tuesday, at least 400 Palestinians were killed by Israel during a bombing campaign into the Gaza Strip, violating a ceasefire deal that was in place for over two months. The Gaza Health Ministry reported that over 560 individuals were injured due to these attacks.
These attacks mark the deadliest day in Palestine in this 17-month-long war.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ordered the strikes after Hamas refused the demands of Israel to immediately free the other half of the hostages in phase 2 of the ceasefire deal. Netanyahu said the attacks were “only the beginning” during a public press conference.
These attacks have sparked protests around the globe. Minneapolis-based activists wanted to make sure to speak out against the attacks as well. They chose the Diana E. Murphy Federal Courthouse to send a message to the Trump administration that they don’t want U.S. tax dollars to continue paying for Israel’s war on Palestine.
Activist and organizer Meredith Aby-Keirstead of the Anti-War Committee said, “The current bombing campaign in Gaza is an escalation. People were trying to get life back to normal, people were trying to celebrate the holiest month of Ramadan, people were trying to dig their families out from under the rubble. Instead, now a bunch of children and entire families have been killed. The United States is funding this bombing campaign and genocide that Israel is conducting on Palestinians.”
Activists feel the connection with what’s going on in Palestine is also affecting things here at home. Activist Sabry Wazwaz said, “Palestinians and Black people in America have a lot in common with each other. It’s important to know that Derek Chauvin used a choke hold that the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) taught Minneapolis police.
“When George Floyd was murdered he was murdered by an IDF tactic. The struggle of Black Americans here at home for liberation and the struggle for Palestinians for liberation are linked,” Sabry said.
“George Jackson, a member of the Black Panthers, was found murdered in his jail cell [by prison guards at San Quentin State Prison in 1971]. They found 2 poems written by a Palestinian poet in his jail cell [“Enemy of the Sun” and “I Defy” by poet Samih Al-Qasim]. The connection is there because the struggle for anyone’s rights are connected across the world. Our struggles are one,” said Sabry.
Activists were asked how they thought the war would end.
“This war will continue until the American people stop funding this war. Israelis get free health care, they get free education, they get all these things that the United States is funding for them,” exclaimed Aby-Keirstead. “They don’t have to choose between taking care of their human needs and this war. If the United States doesn’t pay for it, then they will have to make that choice.
“Americans here are tired of paying for war when our schools are broke, when our neighborhoods are broke, when we have people that are living without homes,” she continued. “That money should be spent on human needs, not war.”
Sabry Wazwaz said the war will end when “more people start realizing that our struggles are one, and politicians understand that if they don’t do what’s right and listen to their constituents they could lose their seats. Unfortunately the majority of Congress only cares about the money they get from AIPEC [American Israeli Public Affairs Committee].
“Former Congress people like Cori Bush and Cynthia McKinney and many others said that once they told AIPEC that they could not in good conscience support Israel no matter what it does, AIPEC spent millions funding the candidate to oust them out of power. Let that sink in.”
Currently Israel has stopped allowing all goods and supplies from entering the Gaza Strip, which includes all humanitarian aid. They plan to continue blocking those items until Hamas accepts the proposal in order to allow aid and to extend the ceasefire deal.
The original ceasefire deal came in phases. Phase 1 required half of the hostages, both alive and deceased, to be released by the end of the first 7 weeks of the ceasefire. Israel agreed to release around 2,000 Palestinian hostages in exchange for 33 Israeli hostages. Then the release of the rest of the hostages would follow if they could agree on a plan for the end of the war.
Negotiations for a phase 2 of the ceasefire were supposed to happen in Cairo, Egypt, but Hamas and Israeli officials could not come to an agreement. According to the Financial Times, Israel accused Hamas of not releasing all hostages as previously agreed upon, which Israel cited as justification for resuming military operations.
Hamas also claimed that Israel demanding the immediate release of 59 hostages (24 believed to be alive and 35 believed to be deceased) violates the original conditions of the deal made back in January.
Since the war started back in October 2023, more than 48,000 Palestinians and nearly 2,000 Israelis (military and civilians included) have been killed in this conflict.
Activists here in Minnesota have been active in protesting the Palestinian/Israeli war since the beginning of the conflict. They plan to continue to show their support to the people in Palestine as well as to condemn the war.
Chris Juhn welcomes reader responses at cjuhn@spokesman-recorder.com.