Protest part 2

Earlier this month, there were air raids on Gaza again from Israel that killed over 34 people in 48 hours. The most heartbreaking one was the death of a seven-year-old boy who was driving with his dad on a motorcycle when the air raid came down and knocked both of them off and killing them. Another raid killed a family of eight, only leaving behind their 32-week old baby.





Two weeks ago, there was a protest held to mourn the loss of those who were killed in the raids and raise awareness on how dire the situation is for Palestinians living in Gaza. It was small, right in front of the alma mater, and when I arrived there was a guy that was a representative from a club talking into a megaphone that barely worked. It was cold, so we were huddled together but I looked around the crowd, expecting only Arabs to be in the crowd, but I was surprised. There were a lot of different minorities present in the crowd: blacks, Latinos, and even some Jewish people. It was nice to see the diversity, but the same thought that popped into my head during the climate change protest popped into my head again: Why is it when it’s a protest about minorities, it’s mainly minorities that come and support? Where are the white allies?




The most powerful speech was the one done by a black Muslim man, who was talking about how he could relate to the main struggle of Palestinians: the right to basic human rights. He talked about what Israel was doing was a genocide, and that the innocent lives that were lost were very similar to the police brutality killings in the States of black people. He also talked about how Palestinians have no clean water, similar to those living in Flint, Michigan, a predominantly black community, which has had no clean water since 2014. It was eye-opening to see the parallels that he came up with because we usually associate these types of issues with third world countries, but these issues are happening in the United States and our government isn’t doing anything about it.




The sad reality is that people are getting killed in Gaza every day. People are getting kicked out of their homes, children getting killed for having a voice, and people murdered in cold blood for defending themselves. What’s even sadder is that when we read these stories, and see the death toll, we think of it as just a number. In reality, families are getting torn apart and destroyed and the world stays watching.