by Betsy Piette, published on Workers World, June 11, 2024
Over 75,000 pro-Palestine protesters surrounded the White House in Washington, D.C., on June 8, creating a symbolic two-mile-long “red line” to call out President Joe Biden’s hypocritical rhetoric in May when he said he would withhold weapons to Israel if they launched an assault on Rafah in Gaza. Many people were dressed in red and carried long red paper banners bearing the names of the more than 36,000 Palestinians killed in the war so far.
Calling for an end to the war in Gaza, the demonstrators loudly told Biden: “We are your red line!”
Nas Issa, with the Palestinian Youth Movement, said: “A red line is supposed to mean that there are consequences for the actions of rogue states like Israel. And we’re here as a movement to say that if Biden won’t draw the red line, we will as a people.” (WTOP, June 9)
Protesters chanted popular slogans: “Globalize the Intifada!” and “There is only one solution, Intifada revolution!” and “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free!”
Israeli Occupation Forces have been carrying out military operations in Rafah since May 27, when an airstrike killed 45 people living in tents, using bombs produced in the U.S. Other more recent airstrikes targeted a United Nations school in northern Gaza on June 7, killing three people, the day after Israel attacked another U.N. school in central Gaza, killing at least 33 people, including women and children – again with U.S. made weapons.
The latest massacre in Nuseirat in central Gaza, resulted in the needless deaths of 200 Palestinians in order for the IOF to rescue four Israeli hostages. That attack was carried out with the direct support of the U.S., including the use of the U.S. military-built floating pier, allegedly built to provide humanitarian aid to Gaza.
The demonstration was organized by a loose coalition of groups that included the Palestine Youth Movement, the Council on American-Islamic Relations, Code Pink, Party for Socialism and Liberation and others. Organized buses brought people to the capital from at least 13 states.
Photos by Marta Guttenberg