By Global News Service
BERLIN | 8 November 2023(IDN | Peoples Dispatch | Globetrotter News Service) — The following is a selection of newswire reports on 300,000-March in Washington, DC for Palestine, Israel’s Gaza action having killed 10,000 people, the German People’s Movement’s march in solidarity with Palestine, and the Indonesian hospital in Gaza.
300,000 People March in US Capital for Palestine
Over 300,000 people poured into Freedom Plaza in Washington, DC, on 4 November, in US history’s largest Palestine solidarity demonstration. The unprecedented demonstration comes in the wake of Israel’s ongoing attacks in the Gaza Strip. Organized by a wide range of Palestinian, Arab, and anti-imperialist groups, including the Palestinian Youth Movement, the ANSWER Coalition, the Peoples Forum, Al-Awda: The Palestine Right to Return Coalition, and National Students for Justice in Palestine, hundreds of thousands rallied and then marched to the White House, demanding an end to US funding for Israel, and an immediate ceasefire in Gaza.
This 300,000-strong march occurred in the heart of Israel’s most significant backer, the United States, despite the fact that people in the U.S. have faced various forms of persecution for supporting Palestine. The Virginia Attorney General opened an investigation into American Muslims for Palestine looking into allegations against the group for “benefiting or providing support to terrorist organizations.” Students who organize in solidarity for Palestine, especially those in local Students for Justice in Palestine chapters, have been doxxed and have had job offers rescinded.
“If they come for you, if they take your job, if they fire you from school, if they expel you, do not think of yourself as a casualty,” said Palestinian poet Mohammed El-Kurd, speaking from the podium at Freedom Plaza. “You are not a casualty, you are fuel for the movement, you are part of the struggle.”
Israel’s War on Gaza Has Killed 10,000 People
Gaza faced yet another communications blackout on 6 November, as reports emerged of Israeli planes bombing residential areas and killing dozens of civilians.
On the night of 5 November and the morning of 6 November, Israeli forces bombed over 450 locations in the Gaza Strip, killing dozens, including women and children.
The total number of Palestinians killed has crossed the 10,000 mark. Over 26,000 have been injured in Israel’s indiscriminate bombings and ground offensive. Over 1,000 Palestinians are also reported missing and are likely to be buried in the debris created by Israel’s warplanes targeting residential areas, hospitals, schools, and other civilian infrastructure.
Israel has launched a ground offensive inside Gaza. Its forces claimed on 6 November that they had divided the besieged Palestinian territory into two. They also repeated their ultimatum demanding all residents leave northern Gaza.
On 6 November, internet services and telecommunications were shut down in Gaza for the third time since 7 October, and Israel once again disrupted the power supply to Al-Shifa Hospital. The largest hospital in Gaza has faced repeated attacks in its vicinity and is running out of fuel, medicine, and space, caused both by the Israeli blockade and the surge in the number of patients. There are tens of thousands of people seeking refuge in the hospital.
Israeli occupation forces have also killed 155 Palestinians in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem since 7 October 7, two of them on 6 November.
German People’s Movements March in Solidarity With Palestine
On 4 November, thousands of people marched in Berlin in solidarity with Palestine to demand an end to the ongoing genocide in Gaza by Israel. The march was called by various groups, including the Palestine Campaign, Palestine Speaks, Jewish Bund, Migrantifa Berlin, DiEM25, and Klasse Gegen Klasse. Demonstrators marched holding placards and banners with slogans such as “Stop Genocide,” “Free Palestine,” and “Anti-Zionism is not Anti-Semitism.” Protesters also raised the Palestinian flag over the Neptune Fountain in Berlin.
The march took place despite heavy police surveillance due to the hostile attitude of the government towards pro-Palestine protests in Germany. Meanwhile, sections within the conservative Christian Democratic Union and other right-wing groups in the opposition came out against the march and accused the government of not properly implementing the 2 November ban imposed on pro-Hamas activity and the prisoner solidarity group Samidoun.
The Palestine Campaign stated, “The city of Berlin banned almost all protests in solidarity with Palestine, banned symbols of Palestinian identity from our schools, and triggered a wave of police violence against Palestinians and their supporters, with hundreds of people arrested. In the face of this escalation of the decades-long Israeli occupation of Palestine and restrictions on free expression in Germany, we need to take to the streets for Palestine, in more numbers than ever before.”
On 3 November, hundreds of students and employees of the Free University of Berlin also organized a Palestine solidarity demonstration. They condemned the criminalization of Palestine solidarity in Germany, especially the ban on Samidoun.
The Indonesian Hospital in Gaza Bears Proof of the Friendship Between Indonesian and Palestinian People
On 6 November, the Indonesian Hospital, the second-largest hospital in the Gaza Strip, entered into a power outage due to a shortage of fuel amid the Israeli siege against Gaza.
Israeli forces have bombed in and around the hospital numerous times, including on 6 November. Israel bombarded the Indonesian Hospital on 30 October and 3c November when two other major hospitals, Al-Shifa and Al-Quds, were also targeted by the Israeli forces. Currently, the operations of the hospitals have been reduced to the minimum, running on secondary generators, enough to keep intensive care units and ventilation going.
Built in the period between 2012 and 2015, the Indonesian Hospital was envisioned as “proof of the long-term friendship between the Indonesian people and the Palestinian people,” and it is now one of the bigger hospitals in the Gaza Strip with a capacity of 235 beds. The building process of the hospital was coordinated by the Medical Emergency Rescue Committee (MER-C), an Indonesian social and humanitarian organization, and financed through donations by the people of Indonesia.
While the hospital was handed over to the Palestinian Ministry of Health shortly after construction ended, MER-C continues to have a strong link to the facility. Their volunteers remain in Gaza as the Israeli attacks continue, but communication, like for most people, is severely impacted by the frequent blackouts. Despite this, the volunteers and health workers at Indonesian Hospital are determined to stay. [IDN-InDepthNews]
Image source: Global Information Service
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