More than 150 students gathered in the rain Saturday afternoon to demonstrate their solidarity with Palestine. The crowd chanted protest slogans — such as “not another nickel, not another dime, no more money for Israel’s crimes” — before marching down College Hill and joining about 300 community members and activists on the steps of the Rhode Island State House.
The “All Out for Palestine” rally was held to “demand an immediate end to U.S. military aid to Israel, and an end to the occupation and genocide in Palestine,” according to a press release from the Party for Socialism and Liberation of Rhode Island, one of the event’s several organizing groups.
The rally was organized partially in response to the Israeli military’s retaliatory actions in Gaza following an attack on southern Israel by Hamas militants on Oct. 7. Since the attack, which killed an estimated 1,400 people in Israel, the Israeli military has launched continued retaliatory airstrikes killing more than 4,300 people and escalated its years-long blockade of Gaza, almost completely cutting off food, water, fuel and electricity, the Associated Press reported.
Multiple human rights organizations, as well as an independent human rights expert commissioned by the United Nations, have published reports labeling the Israeli government’s 56-year treatment of Palestinians “apartheid.”
At the State House, local activists gave speeches, decried Palestinian oppression, denounced Israel for its continued use of force and criticized the U.S. federal government for its financial support of the Israeli Defense Force.
“I want to remind everyone that the fight for Palestinians did not start on Oct. 7 (but) rather it has been ongoing since 1948,” said Farah, a Palestinian-American activist who served as an emcee for the rally and only identified themself by their first name. “I want to remind you all of the 750,000 Palestinians that were forcibly displaced during the Nakba.”
Speakers claimed that the Israeli government’s negative characterization of Palestinians was being used to justify their oppression.
“Today, as it has always been for 75 years, it's the belief that Palestinians are terrorists, the belief that Palestinians are ‘human animals’ (and) the belief that Palestinian children are human shields that is leading to an active genocide as we speak,” said Loubna Qutami, a member of the Palestinian Feminist Collective and a postdoctoral research associate in Palestinian studies at Brown.
United Nations experts have warned that statements by Israeli political leaders and the Israeli military’s actions pose “a risk of genocide against the Palestine people,” and the Palestinian envoy to the United Nations has called Israel’s military offensive in Gaza “nothing less than genocidal,” Reuters reported.
Speakers also criticized the Biden administration for continuing to provide military aid to the Israeli military.
President Joe Biden “has just called for $14 billion more for Israel’s crimes,” said Joel Reinstein, an organizer for Jewish Voice for Peace. “That’s on top of the $3.8 billion the United States gives Israel every year for weapons used to murder Palestinians.”
“I'm calling on the Western imperial powers like the United States of America to stop funding genocide,” said Sherena Razek GS, president of the Graduate Labor Organization. “Stop giving Israel impunity to kill indiscriminately, and stop sending billions and extra billions to aid military ethnic cleansing projects in Gaza.”
Rally attendees echoed the sentiments of the speakers, with one saying that they showed up “to support and stand in solidarity with Palestinians who are being actively murdered and genocided by the Israeli government.”
“Palestine just doesn't have a military like Israel does, and Israel is constantly being funded by the United States,” said one Brown student who wished to remain anonymous for safety reasons. “The playing field has never been level.”
“I’m a Jewish-American, and the resistance to this occupation represents my understanding of Jewish tradition,” said an anonymous Providence resident. “That feels worth coming out to say.”
After the speakers concluded, hundreds of rally attendees marched for over an hour in the rain from the State House to Kennedy Plaza and around downtown Providence, ending at the world headquarters of Textron, a defense manufacturer whose clients include the U.S. military.
Saturday’s rally follows intense dialogue between student groups on campus, as well as several vigils that were held in the past two weeks to commemorate the loss of life in Gaza and Israel.
One Brown student who attended the rally told The Herald that they felt the University's response to the violence in Israel and Gaza has not been equitable.
“Brown has not been showing the right support to Palestinian students,” said the student, who wished to remain anonymous for safety reasons. “They've shown clear support for Israeli students, who are also grieving at this time. However, the lack of respect for the Palestinian side cannot be ignored.”
Separate from the rally, student groups have been circulating demands from the Palestine Solidarity Caucus that call on the University to “publicly condemn the genocide,” “condemn the doxxing, Islamophobic and racist harassment” of Brown community members and “divest the endowment from Israel and the military industrial complex.”
The University did not respond to requests for comment by press time.
While one anonymous Rhode Island School of Design student told The Herald that they feel as if they only have a “speck” of power individually, they hope that organizing will lead to broader change.
Ashley Cai is a Senior Staff Writer from Los Altos, California covering the staff and student labor beat. She is a Brown-RISD Dual Degree studying computer science, IAPA and graphic design. She is also a member of The Herald's Tech Team.
