Over 1,000 rally For Palestine The streets of New Haven were covered in red, green and black — the colors of the Palestinian flag — on Sunday afternoon as Connecticut residents chanted “Free Palestine” in the largest pro-Palestine rally across the state this month. Words by Mia Cortés Castro and Laura Ospina. Photos by Mia Cortés Castro.
Over 1,000 protesters marched through the streets of New Haven to show support for Palestine on Sunday, Oct. 22, marking the largest pro-Palestine rally in Connecticut this month.
Hamas attacked Israel by surprise on Oct. 7 and killed at least 1,400 Israelis; Israel responded with airstrikes on Gaza and a formal declaration of war against Hamas. Protesters in New Haven on Sunday condemned the Israel Defense Force’s attacks on Palestinian children and families specifically and cited the growing death toll in Gaza. As of Sunday evening, the IDF has killed 4,651 people in Gaza.
Dozens of families attended the rally. On shoulders, in strollers and walking hand-in-hand with community members, children held signs, led chants and wore face paint with the Palestinian flag. One sign read, “Don’t bomb! Kids should be safe and happy.”
“Your tax dollars are directly going to the genocide of Palestinian people,” Basel Alnajjar, a University of Connecticut Students for Justice in Palestine member, said in a speech to the crowd. “If this doesn’t wake you up, what will?”
Alnajjar referenced the $3.8 billion in military aid that the United States annually supplies to Israel in accordance with a 2016 agreement between the two countries.
After Hamas launched its attack earlier this month, Israel responded with a “complete siege” of Gaza. As the humanitarian crisis in Gaza escalates, Israel’s attacks have forced one million Gazans to desert their homes; United Nations officials have called these attacks an “unprecedented catastrophe” and “collective punishment” in violation of international law. Israel’s blockade of electricity and other necessities has left hospitals across Gaza at risk of collapse, according to the Associated Press, and UNICEF said on Saturday, Oct. 21 that recently-allowed aid convoys would be unable to meet clean water needs.
New Haven’s Oct. 22 rally for Palestine was organized by American Muslims for Palestine Connecticut, Students for Justice in Palestine at UConn and Yalies4Palestine, with the three groups bringing together over 1,000 people during the three-hour march. The organizers led chants from the back of a UHaul truck, leading the crowd from the New Haven Green along Chapel Street and then back to the Green through Alexander Walk on Yale’s campus.
“If we don’t [show up], who will?” Aniqa Islam, a Connecticut resident who attended the march, said. “I think it boils down to recognizing your own humanity, it boils down to recognizing that there are no sides to genocide and understanding that when we come together as a community we are unified. Our voices become all the more stronger.”
Across the United States, protestors have rallied in solidarity for Palestinians in cities including New York City and Washington, D.C. since Israel declared war against Hamas.
In New Haven, people dressed in red, green and black flooded downtown streets on Sunday afternoon, shouting “free Palestine” and “not another nickel, not another dime, not another dollar for Israel’s crimes.”
Some in the crowd held posters calling for an end to genocide, ethnic cleansing and U.S. funding for Israel’s attacks. Others waved cloth or makeshift cardboard Palestinian flags. Many wore keffiyeh, traditional Palestinian head coverings that symbolize Palestinian nationalism.
“We’re Palestinians,” said a rally attendee who told the News they are a 20-year Connecticut resident and asked to remain anonymous due to personal safety concerns. “We have to show our support, and I think this is the least thing we can do. Considering the world’s ongoing support for Israel and that we cannot send anything to Gaza, this will be the least that we can do.”
One father hoisted his son onto his shoulders, revealing a sign on the child’s back that read “Israeli target” with a drawing of a missile.
Resounding “boos” echoed from the protesters while passing the Chapel Street Starbucks, whose parent company is suing a Starbucks workers’ union in Iowa after that union expressed support for Palestine on its social media account. Rally organizers later encouraged attendees to boycott Starbucks, as well as McDonald’s and Disney, due to the companies’ support for Israel.
The rally featured a multicultural coalition, with signs including “Kurds for Palestine” and chants such as “Viva Viva Palestina!”
Javier Villatoro — an Indigenous New Haven resident who is of the Zapotec Nation, from the Oaxaca Valley in Mexico — called Palestinians his “Indigenous relatives” who, he said, share a common history of colonialism and genocide. This shared struggle has motivated Villatoro to attend several protests in support of Palestinians.
The rally’s organizers also stopped on College Street, just off Alexander Walk, to criticize Yale’s support for Israel following a statement from University President Peter Salovey, in which Salovey denounced Hamas and its attacks.
One of the organizers at the rally read aloud a speech written by an anonymous Palestinian Yale student. The speech characterized Yale as an “exceptionally hostile” environment for supporters of Palestinians, referencing a Yale student writing “Death to Palestine'' on a dormitory whiteboard and student opinion articles condemning Yalies4Palestine published in the News.
“President Salovey’s statement on the crisis titled ‘War in the Middle East’ was misguided and reinforced harmful stereotypes,” the speaker read. “It is not a war in the Middle East; it is an attack by an occupying power on an occupied people … Yale has empowered an environment that targets pro-Palestine voices.”
As the crowd returned to the New Haven Green, organizers held a 10-minute break for Muslim attendees to observe daily prayer. After encouraging supporters to continue speaking out in support of Palestine on social media — in protests and in their daily lives — organizers ended with prayers for the deceased, conducted in both Arabic and English.
American Muslims for Palestine was founded in 2006.
Contact Mia Cortés Castro at mia.cortescastro@yale.edu and Laura Ospina at laura.ospina@yale.edu.