WASHINGTON (Dispatches) – Thousands of people from more than one hundred pro-Palestinian groups from all over the U.S. converged in Washington DC on Saturday for the National March for Palestine.
Speakers demanded that the U.S. government sanction the Zionist regime for its aggression and discrimination against the Palestinians, and for committing war crimes during its latest war on Gaza.
At least 253 Palestinians were killed, including 66 children and 39 women, and 1,910 wounded, according to the Health Ministry in Gaza.
American Muslims for Palestine (AMP), one of the main organizers of the march, said it has developed a grassroots campaign titled “Sanction Israel” that aims to press the U.S. government to hold the Zionist regime accountable for its human rights violations and its occupation of Palestinian territories.
“Millions of Americans around the country are joining to say there must be an end to this ugly, immoral and illegal status quo,” Osama Abuirshaid, executive director of AMP, told Arab News.
The protest is one way to assert the Palestinians’ “inalienable right to life, dignity, freedom and justice,” he added, criticizing the Biden administration for going ahead with licensing $735 million in weapons sales to the occupying regime despite a public outcry and opposition from some members of Congress.
The anti-Zionist rally came days after the latest onslaught by the occupying regime against the Palestinian population in the besieged Gaza Strip and other occupied territories concluded with a ceasefire, and followed numerous similar protests held across the U.S. and other parts of the globe condemning repeated atrocities of the U.S.-sponsored regime.
Meanwhile, pro-Palestine activists held a protest outside Boeing International Headquarters in the U.S. city of Chicago to condemn the arms giant’s plan to sell precision-guided weapons worth $735 million to the Zionist regime.
The demonstration took place on Saturday, with the participants carrying Palestinian flags and chanting slogans such as “Free, free Palestine” and “End the occupation now.”
The protesters also held up placards reading, “$735 million to fund Palestinian genocide,” “Gaza under attack” and “Stop profiting off Palestinian deaths.”