U.S. Palestinian Community Network (USPCN)
For Immediate Release: Friday, May 21st, 2021
Media Contact: Hatem Abudayyeh, USPCN National Chair, 773.301.4108 (preferred contact), [email protected]
May 21st, 2021: Chicagoland Palestinians to mark victory achieved by ceasefire in Palestine
WHAT: Rally and march
WHEN: Friday, May 21st, at 4:30 PM Central Time
WHERE: Starting point: Michigan Avenue & Ida B. Wells Drive, downtown Chicago
The U.S. Palestinian Community Network (USPCN)-Chicago chapter, member organization of the Chicago Coalition for Justice in Palestine, is again co-leading a mass rally and march in downtown Chicago, but this time to mark the victory achieved by the ceasefire between the Palestinian resistance and the criminal Israeli state.
The ceasefire brokered by Egypt went into effect very early Friday morning in Palestine (6 PM Chicago time on Thursday), and ended 11 days of Israeli bombardment of Gaza and attacks on Jerusalem, the West Bank, and the 1948 territories. Approximately 260 Palestinians were killed, over 230 of them in Gaza, including 62 children. Thousands more were injured.
“But Israel ending its massacre of Palestinians isn’t enough,” said Hatem Abudayyeh, National Chair of USPCN. “We continue to demand an end to Israeli occupation and colonization, and call on all members of the U.S. House of Representatives to co-sponsor the Palestinian Children and Families Act (H.R. 2590), Congresswoman Betty McCollum’s bill that states that the U.S. will not fund the Israeli government’s imprisonment and torture of Palestinian children, theft and destruction of Palestinian homes and property, or any further annexation of Palestinian land.”
In addition, protesters today will call on Congress to support Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Mark Pocan, and Rashida Tlaib’s House Resolution, as well as a similar one from Bernie Sanders in the Senate, which is looking to stop the planned sale of $735 million worth of precision-guided weapons to Israel. As reported by Rolling Stone, Congress may “vote on a resolution of disapproval opposing a weapons sale within 15 days, and can block or modify the sale at any point until delivery.”
“For decades, the U.S. has sold billions of dollars in weaponry to Israel without ever requiring them to respect basic Palestinian rights,” said Ocasio-Cortez in a statement. “In so doing, we have directly contributed to the death, displacement and disenfranchisement of millions.”
Palestinians in Gaza and everywhere else in the world are celebrating today, as the unprecedented unity of Palestinians across the Israeli-manufactured divides inspired not only the unified military resistance from Gaza, but massive, militant protests inside Israel (called “the 1948 territories” by Palestinians), the West Bank, and Jerusalem — along with rallies of hundreds of thousands of people in condemnation of Israel (and in support of the resistance) in Arab countries like Yemen, Jordan, Lebanon, and Morocco, and millions more across Africa, Latin America, Europe, and the U.S.
“The past few weeks have exposed Israel as the settler-colonial, white supremacist state that it is,” said Gloria Imseih Petrelli, USPCN-Chicago co-chair. “We all saw how racist Israeli settlers marched while chanting, ‘Death to Arabs,’ and how others viciously attacked Palestinians under the cover of the Israeli police and military. There is no hiding the real nature of Israel any longer. Even Human Rights Watch declares it to be an apartheid state.
“But even the attempt by the strongest army in the region to ethnically cleanse Sheikh Jarrah and other parts of Jerusalem has failed,” added Imseih Petrelli. “Our people can’t be defeated. We’ll never leave our land!”
This victory also represents the failure of Trump and Kushner’s so-called Deal of the Century, which tried to bypass and circumvent the Palestinians by establishing independent “peace treaties” between Israel and Arab dictators of the region. This reactionary Arab normalization of Israel’s occupation and colonization was rejected resoundingly by Palestinians and the Arab masses. Trump’s utter disaster as a one-term president is now complete.
A combined total of 25,000 people protested in two separate marches in Chicago in the past nine days, and there will be thousands more downtown today.
“Even as we celebrate, Israel’s prime minister Netanyahu still has the blood of almost 300 Palestinians on his hands,” said Abudayyeh, “so he and the complicit U.S. government must be held accountable, and we will continue to organize to make that happen. We take much inspiration from the Black Liberation movement in the U.S., and a quote from one of the co-founders of the Black Panthers, Huey Newton, resonates with us today: ‘The power of the Man will never defeat the power of the People.'”
USPCN spokespeople are available for phone and in-person interviews and comment before, during, and after the rally and march today. Call Abudayyeh at 773.301.4108 for scheduling.
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