What is the pro-Palestine protest about, what’s the meaning and what are the most important organizations in the USA?
Protests across the US have been ongoing since the start of the Israel-Hamas war. These are the groups behind the pro-Palestinian campaigns.
The Israel-Hamas war has been raging in Gaza for nearly seven months as well as protests against the Israeli military response in Gaza to Hama’s October attack. Pro-Palestinian groups have organized demonstrations, blocked traffic in cities and established encampments on college campuses across the United States.
After a series of police crackdowns on college campuses have tensions risen and spurred an expansion of solidarity tent cities. The situation is being compared with the Vietnam anti-war movement of the late 1960s.
What is the pro-Palestine protest about, what’s the meaning and what are the most important organizations in the USA?
After more than half a year of Israel trying to root out Hamas from the Gaza Strip through its military counteroffensive, the toll has been heavy for the civilians that are trapped in the conflict zone. More than half the population of Gaza is crammed into the southern portion of the territory along the border with Egypt.
The elevated death toll, especially among women and children, the conditions on the ground and the growing humanitarian crisis have increased the calls for a ceasefire in the conflict. Pro-Palestinian protesters in the US have become more vocal and caused ever more visible disruptions to raise awareness to the stories of suffering of the civilians trapped between the warring parties.
Some of the main drivers of the protests taking place in the US are Palestinian and Jewish-led groups. The pro-Palestinian organizations supporting the protests in the US have been around for decades. These include groups like Students for Justice in Palestine and Jewish Voice for Peace, two of the most prominent.
Both have been called out for antisemitism by the Anti-Defamation League for their anti-Israel and anti-Zionist advocacy. Other groups that the Jewish advocacy group says are behind the protests in the US include Palestinian Youth Movement (PYM), U.S. Palestinian Community Network (USPCN), Within Our Lifetime-United for Palestine (WOL), If Not Now (INN), the Party for Socialism and Liberation (PSL) and Samidoun.
Students for Justice in Palestine and Jewish Voice for Peace are both part of the nearly 100 groups that make up the Columbia University Apartheid Divest which is organizing the protests at Columbia University. That movement has become the focal point of the college campus encampments springing up across the nation. One of the common demands of the college encampments is a cease-fire in the Israel-Hamas war and a divestment from Israel.
The latter has its roots in the boycott, divestment and sanction (BDS) movement, which is a campaign against Israel’s policies toward the Palestinians that has been going on for years.