The massive protest march on Saturday – sponsored by Islamic, Palestinian, Arab and human rights groups within the United States -- began at the Lincoln Memorial Monument near the State Department and is due to conclude near the US Congress, which has been blocked off by fences and barbed wire since the violent January 6 attack on the legislative compound by pro-Trump supporters.
The Saturday anti-Israel rally came days after the latest Israeli onslaught 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 US and other parts of the globe condemning repeated atrocities of the US-sponsored Israeli regime.
The rally – dubbed National March for Palestine – also coincides with mounting international pressure against persisting Israeli attacks against Palestinian civilians, particularly children, hospitals, homes, schools, and libraries.
“We are calling our community and all peace loving people to March in Washington, DC to send a message that the American people are no longer complicit in war crimes by Israel,” said Oussama Jamal of the United States Council of Muslim Organizations (USCMO), one of the sponsors of the protest event.
A growing cadre of organizers led by Muslim and progressive organizations are uniting in this historic National March for Palestine. At the heels of United Nations human rights chief Michelle Bachelet comments on Thursday that she has seen no evidence that civilian buildings in Gaza hit by Israeli strikes were being used for military purposes.
“In the past three weeks, people from across the world have shown unprecedented solidarity and support for the rights of the Palestinian people. This unwavering support from just individuals across the globe has sent a clear message to the governments of Israel and the United States that the atrocities and the killing of innocent civilians, including children, is absolutely unacceptable,” added Dr. Mohsin Ansari, President of the Islamic Circle of North America (ICNA).
“We are seeing increasing progress in raising awareness for Congress to better support solutions to protect the legal and human rights of Palestinians,” added Nihad Awad of Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), another sponsor of the rally. “At the same time we have witnessed a continued reluctance in the Biden Administration to hold Israel accountable for its war crimes in Gaza or uphold American values by demanding an end to evictions of Palestinians in Jerusalem.”
The protest march is a part of the new national #SanctionIsrael campaign calling on the pro-Israel Biden administration and Congress to sanction the Israeli regime and stop giving it billions in US tax dollars and military hardware – like the very same bombs that the hawkish regime just used to obliterate entire Palestinian families in the Gaza Strip.
Hawkish US lawmakers introduce bill to punish Palestine supporters
This is while Republican Senator Marco Rubio of Florida, along with 15 other fellow right-wing lawmakers, reintroduced legislation on Friday that would impose sanctions on individuals and entities that support the Gaza-based Hamas resistance group or other Palestinian organizations.
"This bill would impose sanctions against foreign individuals, entities, and governments that provide support to Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad, and other Palestinian terrorist groups,” a press release issued by Rubio’s office proclaimed on Friday.
The bill -- titled the Palestinian International Terrorism Support Prevention Act -- also requires the US president “to submit an assessment to Congress regarding whether other countries are doing enough to counter the fundraising, financing, money laundering, and other forms of support” for Palestinian groups.
Rubio, the Vice Chairman of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence and ranking member of the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations, led the bill’s reintroduction, citing the need to hold supporters of such organizations accountable following the encounter between Israeli regime’s forces and Palestinian resistance groups that led to the killing of more than 270 people in Gaza and Jerusalem (al-Quds), including many women and children.
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