More than 1,000 people reportedly showed up at City Hall on Sunday afternoon to participate in a mass demonstration in support of Palestinians amid the ongoing war between Israel and Hamas.
Demonstrators marched through Downtown Dallas carrying Palestinian flags and shouting slogans like “hey hey, ho ho, the occupation’s got to go” and “free, free, free Palestine.”
“Almost every single Palestinian, Arab student, or any person invested that I know — for this past week, we’ve all been on our phones constantly, glued to the Instagram pages that are updating live and on the ground,” said Suzanne, a local Palestinian college student who attended the protest and opted only to give her first name to media, according to The Dallas Morning News.
“There are so many moments of fear, because people in Gaza have lost power, people’s phones are dying, there are people reporting on the ground that are not even able to update. So there’s so much uncertainty,” she said.
As previously reported by The Dallas Express, as many as 1,500 terrorists affiliated with Hamas infiltrated southern Israel on October 7 amid a barrage of rocket fire from the Gaza Strip. They killed more than 1,300 Israelis and foreign nationals, the vast majority of whom were civilians, and took more than 100 people hostage.
Israel has since declared war, retaliating with airstrikes and conducting incursions into Gaza in a bid to locate the hostages. The Israeli military has also been amassing military personnel and armored vehicles at the border in preparation for a potential invasion, warning Palestinians in Gaza to evacuate to southern parts of the territory.
“[Palestinians are] going through genocide. It’s not a war,” claimed 18-year-old Nada Elarja, per KERA News. “They don’t have weapons. It’s unfair, and it’s unjust.”
Still, an alternative interpretation of the situation was recently offered by the parents of 19-year-old Dallasite Megan Daniels, who moved to Israel and joined the military after graduating high school. Three fellow soldiers she bunked with were killed during Hamas’ unprecedented assault, and the terrorist group reportedly took the boyfriend of one of her friends hostage.
“A lot of us think, had I been alive when the Holocaust happened, I would’ve done something,” said Eddy Daniels, Megan’s father, speaking with WFAA. “Well, she’s in Israel, and she can do something now about really the greatest threat to Judaism since the Nazis.”
As previously reported by The Dallas Express, the current conflict has the potential to draw in anti-Israeli forces in Iran, Lebanon, and Syria.
Several local organizations, including the Palestinian Youth Movement, the Muslim American Society, and the Muslim Alliance for Black Lives, reportedly organized Sunday’s demonstration.
“This community is our community, and as Palestine is under attack, as this genocide continues, as lives are lost, it’s important that the Black Lives Matter community stands with you all and let you all know that this is our community and that, yes, I am your brother,” said Lee Merritt, an attorney who addressed the protesters, according to KERA News.
