Anonymous Submission to Jersey Counter-Info
Sunday’s gathering in Paterson’s “Little Palestine” neighborhood felt alive. While well known activists, advocates, and faith leaders spoke powerfully from the stage the energy was on the grass and pavement. It was waving flags from the roof tops and out of apartment windows, and honking from cars. It was the sea of keffiyehs. It was in the stern faces of children. This was not a protest; it was a city screaming in anger and pain.
The call to action asked for by the organizers was to text FreePalestine to (833) 648-0391 for a list of actions to try and pressure the government to stop funding the Palestinian genocide in Gaza. We uplift this message to encourage folks to support the Palestinian community in Paterson as they asked. While our analysis may compel us to act against settler colonialism and US imperialism and warmongering in other ways, we feel it’s important to encourage folks to act in solidarity with the community should they feel moved to do so.
Everyone, young and old, poured into the streets creating a mass of ~3,000 people. You could tell from the energy as the March progressed and more people joined that the underlying current bringing everyone together was one of liberation. It’s this exact push for liberation and action of solidarity from our community that scares the government and those in power.
The mass media’s coverage of Sunday’s demonstration in Paterson has predictably been opaque and misleading, framing both the struggle for national liberation and the genocide as a “two sided issue”. Despite what the media may report, the people of Paterson NJ and the world know this to be false.
Around the globe from Paterson, to Baghdad, to New York City, to London, to Paris, to Berlin, to Cairo, the world stands with Palestine and against the ravages of settler colonialism.
Free Palestine.