100,000 MARCH FOR PALESTINE!

Members of the Muslim Community, Antiwar Activists, Latin American Solidarity Groups and People From All Over the United States Unite to Say: ?We Are All Palestinians!?

Today over 100,000 people marched in Washington DC in the largest pro-Palestinian rally in U.S. history. (Police estimated the figure at 75,000, cited in Washington Post, April 21.) Another 35,000 marched in San Francisco.

Demanding an end to the U.S.-backed onslaught by the Israeli military against Palestinian civilians and calling for an immediate end to the Israeli occupation of the Palestinian homeland, protesters turned Pennsylvania Avenue into a sea of kaffiyas, the traditional Palestinian scarf worn by demonstrators in a show of solidarity.
?Free, free Palestine!? echoed from the White House to the Department of Justice to the U.S. Capitol. Over 60,000 people demonstrated at the White House, where bus after bus from Mosques and Islamic Centers all over the eastern seaboard dropped off a stream of protesters that continued to pour into the rally from the opening speaker until the beginning of the march on Pennsylvania Avenue.
Once the various rallies merged, tens of thousands filed past the Department of Justice demanding the repeal of the USA Patriot Act, and an immediate end to the Ashcroft raids on the Muslim and Arab community.

?Yesterday the U.S. threatened to veto a UN Security Council resolution calling for an investigation into the Jenin massacre,? said Larry Holmes, co-director of the International Action Center, part of A.N.S.W.E.R. ?The U.S. finally forced the removal of the word ?investigation? from the resolution language. This is one more example of how Sharon?s war against Palestinian people is backed and protected by the George W. Bush.?

?The U.S. is afraid the truth will come out,? said Carl Messineo, co-founder of the Partnership for Civil Justice LDEF, also with A.N.S.W.E.R. ?And they?re afraid of the kind of multinational solidarity shown for the Palestinian people by the people of the United States today in massive numbers. It has become impossible for the Bush administration to claim he speaks in the name of the United States when he bombs Afghanistan, pays for the slaughter of Palestinians and threatens Iraq. The people in this country want money for jobs and human needs, not war against the people of Palestine.?

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