Boston observes 300 days of Zionist genocide, demands ‘Hands off Gaza and Lebanon’

Hundreds of people answered the call of martyred Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh on Aug. 3 by taking over Copley Square in Boston for an emergency rally to commemorate the 300th day of Palestinian resistance to the genocidal Israeli occupying force campaign in Gaza. 

Demonstrators in Boston on day 300. (photo: Stevan Kirschbaum)

The Palestinian Youth Movement, Palestinian House of New England and other members of the Boston Coalition for Palestine organized this action in the aftermath of the Zionist regime’s latest killing spree, which threatens to provoke a regional war. 

Less than a week after the U.S Congress gave multiple standing ovations on July 24 to the Zionist Israeli Occupation Force criminal, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, a missile strike in Beirut murdered Hezbollah Commander Fuad Shukr on July 30, along with three women and two children. 

The following day in Tehran, Iran, Zionist operatives assassinated Ismail Haniyeh, the head of Hamas’ political bureau. The U.S has escalated the crisis by sending two aircraft carriers to back up Israel, its main ally in the region.
As speakers at Saturday’s rally emphasized, the Zionist regime’s murderous rampage only reflects the success of the Palestinian resistance and its allies worldwide. 

Ahmad Kawash, Palestinian House of New England co-leader, read a message in honor of Haniyeh’s martyrdom, which he stressed will only galvanize the Axis of Resistance against the Zionist settler state. “Our only hope is the resistance,” Kawash declared as the crowd cheered. “From Gaza to Lebanon to Yemen to Iraq to Iran, long live the resistance! Mercy to the martyrs! Healing to the prisoners!”

The crowd chanted “Hands off Lebanon! Hands off Palestine!” and “Long live the Intifada!” Their militancy overwhelmed the huddle of Zionist counter protesters who, having ignominiously failed to disrupt the rally, later slunk away. 

Organizers urged the crowd to support full divestment from the Zionist state and escalate resistance in the U.S imperial core. Mass actions in solidarity with the resistance, they stressed, would continue until Palestine is totally free. 

From Copley Square, the demonstrators marched to Newbury Street, where they shut down traffic. Addressing the onlookers who crowded the boutique-lined sidewalks, they chanted: “Why are you shopping while bombs are dropping?”