By Meghan Imperio
Last weekend, protests began across the United States as a result of the conflict between Israel and Hamas which escalated when Israel launched an airstrike on Gaza City after militants in Gaza fired rockets in Jerusalem’s direction, a sacred city for Jews, Muslims, and Christians, as well as a predominantly Palestinian city.
This airstrike served as a catalyst for more violence and tension between the two powers, which has cost many civilian lives. The violence that has ensued in the past week has led the world to turn its attention to the conflict and sparked worldwide protests.
The violence between Hamas and Israel has also sparked protests across the US for both Israel and Palestine supporters, as they encouraged the government to take action to mitigate and end the violence. The Israeli-Palestinean conflict has been a topic in US politics for years but has recently escalated in light of these attacks on civilians.
According to a New York Times article, “Israel has come under increasing international criticism for the growing number of children that have been killed in airstrikes on Gaza.” Among the 227 civilians that have died in Gaza as a result of Israel’s airstrikes during the past few days of violence, 64 children were killed. In total, the Israeli airstrikes in Gaza have injured 1,620 civilians.
In Israel, the airstrikes from Hamas have killed 12 Israeli citizens, including 2 children. The New York Times article goes on to describe that the “Israeli strategists and representatives describe the campaign as being aimed at destroying as much of Hamas’s infrastructure as possible, including the group’s network of rocket factories and underground tunnels.”
However, others claim that the attacks on Palestinean communities are an effort to force Palestineans out of their territories and perform an ethnic cleansing.
The increasing number of deaths and wounded has polarized the world, especially Israeli society, and spurred unrest within Israel and its territories. The polarization of the recent events and the unrest that ensued is unlike any tension that Israel and the territories it occupies has experienced before, even during the last war between the two powers in 2014, which lasted for seven weeks.
This unrest which arose in response to the airstrikes and growing tensions between Hamas and Israel has led to an increase in deaths and injuries. Dan Bilefsky in The New York Times describes “among the people that have been hurt and killed … during the bursts of unrest in mixed-population cities in Israel, including in Lod, where two people died. And in the occupied West Bank, at least 20 Palestinians were killed in clashes with Israeli security forces.”
The battle has exacerbated the ongoing humanitarian crisis in Gaza, which was already suffering due to a blockade by Egypt and Israel, which further spurred protests around the United States and worldwide.
According to a CNN article by Alisha Ebrahimji, the majority of the protests across the country have been loudly in support of and in solidarity with the Palestinian community. One of the biggest demonstrations across the country took place in California’s state capital, Sacramento, on Sunday, May 16.
One participant and photographer in the demonstration, Adil Abbuthalha, described, “The unity we saw, regardless of religion or ethnicity, it speaks volumes for the people in Palestine.
“They are starting to see their voices being heard, and change is around the corner,” Abbuthala continued.
These protests were also staged to mark the 73rd anniversary of the Palestinians’ displacement in 1948, during the first Arab-Israeli war.
Along with the protests in Sacramento, there have been additional protests in support of Palestinians in Philadelphia, New York, Dallas, New Orleans, Washington DC, Chicago, and other cities across the country.
These protests have also often been met by counter-protests in support of Israel, leading to the groups clashing and further raising tensions in the US.
In Los Angeles, hundreds of pro-Palestinian supporters gathered in protest in West LA in front of the Israeli consulate to call for the end of airstrikes in Gaza.
Another protest occurred in Westwood on Saturday, May 15, beginning outside of the Federal Building, creating traffic and attracting pro-Israel counter-protesters.
The two different groups were kept separated by police officers, and the LA Police Department reported that there were no injuries and arrests made during the two protests. These protests further led to an increase in traffic, leading the Police Department to warn people through Twitter to avoid the area near the Federal Building and the surrounding streets due to the street closures as a result of the protests.
These protests were also staged to mark the 73rd anniversary of the Palestinians’ displacement in 1948, during the first Arab-Israeli war.
An article by the Los Angeles Times described, “The groups are calling on the U.S. government to stop providing military aid to Israel, remove the U.S. Embassy from Jerusalem and reverse former President Trump’s recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital.”
The article continues to describe that “President Biden has urged a de-escalation of the violence but has publicly backed Israel’s right to defend itself from Hamas rockets fired from Gaza.”
In response to the growing tension in the US, as well as the encouragement from the American public for President Biden to take action toward resolving the Israeli-Palestinean conflict and the violence that has ensued in the past weeks, Biden has been holding calls and privately encouraging the Prime Minister of Israel to cease the violence and bombings on Palestinian communities.
On Friday, May 21, after encouragement from world leaders, including President Biden, Israel and Hamas instated a cease-fire in an early-morning meeting mediated by Egypt. Despite the cease in airstrikes and violence, tensions in the territories are still high, with many anticipating a resumption of the violence.
Meghan Imperio is a writer for the LA Vanguard’s social justice desk. She is an English major at UCLA, originally from Glendale, CA.
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No, as the author wrote, the Hamas rocket attack served as the catalyst. If someone punches another in the face and that person strikes back you can’t blame the action of person that struck back as being the catalyst.