Davis Farmers Market on a Saturday morning is usually a hubbub of noise as shoppers buy from overflowing food stands, stop and chat with friends and neighbors, and excited kids weave their way through the crowds to the playgrounds. At 10am on May 31, however, a somber silent march interrupted the scene, bringing reminders of the reality of famine facing more than two million people in the decimated coastal strip of Gaza—a policy of deliberate starvation by one of US’s principal allies, Israel.
Around 100 people, dressed in black, marched along 3rd Street and through the market twice. At the front, three women carried large placards saying “Let Gaza Live,” followed by others carrying empty plates with messages written on them: “Let Gaza eat,” “Kids are dying,” “Famine is not self-defense” and “Stop sending bombs to Israel.” Shoppers stopped to watch the march with many murmuring voices of support; a few joined in the march.
The march finished at the “Solidarity Space” under the big oak tree in the park, where there was a minute of silence to commemorate the 62,975 Gazans, including more than 17,400 children who have died since October 7 2023. Marchers and supportive public members filled in postcards to local politicians and colored in plates with their own messages to be attached to the solidarity space’s metal fence.
Speaking after the silence, Deema Tamimi, a Davis resident, mom and Palestinian American said:
“We chose to do the march here to shine a light on the stark difference we have here, where we are free and safe to enjoy the bounty of food at the market, while people in Gaza are being starved. Our tax dollars are paying to make this famine possible, because this is not a natural-disaster famine, this is a man-made famine, manufactured by Israel and supported by us.”
The march was organized by Yolo for PalestinIan Justice, a network of concerned residents who, for over a year and a half, have called for a ceasefire to end the appalling bloodshed in Gaza and demanded US political leaders, including Congressman Mike Thompson, use their significant power and influence to end the violence, including by ending weapon sales to Israel.
The march took place one day after Jens Laerke, a spokesperson for the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, declared Gaza “the hungriest place on Earth” because of Israel’s blockade on aid which “makes it one of the most obstructed aid operations not only in the world today, but in recent history.” Israel has imposed a 11-week blockade of international aid trucks since it reneged on the last ceasefire deal. Under immense pressure, Israel has started its own massively insufficient aid program, using US security contractors, which has delivered according to the UN Secretary General a “teaspoon of aid” and which has been rejected by all international humanitarian organizations as breaching all aid protocols.
Gaza’s starvation comes after 19 months of relentless bombing that has destroyed hundreds of hospitals, schools, places of worship as well as leveled almost all residential neighborhoods. Despite the appalling death toll, Congressman Mike Thompson, Senator Adam Schiff and Alex Padilla continue to oppose an arms embargo and are therefore complicit in what the International Court of Justice already called a ‘plausible’ genocide 16 months ago. As one of the flyers handed out at the march explained, US financial and military aid to Israel should not be used for war crimes but for investment in our communities: “As taxpayers, Davis contributes the equivalent of $4,329,720 to Israel’s weapons—money that could fund healthcare, our schools, and a green transition.”
Among the marchers were a significant number of Jewish Americans. Jennifer Selwyn, a member of Davis Jews for Justice said: “As an American Jew whose government has supported and abetted Israeli military action and destruction in Gaza, I felt that it was urgently important to attend the silent March for Gaza to join with others in expressing our ongoing solidarity and shared grief with Palestinians in Gaza and across the diaspora.”
Silent protests are the best.
For everyone else.
“As taxpayers, Davis contributes the equivalent of $4,329,720 to Israel’s weapons—money that could fund healthcare, our schools, and a green transition.”
I’d like to know how and where those numbers were derived?
I appreciate this protest as reported. I believe wholeheartedly in the power of nonviolent protest. I also appreciate here that most the protestors have the courage and conviction to show their faces.
As for the board, I don’t agree with the message of ‘genocide’ as assumed, nor do I appreciate the River/Sea chant as necessarily not a call for the abolition of Israel – as it certainly can be. However generally the statements on the board shown are pro-Palestine, concern for the people, and not, mostly, outright anti-Israel / anti-Jew.
In contrast, a group of fully-masked people occupied the UCD Coffeehouse 2-1/2 weeks ago with a bullhorn shouting, “We don’t want no two state, we want all 48”. That is, unless someone wants to explain otherwise, is a call for the abolition of Israel. That protest went against UCD’s policy on time, place, manner & identity on protests, yet UCD did nothing. Thanks Gary May, for nothing.
Are these friends or allies of yours, you who marched at the Farmer’s Market? I believe that the pro-Palestine groups at the Farmer’s market are for a two-state solution, am I correct? If yes, ***will y’all denounce*** the group at the Coffee House that were chanting a slogan that calls for a one-state solution that eliminates Israel? Not that we know who they are, as they were fully masked. Will you call for them to show their faces?
Again, thank you all for a peaceful protest at the Farmer’s Market. Silence I can hear.