| A wide array of actions were organized on November 9 for the Global Shutdown for Palestine | MR Online A wide array of actions were organized on November 9 for the Global Shutdown for Palestine.

People across the globe disrupt “business as usual” for Palestine

Originally published: Peoples Dispatch on November 10, 2023 by Natalia Marques (more by Peoples Dispatch)  | (Posted Nov 11, 2023)
Movements, Protest, Strikes, WarGaza, Global, Israel, Middle East, PalestineNewswire

Around the world, people took action in solidarity with Palestine on November 9, determined to disrupt the “business as usual” that has led to almost 11,000 killed in the Gaza Strip. The call to “Shut It Down for Palestine” was convened by the Palestinian Youth Movement, National Students for Justice in Palestine, the ANSWER Coalition, the People’s Forum, the International Peoples’ Assembly, Al-Awda-NY, and the Palestinian American Community Center (PACC)-NJ.

JASOD, a socialist party in Bangladesh, organized a demonstration in Dhaka, which condemned the US, the EU, and G-7 countries for their support of Israel.

In Italy, students occupied the University of Padua in solidarity with Palestine. “After the occupation of the rectory’s courtyard and the insufficient response of the University of Padua, we decided to occupy the Humanities pole of our university,” wrote the students on Instagram.

Let more and more voices be raised to stop the genocide in Palestine, for the freedom of Palestine.

A group of transport trade unions in Greece, Italy, and Turkey issued a joint call to “stop and prevent any loading and unloading of weapons, war material or any means that could continue to fuel the massacre of the Palestinian people.”

“We call on the trade unions of dockers, ship workers, airport workers, railway workers, and all transport workers in Europe to support our initiative and call for joint action by workers in our sectors across Europe,” continued the statement, signed by USB Transport in Italy, the Greek unions ENEDEP-COSCO Dockers Union, Piraeus Port, STEFENSON, PEMEN, and PEEMAGEΝ, and the Turkish union Nakliyat Is.

The left-wing coalition Bloque de Resistencia Y Rebeldía Popular of El Salvador organized a rally to stop the genocide in Gaza in Plaza Palestina in San Salvador.

Palestine solidarity activists occupied Union Station in Toronto, Canada, in an action organized by the Palestinian Youth Movement.

In the United States, the biggest financier of Israeli occupation in the world, students organized numerous walkouts of high schools and universities. Georgia State University students rallied in front of the Georgia-Israel Law Enforcement Exchange Office in Atlanta. High school students at numerous schools in New York City walked out of classes, including the Young Women’s Leadership School of the Bronx.

Afrin, a senior at the Young Women’s Leadership School, said at the walkout,

Students have historically been at the forefront of struggles for justice. But especially struggles against war and militarism.

“The people who we call our representatives and leaders are nothing but pawns of power,” she continued.

Our power is greater than their power and our morals are stronger than their hypocrisy.

In the morning of November 9, a group of demonstrators occupied the lobby of the BlackRock headquarters in New York City, unfurling a list of names of the 11,000 murdered by Israeli airstrikes in Gaza. Protesters shamed BlackRock for holding major shares in weapons companies such as Lockheed Martin, RTX, Northrop Grumman, Boeing, and General Dynamics that supply Israel, and began reading the list of names. Demonstrators did not even finish reading out the last names that began with “A” before police escorted them out.

A group of writers and journalists occupied the New York Times building in New York City, reading out a shortened version of the list of 11,000 Gazans killed by Israel and protesting pro-zionist mainstream news coverage. Protesters covered the lobby in fake New York Times newspapers entitled “The New York (War) Crimes.”

Thousands of protesters also rallied in front of the New York Public Library, marching to the New York Times building to join the media workers gathered inside.

Organizers announced in a statement that the November 9 global shut down is the first in a series of global days of actions that will continue “until Gazans can live with dignity and Palestine is free!” Yara Shoufani of the Palestinian Youth Movement said.

They said in the statement that the actions seek to build “a political climate that makes Israel’s business of genocide unsustainable.” Meanwhile, on the same day, Israel continued to launch airstrikes against vital areas in Gaza. On November 9, Israel attacked several medical facilities, further endangering both patients and people who have taken refuge there.

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