Massive US pro-Palestine rally demands Gaza ceasefire as war marks 100 days

For many people, the main goal for Palestine and its cause — especially besieged Gaza — is not just a ceasefire, a free and recognised state, but for the Palestinians to be left in peace.

One participant who shares such opinion from Saturday's massive pro-Palestine rally in the US capital, Washington DC, is 26-year-old Indian national Mohamed Kashif, who told TRT World: "We want a completely free Palestine."

As the Israeli brutal war on the blockaded enclave marks 100 days, Kashif said, "The US is playing a bad role by supplying weapons to Israel, which they use to kill Palestinian people. We are here to say to the government of America [US] to stop supplying [Israel] so the people of Palestine can live peacefully."

Kashif commended South Africa for the genocide case it brought to the International Court of Justice against Israel, saying: "We are all with South Africa. This is our case."

The US has previously slammed South Africa's case against Israel as "meritless", saying there is nothing happening in besieged Gaza that dictates a genocide.

Thousands participated in the pro-Palestine rally in the US capital on Saturday, with many Palestinian, Yemeni and South African flags seen in the demonstration.

Many of them chanted "Free Palestine" and "Free Gaza", while others held signs and banners that read: "Ceasefire Now" and "End the war on Gaza."

The rally, which started at 1pm local time (1800 GMT) and lasted for roughly three and a half hours, was organised by The American Muslim Task Force on Palestine, an organisation that includes American Muslims for Palestine [AMP], Council on American-Islamic Relations [CAIR], Islamic Circle of North America [ICNA], Muslim American Society [MAS] among others.

'Genocide didn't shake Biden, but disruption of trade did'

A 39-year-old Jewish American, Benjamin Douglas, criticised US President Joe Biden for launching strikes against Yemen's Houthis but not pushing for a ceasefire.

"Joe Biden is supposedly from the Liberal Party in the United States, but watching children have their limbs amputated without anaesthesia doesn't bother him or shake him on a foundational level. Watching hospitals and apartment buildings get bombed, and civilians get slaughtered by the thousands doesn't bother him. But a disruption in international trade, now all of a sudden, it's a crisis," Douglas told TRT World.

"There's also something that's kind of galling and outrageous that they think countries like the United States and Israel think they can just bomb whomever. And then they're outraged if someone shoots back," he added, calling for a change in the US foreign policy to prevent a regional war.

He also called out Biden for not realising how the landscape changed and not seeing that the majority wanted a ceasefire.

"He's frozen in a time where it's politically costly to challenge Israel in anything, and he doesn't want to do that… But the politicians have the power to challenge that if they have any principles, if they believe in a God**** thing, if they listen to what the people are saying," he said.

Being Jewish, Douglas said he grew up around some people who had "selective blind spots" for thinking that Israel is always innocent by definition, but he said he was opposed to the US support for Israel for ages.

"Anyone should be here protesting, particularly here in the United States, given our complicity as a country," he said.

Pro-Palestine rallies have been rocking the US since the start of Israel's war on besieged Gaza, and there was always a Jewish presence in those rallies.

Some of those rallies have been organised by Jewish groups, including the Jewish Voice for Peace, If Not Now and Neturei Karta.

'Heinous act, complicit in genocide'

During a recent visit to South Carolina, Biden responded to ceasefire chants by saying: "I've been quietly working with the Israeli government to get them to reduce and significantly get out of Gaza."

However, 69-year-old David Stewart, said that the US is enabling Israel to carry out the genocide in besieged Gaza.

"The US is happy enough with what is happening. They say they'd like fewer civilian casualties, but they're enabling the IDF [Israeli army] to kill Palestinians. They're absolutely enabling it… It's a heinous act, on their part, complicit in genocide," Stewart, who drove all the way from the state of Alabama to the US capital just to join the rally, told TRT World.

"We absolutely have to have a ceasefire. There needs to be a Palestinian state that's recognised. There needs to be human rights for Palestinians across the board," he added.

Another participant, African American Arron Little, told TRT World, "We're trying to tell Joe Biden that he will not be re-elected unless he calls for a ceasefire."

Recalling the history of Palestinian solidarity from the 50s until the George Floyd protests in 2020, Little said, "Our cultural understanding just brings us together."

Israel has killed 23,843 Palestinians and wounded 60,317 others in its brutal war on besieged Gaza.