International formations including the International Peoples’ Assembly and Progressive International have called for a day of action on June 8 against Israel’s genocide in Gaza and for the people of the world to “hold their governments accountable and demand they must cut political, diplomatic, economic and cultural ties with Zionism.”
“The international community increasingly condemns and rejects the genocide that Israel is carrying out on the Palestinian people, as evidenced by the call for ceasefire in the UN security council, the call for investigations and arrest of Israeli leaders for war crimes in the ICC, the call for a halt to the invasion of Rafah by the ICJ and the recognition of Palestinian statehood by various countries,” the IPA wrote in a recent statement.
The demands listed by the organization include an immediate and permanent ceasefire, but also include an end to the siege on Gaza, freedom for all Palestinian political prisoners, and an end to the occupation of Palestine.
Actions have been organized in several countries. In the US, tens of thousands will surround the White House in protest of Biden’s continued funding and supplying of the genocide, despite the ongoing invasion of Rafah, which he had earlier claimed was a “red line” for the United States. Over 200 national and international organizations have endorsed the mass mobilization, including the Palestinian Youth Movement, National Students for Justice in Palestine, The People’s Forum, Al-Awda: The Palestine Right to Return Coalition, US Palestinian Community Network, ANSWER Coalition, and the US Campaign for Palestinian Rights.
For this action, people across the United States will travel from as far as Michigan, Iowa, Florida, and Kentucky to converge on the White House.
“The Israeli military has just carried out another horrific massacre—this time targeting a United Nations school in Gaza where refugees were sheltering. Dozens have been killed, including many children. The bombs, jets and other weaponry Israel uses to commit atrocities like this on a regular basis are provided by the United States—that’s why we are going to surround the White House on Saturday to protest at the doorstep of the war criminal Joe Biden,” said Miriam Osman of the Palestinian Youth Movement.
In Italy, the student movement organized mobilizations at several universities on June 7. The students are also protesting their government’s support for the Israeli genocide in Gaza. The Italian government continues to send arms to Israel despite widespread opposition and protest.
“From our country we continue sending weapons to support the atrocities as well as political legitimacy, which came unanimously from the whole ruling class from right to left,” wrote Cambiare Rotta, an organization of communist youth in Italy.
“As students we have been mobilized from the very beginning to attack the role that the academy has in genocide. Throughout Italy we have achieved victories by blocking agreements with Israel, Israeli universities and with Italian companies and institutions that militarily support the Zionist regime,” the organization continued, calling for all Italian universities to mobilize on June 7.
In São Paulo, Brazil, a mass mobilization has been called for June 9 by organizations including the São Paulo Palestine Front and the Truth and Peace Brigades, to end the genocide and to urge the Brazilian government to fully cut ties with Israel. President Lula has frequently denounced the genocide, including by comparing it to the holocaust, which resulted in Israeli officials formally banning him from the Zionist state. Most recently, on May 29, Lula withdrew Brazil’s ambassador to Israel.
The Socialist Movement of Ghana has organized a car caravan in solidarity with Palestine in Accra, Ghana, on June 8. In Nepal, students at the School of Philosophical Studies are also mobilizing for Palestine on June 8.
In London, the Palestine Solidarity Campaign has organized a national march for Palestine on June 8, calling on the government to stop arming Israel. Since 2008, the UK government has licensed arms worth over 574 million pounds to Israel. Palestine solidarity demonstrators have encountered police repression at previous marches, and the PSC, alongside other organizations, issued a statement ahead of June 8 regarding police presence at a previous march.
“At the last march, a serious issue emerged when the Met Police placed a counter demonstration within a meter of the main demonstration, leaving protestors exposed to abuse and direct threats. When we made these concerns public, the Met Police apologized for their actions and indicated that Assistant Commissioner Matt Twist would meet with us to ensure that such scenes would not be repeated. No such meeting has been offered despite our requests,” read a statement issued by the PSC, the Palestinian Forum in Britain, Friends of Al-Aqsa, Stop the War Coalition, the Muslim Association of Britain, and the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament. “Even more concerningly, all of our requests in the past 2 days to speak with the Gold Commander about how the counter demonstration will be managed to ensure safety, have been rebuffed.”
“We will not allow these issues or the actions of counter demonstrators to distract us from ensuring that the demands for an end to UK complicity in genocide once more echo on the streets of London. The demonstration will assemble at 12.30 pm at Russell Square tomorrow,” the organizations affirmed.
Speakers at the London march include artists and cultural workers such as poet Michael Rosen and actor Juliet Stevenson, as well as several labor leaders, including Dave Ward, the General Secretary of the Communication Workers Union, Maryam Eslamdoust, the General Secretary of the Transport Salaried Staffs’ Association, and Chris Smalls, President of the Amazon Labor Union.
Across the world, people have vowed to continue mobilizing and taking action to demand an end to the genocide and an end to their governments’ backing and normalization of Israel.
