On April 24, the Palestinian Youth Movement led a demonstration of nearly 100 people in San Diego’s Balboa Park. PYM was joined by the Party for Socialism and Liberation, Unión del Barrio, Asian Solidarity Collective and other community members to protest the ongoing Israeli aggression in Palestine, the attacks on the Al-Aqsa Mosque, and to demand that U.S. representatives end funding to Israel.
Speakers centered a message of determination and resilience in the face of ongoing brutality from the Israeli state. Jeanine Erikat, a member of the Palestinian Youth Movement, read some of the names of the more than 40 civilians recently killed in Jenin, West Bank, her home city and namesake. Erikat pointed out that this violence is cyclical in nature, as escalations continue every year following the holy month of Ramadan.
“The Zionist entity seeks to break our resolve, to fracture our steadfastness, by targeting us at our dearest times. They do this not only through disproportionate use of force, taking full advantage of their monopoly on power, but also by means of psychological warfare,” Reem Zubaidi, a member of the Party for Socialism and Liberation, told the crowd.
Zubaidi continued, “We in the diaspora need to rise to become an asset to Palestinians and demand the right to return, demand justice. We must become a united front and a formidable foe to those who dare to defend the Zionist settler-colonial state and its imperialist supporters.”
A march followed the set of speakers where chants of “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free,” and “Intifada, Intifada, we support the Intifada,” rang throughout the Prado area of Balboa Park.
Attendees gathered for a sit-in following the march and then projected messages of resistance against the walls of the Museum of Us. Messages included “Hands off Palestine” and “Revolution until victory.”
The community shared tangerines and spoke together to close out the event, vowing to carry on the heroic tradition of Palestinian resistance.
