New York City, NY — Lumi Azha stood in Central Park on a humid August 16 holding a sign emblazoned with the words “Severe Malnutrition: Save Haitham’s Life” above a picture of a young Palestinian man standing in front of buildings reduced to rubble. She spoke to anyone willing to listen about the plight of Haitham and other Palestinians currently trapped in Gaza, who now have to rely on the donations of friends and strangers far from their homes to buy what little food exists in Gaza to stave off starvation. 

“This is my friend Haitham. He is 22 years old, living in Gaza City. He is part of a family of ten. His brother was killed in an airstrike by the Israeli forces. His mom is a diabetic and severely malnourished. They are currently starving,” said Azha. 

It’s a scenario that has become the norm across Gaza, which has been largely closed off by Israel from aid distribution. According to the Palestinian Health Ministry, 313 people have starved to death in Gaza, including 119 children. To date, nearly 62,000 Palestinians have been killed in the genocide, a number that is likely a low estimate according to a report published by The Lancet.

Azha hit the streets of New York City earlier in the day on August 16 with thousands of others under the banner: Stop Starving Gaza – Mass March for Humanity. The action brought together a coalition of nearly 200 organizations, including the People’s Forum, the Palestinian Youth Movement, and CODEPINK. 

“We are out here today as we have been for the past 22 months of genocide,” said Ysabella Titi from the Palestinian Youth Movement. “We are out here for the mass march of humanity to demand food and water be let into Gaza, that this forced starvation campaign by the U.S. and Israel finally comes to an end,” she said.

Titi also decried the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation as an example of American and Israeli complicity joint efforts to “continue this genocide and to really force a starvation campaign on the people of Gaza. This is one of the foundations that have made a complete sham aid system after cutting food and water for months. And when finally a little bit gets in, they have people wait in line and they shoot at them, creating thousands of martyrs, just at these aid distribution sites.” she said. 

Demonstrators gathered on the steps of of the iconic main branch of the New York Public Library to listen to a series of speeches by activists in what has turned into a mass international movement against the genocide and to free Palestine. Notable activists that spoke to a chanting crowd included Mahmoud Khalil and Chris Smalls.

Both young men exhibited a kind of perseverance emblematic in the movement. Khalil was targeted by the Trump government for his political activism and thrown in an ICE detention center for over 100 days. He still remains a target of the government for deportation. Smalls was on the Handala humanitarian aid ship which attempted to sail to Gaza last month. The ship was intercepted by the Israeli Defense Forces, and Smalls, the only Black activist aboard the ship, was singled out and beaten by Israeli authorities. Both continue their organizing.

As the march snaked through the streets of midtown Manhattan, and around the city’s imposing skyscrapers, traffic came to a standstill. People emerged as a voice of unity from an otherwise diverse gathering. Entire families, and people young and old waved signs and chanted. Orthodox Jews marched side by side, Palestinian, Asian, and Latino demonstrators. Puerto Rican, Irish, and Filipino flags flew alongside Palestinian ones. Young Black activists led chants on megaphones, to which throngs of people responded. 

“The people of the world are realizing that Palestine is the issue of our time and we cannot sit idle as we see people get slaughtered on our phones,” said Ysabella Titi.

That sentiment is echoed globally: in the mass marches of Sydney, Australia earlier this month, in the fight against the erosion of free speech and in support of the non-violent direct action group Palestine Action in the UK, and the Global Sumud Flotilla currently being organized to sail across the Mediterranean Sea to attempt to break the siege of Gaza. 

Even in Israel, the tide is turning against the Netanyahu government which plans to expand the war. Over 1,000,000 Israelis marched to demand an end to the war in Gaza, and there continues to be growing voices of Israelis speaking out against what they too are now calling genocide. 

Eyad Alkurabi of the Queer Palestinian Empowerment Network ventured down to the city with other activists from the state’s capitol. “Albany itself has weekly demonstrations every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, but we wanted to join the march to develop a Palestine-strong and New York-strong solidarity movement,” said Alkurabi. He echoed calls from Palestinian Youth Movement and other groups to join the Boycott Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) campaign and for people to join protests, and join the movement wherever they live in the world. 

As the crowd thinned out at the close of the protest, Lumi Azha decided to stick around. When asked how the movement would win its demands, she said, “I think that we need to not lose hope and to continue fighting, to the end, as far as we need to go.”

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