Image Credit: NYC-DSA

Washington, March 8 (RHC)-- Hundreds of protesters in Washington, DC blockaded roads outside the White House and near the Capitol Thursday evening, delaying U.S. President Joe Biden’s State of the Union speech. 

Ahmad Abuznaid with the U.S. Campaign for Palestinian Rights, speaking from one of the shut down streets, told the crowd:  “President Biden is talking about building a port to get aid into Gaza. But the simple formula is stop funding the occupation and the genocide, and Palestinians will build their own damn port!”

Activists also delivered their own People’s State of the Union Thursday night.  Sumaya Awad from the Adalah Justice Project said:  “We’re out here representing the majority of Americans, who have made it clear time and again in the last five months that they demand a ceasefire now, that they demand no more weapons to Israel.  The majority of the people in this country want taxpayer dollars invested in life, not in genocide, not in war.”

Protests took place elsewhere across the country, including Chicago, where a coalition of activists held a “State of the Genocide.”  Participants observed a 24-hour vigil in Federal Plaza, reading aloud the names of over 30,000 Palestinians killed by Israel in the last five months.

In Gaza, the Health Ministry says Israeli attacks have killed at least 78 people and wounded more than 100 others over the past day.  In the southern city of Rafah, at least five people were killed in an Israeli strike.  

As they deplored the destruction, people at the scene blasted Biden’s plans for an aid port.  One survivor of an Israeli attack said: “Instead of telling us they will build a port to help us, stop providing the weapons they throw at us.  All these American weapons are killing our kids and killing us wherever we go.  We don’t need aid from them.  We need them to stop the killing, stop the death.  Wherever we go, we find death.”