CAMBRIDGE, MASS. (WHDH) - Hundreds gathered in Cambridge Monday in support of Palestinian people caught in the ongoing conflict between Hamas and Israel.
Days after Hamas fighters launched their surprise attack against Israel on Saturday, and after responses from Israel, organizers of the event in Cambridge said they condemn the killing of innocent civilians on both sides of the war and are mourning the lives lost.
“It’s been too much,” said one person supporting Palestine, Naureen Mowla. “We’ve watched time and time again where there’s no voices heard on one side and you only get one side of the story. So, we want people to know out here that Palestinian lives matter as well.”
“I feel that what’s been happening to them for decades is horrific — having their land stolen from them, being put in the largest open-air prison in the world in the Gaza strip where they’re fenced in,” said event attendee Mahpowin Monroe.
Many in Cambridge were talking about what is called the Nakba, when Palestinians were forced from their homeland in 1948. Palestinians have lived in displacement ever since.
The United Nations agency created to serve those displaced people now says there are 5.9 million registered Palestinian refugees with more than 1.5 million living in refugee camps.
Those living in Gaza have been under a blockade for 16 years.
“It has been blocked from access to basic necessities and under, essentially, no condition that any human being should be made to live under,” said Jeff Rosenberg of the Party for Socialism and Liberation.
Tensions were high along Massachusetts Avenue near Cambridge City Hall Monday, with Cambridge police keeping Palestinian and Israeli supporters on opposite sides of the street. Hundreds on the Palestinian side soon marched through Cambridge, moving from City Hall, though Central Square and over to MIT.
Speaking with 7NEWS, people in the area said said this decades long conflict has now reached a critical point.
“Ultimately, any sort of solution needs to require clear dignity and respect for the rights of all people living in Palestine and ensuring that they’re able to determine their own destiny,” Rosenberg said. “Right now, they’ve been denied that for generations.”
Despite high tensions in Cambridge Monday, police said they did not have any reportable arrests related to the rally and march.
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