 On November 4th, 300,000 people marched in Washington DC from the Freedom Plaza to the White House in the largest Palestine solidarity march in U.S. history. This unprecedented demonstration comes in the wake of Israel's ongoing genocide in the Gaza Strip, which has just surpassed 10,000 casualties. This march was organized by a wide range of Palestinian, Arab and anti-imperialist groups, including the Palestinian youth movement, the Answer Coalition, the People's Forum, and national students for justice in Palestine. Hundreds of thousands rallied and then marched to the White House, demanding an end to U.S. funding for Israel and a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip. This 300,000 strong march occurred in the heart of Israel's most significant backer, the United States, despite the fact that people in this country have been faced with various forms of repression for supporting Palestine. To speak more about the Palestine solidarity movement in North America, people's dispatch spoke to Yara Shufani of the Palestinian youth movement, a Palestinian living in Toronto who has been organizing around the Palestine solidarity movement for 10 years. I'm wondering if you could start off by just telling me a bit about yourself, you know, how long you've been organizing in solidarity with Palestine and what drove you to be involved in that first place? I've been organizing around Palestine for over 10 years now and I'm originally Palestinian. My grandfather was exiled in 1948 from Palestine and what Palestinians call the catastrophe or the Nakba and he was 16 years old, removed from his village and spent the rest of his life as a refugee and, you know, for all his life he waited to return to Palestine and unfortunately was, you know, was never able to return in the course of his life and so organizing around Palestine for me is very much something that's reflected in my family and I think that's the story of all or so many Palestinians right who are in the far diaspora in North America and Europe and other parts of the world who come to this because they grow up hearing stories of exile, stories of dispossession, some of us still have family in Palestine and so for many Palestinians it really is a carrying forward of a multi-generational struggle, a 75-year long struggle for freedom and to return to our homeland, you know, on behalf of for many of us grandparents who've never been able to return. You attended D.C. as you spoke about before. Could you speak about some of your reflections from the march? The march that took place on November 4th in Washington D.C. which the Palestinian youth movement and other co-convening organizations helped together was a historic day I think for the Palestinian struggle. It was the largest march in U.S. history focused on Palestine with hundreds of thousands of people in attendance and really the march had three central demands. One was the demand for an immediate ceasefire. The second is a demand to end U.S. military aid to Israel and the third was a calling to lift the siege on Gaza which has been ongoing for 17 years whereby the Zionist state controls Gaza's air, land and water effectively making the Gaza strip an open air prison and all of these demands really are reflective of a movement that is interested in the question of Palestinian liberation that is fighting for Palestinian liberation and what makes it so critical and so historic I think is that we were really it was a show of power in the heart of U.S. empire. We were able to bring together a historic number of people and the determination that people had to march to the White House and not with the interest of appealing to the American government which we know has been the Zionist state's biggest ally. We know Zionism to be the child of Western imperialism, a reflection of Western imperialism in the Middle East and so the march was not about appealing to the United States government but to mobilize the masses to show that the United States government that this pressure is going to continue and we're going to continue to organize and continue to place pressure until the ceasefire is called and until military aid to Israel stops and what was critical about it was the fact that just a few days prior to the march the Biden administration voted to send an additional $14.3 billion to the Zionist state effectively rewarding it for its genocide. This $14.3 billion is on top of a $3.8 billion that the United States sends each year to the Zionist state to massacre Palestinians. This is in a country where healthcare and education are crying for funding where people are demanding and have been demanding good jobs, public investment in infrastructure, in the environment and so really what the United States is affirming and is telling the American public by choosing to instead send $14.3 billion to a country committing genocide is that its interests are not with the American people, with the American working class, with the public but rather its interests are in service of empire and what makes this march so historic in the backdrop of the United States government ignoring the masses, ignoring the fact that 66% of the American people want to see a ceasefire is also the heightened level of repression that we have seen on Palestinian and Arab and Muslim organizing since the beginning of October. We have seen a major crackdown on Palestinian organizing. We have seen the President of the United States engage effectively in hate speech against the Palestinian people and we know that this is because in order to justify and create public support for Israel's genocide of the Palestinian people, the United States must engage in both media and political propaganda in order to deceive the American public and really dismiss silence and delegitimize the mass movement of people in the United States and across the world that is fighting for Palestinian liberation and we know that the impacts of this kind of rhetoric, this kind of repression surveillance against the Palestinian movement is not only going to result in violence against the Palestinian people in Gaza and in Palestine but also has implications for Palestinians living in the United States. We saw just a few weeks ago the murder of a six-year-old Palestinian boy in Chicago which one of the speakers at the march was very clear to say that this is a direct outcome of Joe Biden's hate speech against the Palestinian people and the landlord who murdered the six-year-old Palestinian boy said that he was motivated by what he was seeing on his TV, the rhetoric that he was seeing on his TV and so in this backdrop, in this amidst these conditions of surveillance, of repression, of hate speech against the Palestinian people, against Palestinian movement to have a collection or a gathering of over 300,000 people essentially saying we are not afraid, we refuse to be afraid and we are going to make our voices heard, we are going to organize in a show of power and we are going to make sure that the people of Gaza know that they are not alone and we are going to make sure that the US government knows that its funding for Zionist genocide is not going to go unchallenged, truly makes this a historical moment and you could feel that energy in the crowd, the energy of anger that we were gathering at a time where there were 10,000 Palestinians in the last month that had been murdered by the Zionist state, nearly half of whom were children so there was anger and outrage and sadness but it was paired with determination, with the refusal to be afraid and with determination to organize and continue to organize in service of Palestinian national liberation. Yeah, you definitely mentioned the fact that it was historic, the sheer amount of people and energy, I'm wondering if you could just describe also what it was like to be in the midst of that, marching among 300,000 people, obviously I think something pretty notable is that the speeches and the people that were put forward to speak were actually very openly anti-imperialist and anti-Zionist, something that you don't see in a march of this size so could you describe a little bit about what that was like for you? Over 75 years the Palestinian national liberation struggle has been very clear that it is an anti-imperialist struggle. This dates all the way back to actually before the creation of the Zionist state in the 1936 Palestinian revolution where the Palestinian peasantry engaged in a historic three-year-long struggle against not only Zionist settlement and settlers who were removing the peasantry from the land but also against the British Empire during a time when the British were colonizing Palestine and so from its earliest days the Palestinian national liberation struggle has understood itself to be an anti-imperialist struggle and has aligned itself with other anti-imperialist struggles and movements for national liberation in the global south and it was critical for us that a march of this size and this kind of historic march respected and stayed true to the 75-year-long Palestinian tradition of anti-colonialism, anti-Zionism and anti-imperialism and while also being able to bring together a broad coalition of people of organizations, hundreds of endorsing organizations and people from all walks of life under our demands and you could definitely see the level of alliances and solidarity and internationalism and joint struggle in the speakers. We had speakers from a variety of different organizations, indigenous organizations, black organizations and many others and the thought process here for us was really based in a understanding of Zionism as a reflection of Western colonialism and Western imperialism, understanding that Zionism is a threat to the global south and has always been a threat to the global south, not only the Arab region where it serves as an outpost for US-led empire but across the world. We've seen Zionism's reactionary impacts in Latin America all across Asia through its partnership with the United States and we've also seen Zionism's repressive impacts in the United States where the Zionist state has trained American police officers and so we know that Zionism is a reactionary movement, it is a movement that is grounded in sort of this fascistic drive to ethnically cleanse the Palestinian people and to serve as an outpost for Western empire in the in the Arab world and all across the global south and so the speakers and the chance and the signage that we saw the banners all across the march really reflected the anti-imperialist and anti-colonial nature of the Palestinian national liberation struggle because ultimately the number that we saw the you know over 300,000 people that came to the march it was not only a reflection of a few weeks of tireless organizing for this march and it was also not only a reflection of the anger and outrage that we're seeing over the Zionist state's current genocide on Gaza which we've seen unfold over the last month although of course these two things are critical but it was a reflection and a culmination of 75 years longer for people's struggle and so what was critical that our messaging and our demands balanced both the need for broad coalitions and a mass movement while also staying true to a 75 year long struggle of our people. You know I think that coming out of a 300,000 strong march in DC you see how popular the issue is you know among people all across North America it's really like somewhat of a no-brainer at this point in our political moment that there's genocide in Gaza that it needs to stop. I think that you know sometimes like after seeing such a historic march it can be easy to forget that pro-Palestinian organizing is actually heavily repressed in North America and I'm wondering if you could speak to that a little bit because you alluded to it as well you know the difficulties of Palestine solidarity organizing in the U.S. and Canada and if you personally or through your organizing have experienced repression state repression you know any sort of repercussions that you want to speak about. Palestinian organizing is heavily repressed in in the imperial core and that's really a reflection of just how intertwined Zionism and imperialism are whereby imperialist nations like Canada like the United States and European nations see Palestinian organizing as something that they need to shut down in order to continue to support the Zionist state's genocide against our people and the way that this repression unfolds has all kinds of faces and really reflects a strong relationship between Zionist institutions in the imperial core and the states that and the respective western states like America, Canada, Britain and what we've seen historically is severe repression on college campuses and university campuses. Campuses have been a major site of struggle where you know Palestinian organizing is repressed, is shut down, is come down on by university administrations. We've also seen in the last few years the push in Canada, the United States and other parts of the world for the adoption of the IHRA definition of anti-Semitism which Zionist institutions have been pushing for and what this definition basically does is it equates anti-Zionism, so organizing against the Zionist state's ideology to anti-Semitism and we've seen this definition taken up not only on university campuses but at the state level and this has represented a critical site of repression for our people basically conflating fighting for Palestinian national liberation and freedom with hate speech and we've seen this kind of direction and the push for this kind of direction unfolding over the last couple of weeks. So for example we've seen rhetoric around deportation where in Canada just recently a few really central media figures and public figures have gone and said publicly that those who are joining the protests who are participating in these protests should be investigated and deported. So we're seeing really a level of rhetoric that we know is going to lead to high levels of repression particularly against organizers of these movements whereby threats are being made and discourses being put forward around deportation and criminal charges. And when you really think about it we're talking about hundreds of thousands in cities and millions across these countries of people who are refusing to power to this repression and this rhetoric but historically we've also seen really atrocious forms of repression that is not only confined to this moment so for example there is the case of the Holy Land Five where Palestinian leaders in the United States are still being held by the United States government in prison and there has been a movement that has been going on for years trying to call for the release of the Holy Land Five and this is reflective of a history of the repression against movements that are fighting for Palestinian liberation and I think one of the things that really stood out to me at the march was Mohammad Al-Kurd's speech where he basically said to the crowd ask the crowd are you afraid and the crowd chanted back no and he said this there was this back and forth between him and the crowd a few times where he was essentially getting the crowd to get to a point where we're both acknowledging that we are going to see mass levels of repression that we are already seeing mass levels of repression and surveillance of our movements while also affirming that we will not be silent even if this repression even as this repression reaches its peaks whether that be on university campuses people losing jobs so employers coming down on them for speaking up about Palestine whether that be a state-based repression that there is a whole movement of hundreds of thousands of millions of people who will stand behind us when we face this level of repression you know I thought that was really remarkable too and you know there were so many speakers I think who referred to this idea that you know people may be afraid people may I mean even Nakamura fred up you know people may want to be afraid of losing their careers or what have you but this is like a moment a unique moment to be brave so I think you know obviously the march was a testament to that but you know I think also on that same vein we've definitely touched on it here and there but this is obviously a very unique moment in Palestine solidarity organizing it's very unprecedented you know not only is there this genocide going on in Gaza but there's also like historic levels of resistance too and all of that that's happening in Palestine filters into the movements here and I'm wondering if you you know could speak to like the uniqueness of the moment and what that warrants in terms of the organizing it's becoming very clear that the facade of Zionism as something that is here to stay is slowly being ripped off we are seeing definitely a historic moment across the world you know and we are seeing for example workers refuse to transport weapons to the Zionist state we are seeing mass strikes we are seeing student walkouts that are going all the way down to high schools so not even just university campuses but high school students are walking out in protest of this genocide we are seeing mass movements but in the and in the global south we're even seeing nations who are cutting ties to the Zionist state who are recalling ambassadors and so we're really talking about a global movement and it is clear that the masses of the world support the Palestinian struggle for liberation and that is historic and and a reflection of 75 years long of our people's struggle and really I think this is the moment for us to continue to stretch and push and drive the movement forward we need people to join organizations to get out on the streets and to really take up their role as people who are fighting for our people's struggle so we are calling on people to get organized this is the moment where we can build a movement and really kind of build mass organizations so that we make sure that what happened on November 4th is not just a moment but is actually being directed towards a mass movement that we could continue to build on and I think what this really indicates is that colonial colonial regimes will fall all colonial regimes all colonial empires you know have to we'll have to reckon with the power of people the power of the organized masses the revolutionary the revolutionaries who are leading these movements who are refusing to to buckle in the face of repression in the face of genocide and really in the context of the Palestinian national liberation struggle we are talking about a people who for 75 years have been resisting occupation colonization and imperialism and they have had the most powerful and brutal nations conspiring against them the United States European nations the Zionist state and yet the Palestinian people refuse to stop abandon their national liberation struggle refuse to capitulate and refuse to allow for our people's struggle to be abandoned and in the context of North America and the context of Europe the Palestinian people refuse to turn our backs on our people in our homeland we see our struggle as interconnected we believe we have a historic role to play in the imperial core in the heart of empire and confronting Zionism and confronting imperialism that we are not only in solidarity with the Palestinian people but that their struggle and our struggle are the same struggle and this is the what we're calling on people to take up is a form of internationalism that really understands that the Palestinian struggle is at the center of anti-imperialist struggle that Gaza in particular is a critical part of the anti-imperialist struggle and for all people who care about the Palestinian or who care about revolution who care about progressive movements Palestine should be a central to that and think often of the words of Palestinian revolutionary Resan Kenafani who said that the Palestinian cause is not a cause for Palestinians only but a cause for every revolutionary wherever he is a cause of the exploited and oppressed masses in our era and I think that this is the kind of outlook to the Palestinian national liberation struggle that we need everyone to take up in this moment to see that the struggle for Palestine that the the struggle that the people of Gaza have been waging is one that is central to the challenging of imperialism and the advancing of revolution across the world. Thank you so much Yara.