Two speakers who spoke Saturday, Feb. 24, at the pro-Palestine rally were from Students for Justice in Palestine-CSULB and the Palestinian Youth Movement.
Feb. 24, Bixby Park; Photo by Barry Saks.
The CSULB student representing SJP, said, “I’m here today standing in solidarity with Palestinians that are being displaced and murdered as we speak. Days keep passing by and the biggest powers in the world continue to choose to stay silent. Suppression of student activism on colleges around the country is a huge problem. CSULB is one of those institutions who is responsible for the suppression….Cal State Long Beach chooses not to recognize the ongoing genocide and criminalizes its students for being pro-Palestine…Just because it is not happening in your backyard does not give you the right not to care.”
Feb. 24, Bixby Park; Photo by Barry Saks.
The PYM speaker, who is a 16-year-old Palestinian-American, said, “When my father was a child, his family was forcibly removed from the West Bank and then fled to Kuwait….What is happening in Gaza is not a new problem. It has been 75 years of occupation, …75 years of ethnic cleansing, 75 years of international inaction, 75 years of dehumanization,…and 75 years of longing for freedom, justice and liberty.”
Barry Saks 