Georgetown / PNN /
The Palestinian Youth Movement, Maryland2Palestine, and Students for Justice in Palestine chapters at George Mason University, Georgetown, American University, and George Washington University will be holding a protest at the Lincoln Memorial on Saturday April 8, at 1:30 PM ET to protest Israeli violence against Palestinian worshippers at Jerusalem’s holy site, al-Aqsa mosque. The Palestinian organizations will be joined by local allies and social justice groups.
Before dawn on Wednesday April 5, Israeli Occupation Forces stormed al-Aqsa mosque and assaulted worshippers practicing I’tikaf during Ramadan — devoting themselves to prayer overnight for several nights at the mosque. Footage showed women screaming as soldiers smashed their batons on the heads of kneeling worshippers. Reports also showed images of vandalized rooms and burned furniture due to the attack. IOF prevented ambulances from accessing the mosque to treat dozens of injured Palestinians, including one who lost an eye from the beating. More than 400 worshippers were forcibly detained. In the evening, IOF raided the mosque a second time in one day, attacking Palestinian worshippers with stun grenades, rubber-coated steel bullets, and tear gas.
Attacks on al-Aqsa are part of systemic violence exercised by a brutal occupation. IOF have routinely escalated their violence during the month of Ramadan and used Al-Aqsa as a flashpoint for rallying settlers and encouraging violent acts of terror against Palestinians, thousands of whom visit the mosque every day to pray.
Palestinians and their allies demand that the U.S. ends its complicity in the Israeli colonial occupation by ceasing military funding, diplomatic cover to Israel, and repression of proponents of Palestinian rights.
The Palestinian Youth Movement is a transnational, independent, grassroots movement of Palestinian & Arab youth struggling for the liberation of our homeland. Our belonging to Palestine and our aspirations for justice and liberation motivate us to assume an active role as a young generation in our national struggle for the liberation of our homeland and people.
