Tucson community members gathered and marched on University Blvd. on Tuesday, March 18 to protest Israeli airstrikes on Palestine earlier that morning.
Palestinian health authorities said the strikes killed more than 400 people, breaking a ceasefire of nearly two months, according to Reuters. Both Israeli and Palestinian officials have accused each other of breaching the truce that went into effect in January, however Tuesday’s strikes were the most drastic, killing over 400 people.
“It’s been 18 months of genocide. Palestinian civilians have been slaughtered by weapons provided by the U.S. [and] our taxpayer dollars are used to kill innocent civilians,” said Firoz Azizi, an activist from the Party for Socialist Liberation. “There has been no food, no aid, no water allowed to enter into Gaza. These people have been starved; hundreds of thousands of children were going hungry. This is a crime against humanity perpetuated by the U.S. government.”
Local Palestinian supporters have called on the University of Arizona to stop all funding and support for organizations tied to weapons and technology in Israel.
“The U of A is complicit in this genocide. They have ties to Raytheon, Raytheon is one of the companies that provides the weapons to kill these innocent people to occupy Palestinian lands,” Azizi said. “We also want to be out here to put shame on the UA for repressing its students and having ties to this Israeli genocidal regime.”
The Marshall Foundation sent out an email to the businesses along University Bldv. to warn them about the last minute protest and advised them to remove any chairs, signs or items outside that “could be tempting to protesters.”
Protesters also held signs critical of the arrest of Mahmoud Khalil, a Columbia University student who was recently detained and threatened with deportation for his role in campus protests against Israel. Signs read, “The people are with Mahmoud” and “Release Mahmoud Khalil, hands off our students.”
“He was detained by ICE, by the Trump administration, to instill fear in us,” Tanya Núñez, a member of the Party for Socialist Liberation, said to the group of protesters. “If they go after one, they go after all of us, so all of us here need to band together,”
While Khalil is a legal citizen who has a green card, it is unclear if his citizenship can be stripped for protesting against Israel. The Trump administration claims his arrest was for his purported support of Hamas, a claim he denies. A federal judge has blocked Khalil’s removal from the U.S. as a legal battle between Khalil and the federal government continues.
“The hope going forward is full liberation for Palestine. We want to see an end to all of the aid the U.S. gives to Israel, and we want to see no weapons sent to Israel,” Azizi said.
Núñez said supporters will keep holding protests until they see justice for Palestine.
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