As summer cools toward fall, activism around violence in the Middle East is heating up again. Activists from around the state say they plan a two-day protest Saturday on Cambridge Common to show “solidarity with Palestinians living under Israeli Bombardment in Gaza.”
The original plan was for an overnight encampment, said Fawaz Abusharkh, a representative for the groups planning the event. It would be a one-night version of the camps at Harvard, MIT and Tufts before ther summer that led to threats, arrests and university punishments against students.
“The city said it would not allow an overnight camp and would arrest people who were there overnight,” Abusharkh said Wednesday.
Instead of the original schedule shared by Massachusetts Peace Action for a camp from 10 a.m. Saturday to 3 p.m. Sunday, there will be a Community Encampment for Palestine from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. Saturday and 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Sunday, Abusharkh said. Around 250 people are expected.
Police are working with organizers on how to protect equipment that will be on the common overnight under a tent. “They will be allowed to station a security component to watch their electronic equipment overnight,” Cambridge spokesperson Robert Goulston said. “We plan to staff as needed with the goal of maintaining public safety and a safe environment for everyone.”
The protest on the common is meant to “bring the broader Massachusetts community into the fight” for a cease-fire of Israeli violence and an end to its siege of Gaza, as well as to allow humanitarian and medical aid into the area, according to a Massachusetts Peace Action email. The United States is called on to end support for Israeli violent and divest from Israel and war industries, corporations and stocks – demands like those made by student encampments at Harvard, MIT and Tufts.
An event schedule shows chants for peace, music, exercises and speeches as well as educational talks.
The event is sponsored by the MAPA Education Fund, Northshore for Palestine, Palestinian House of New England, JVP Boston, Doctors Against Genocide, Boston Coalition for Palestinian Rights, Unitarian-Universalists for Justice in the Middle East, Alliance for Water Justice in Palestine, Watertown Citizens for Peace, Justice and the Environment/Peace and Common Security and the Friends Meeting in Cambridge Peace and Social Justice Committee.
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One question for this righteous encampment: Will Peace Action or any other group utter a single word of criticism of Hamas (by name!) and its massacre of 1,200 people on Oct 7?
Activists with principles can criticize Israel and Hamas at the same time.
Propagandists and apologists for terror can only babble on about “heroic acts of resistance.”
Dan? Is that you?
Why are you asking that question in the comments here? Do you think the encampment wrote the article?
Sorry Sam…I’m not Dan
Ah, summer vacation is over. These kids must have been too busy with their internships or backpacking trips to Europe to care about Gaza, just as they were too busy from October 7, 2023 until the weather warmed up in the spring of 2024.