On the second anniversary of the Oct. 7 attack on Israel by Hamas, pro-Palestinian protesters gathered on the 1500 block of Spring Garden Street in North Philadelphia, aiming to “disrupt workers for genocide.”
The rally was organized by a number of pro-Palestinian groups, including Philadelphia Educators for Palestine (PEFP), the Racial Justice Organizing Committee (RJOC), and the Philly Palestine Coalition. In several social media posts advertising the demonstration, the rally was referred to as a day to “demand an end to local complicity, collaboration and recognition of zionism.”
Protestors assembled outside of a Philadelphia-based business that supplies munitions to the United States Army, which has been accused of making millions off of arms sales to the Israel Defense Force (IDF), referred to as the Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) in a social post.
“October 7 marks two years since Palestinian resistance fighters bravely broke out of the prison that the zionist regime has turned Gaza into. Since then, more and more people around the world have awoken to the atrocities of the zionist regime as well as the steadfastness of Palestinians. It is undeniable that a genocide is being enacted by Israel in full collaboration with the U.S. and that the imperialist genocidal ethnostate responsible for the murder of 680,000+ lives has no right to exist.
“Now more than ever, we must reject all normalization with the zionist regime, uplift indigenous Palestinian resistance, and honor the martyrs,” one social post said.
Two years after its occurrence, the Oct. 7 attack continues to divide many across the world, including those in Philadelphia, despite the beginning of ceasefire talks between Israel and Hamas. More than 67,000 people in Palestine have died since that day, with nearly a third of the dead under the age of 18, according to Palestinian health authorities. Roughly 2,000 people in Israel, including those lost in the infamous attack.
For many, Oct. 7 will be remembered as the day over 1,200 people were killed and hundreds taken hostage in a Hamas-led attack, prompting a deadly military campaign by Israel in Gaza. For others, the day symbolizes the beginning of what they view as a necessary act of resistance against decades of Israeli occupation—marked by protest slogans invoking “rage and resistance.”
