Pro-Palestinian demonstrators rally in downtown Miami as Israel-Hamas war escalates
More than 200 demonstrators marched in downtown Miami Friday afternoon to rally for people living in Gaza, a response to the escalating Israel-Hamas war. And while relatively calm, tensions between Jewish and Palestinian marchers broke out briefly, with police intervening.
During rush hour, pro-Palestinian demonstrators lined one side of Biscayne Boulevard by Bayfront Park while chanting “Palestine will be free from the river to the sea.” They carried red, white, black and green Palestinian flags and hoisted placards that read, “I stand with Palestine.”
“No one else is giving us a voice, so we had to come out here and be heard,” said Adibe Amarin, 34, who moved to Miami from Jordan in 2016. He said Friday’s rally was needed to help people in the United States understand the plight of the people in Gaza.
The demonstrators clashed with about two dozen pro-Israel protesters, many of whom yelled expletives while holding signs that read “Blame Hammas” and “Kill Nazi Hammas.”
At one point, a Jewish man whose brother was killed in last week’s attack got out of the car while yelling at a man carrying a Palestinian flag. Another 41-year-old man intervened.
“Obviously, it’s a heated situation, and it’s easy to overreact,” said Adam, the man who broke up the encounter. He declined to give his last name. “It makes us look hostile, and a lot of people are trying to make us look hostile.”
The rally, which lasted about two hours until about 6:45 p.m., came nearly a week after Hamas militants launched an attack from the Gaza Strip into Israel, killing more than 1,300 people, including 247 soldiers, according to the Associated Press. Hamas is holding about 150 hostages, including women, children and the elderly, according to news reports.
The Israeli military response has killed about 1,800 people in Gaza, including United Nations workers, paramedics and journalists, according to the Associated Press.
On Wednesday, Khaled Mashal, the longtime former leader of Hamas, called on supporters around the world to rally for a “day of sacrifice” on Friday in support of the Palestinian cause, naming the date as “the Al-Aqsa Flood Friday,” a reference to a holy mosque in the Old City of Jerusalem. No one interviewed by the Herald said they attended Friday’s rally in response to Hamas’ call; they said they were there to call for a solution to the conflict.
3 groups behind rally
Three groups put together Friday’s rally: Al-Awda, Jewish Voice for Peace and Students for Justice in Palestine. Martha Schoolman, a representative for Jewish Voice for Peace, said they participated because “this is the whole point of our organization, to keep asserting that Jews and Palestinians don’t have to be at war.”
She, like others, believes the best solution for the Middle East conflict would be for both Palestinians and Jews to live in one state, together, with equal rights.
“What we have here is Jews and Palestinians hanging out together. We’re saying, ‘We can get along,” she said. “I’m saying, ‘In order to be a Jew, you don’t have to believe that your life is more valuable than a Palestinian life.”
On the other side of the street, a 54-year-old man named Reuben stood with a small Israeli flag sticking out of his vest. He was among the roughly 20 people gathered to counter the pro-Palestinian protest.
Reuben, who declined to provide his last name, is originally from Cuba, but has lived in Miami for the past 20 years. His father was Jewish, but his mother wasn’t, technically making him non-Jewish, he said.
That changed after the Hamas attacks, he said.
“Today, I’m a Jew,” he said. “100 percent.”
As the crowd on the other side chanted, “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free,” Reuben asked, “You know what that means? That means the annihilation of Israelis. That’s not sustainable.”
Nadera Shedadeh, 60, traveled to Miami from Fort Lauderdale to attend the rally “just to support the people of Palestine because no one thinks of them.”
“I’m sick to my stomach by what’s been going on,” Shedadeh said. “But when people are oppressed and stripped out of their human rights, what do you expect them to do, smile and say thank you very much?”
Ahmad Ratib, a Palestinian who lives in Miami, held up a sign that read: “It’s not clashes, conflict, two sides. It’s apartheid, colonialism, genocide, state-sanctioned violence!!!”
“I’m here to protest against injustices that have been going on for 75 years — it’s been 75 years of occupation,” he said.
He said his parents live in a village called Yabrud in the West Bank, and he’s visited them every year for the past three years. Each year, he’s had to fly into Jordan and then drive about five hours to the village because even though he’s an American citizen, he can’t fly into Tel Aviv — which is 30 minutes away from the village — because he holds a Palestinian passport. A recent change to Israeli law in July now allows him to fly into Tel Aviv.
Similarly, Israeli forces control the highways, commerce, construction, land in many parts of the West Bank, he said. Ratib said “occupied people have a right to resist” but he felt “numb” when he saw the news of Hamas’ attack.
“You want to be happy that there’s resistance, he said, “but you’re not happy there’s violence.”
Increased security
Miami Police briefly detained some protesters, but there was not an official account of how many people were detained. They were released shortly after.
The large police presence at Friday night’s rally was preceded by multiple state and local agencies announcing they would be on high alert through the day.
In social media post on X, formerly known as Twitter, Gov. Ron DeSantis said officers from the Florida Highway Patrol and Florida Department of Law Enforcement would continue to provide increased security to Jewish schools in Florida.
On Thursday night, Miami-Dade County Schools issued a statement on X saying the “safety of our students and employees is of the highest priority.” In light of the current events in the Middle East, “we want to assure our community that we are collaborating with federal, state and local agencies and partner institutions to share information and resources.”
James Somohano, director of community security for the Greater Miami Jewish Federation, said that although there were no credible threats in the area, there would be increased police presence at synagogues, Jewish schools, and community centers.
There was increased police presence and private security at mosques and Muslim schools as well, according to Khalid Mirza, chairman of the board of the Muslim Communities Association of South Florida. This is in response to the harassment the Muslim community has faced in recent days, in particular the experiences of women who wear the hijab head covering, he said.
Mirza said that he thinks the Muslim community as a whole is viewed as “the bad guys,” and that concerns him because “there are high sentiments on both sides.”
“We also condemn the killing of any innocent person in any way, and also we hope and pray for a long-term peace solution in the Middle East,” Mirza added.
For both Jewish and Muslim communities, Fridays are days of sacred religious observance. In the Jewish faith, it is the sabbath or day of rest; in the Muslim faith, it is the most important prayer of the week called “jumah,” or the day of gathering.
McClatchy Washington correspondent Michael Wilner and Herald staff writers Sommer Brugal and Amanda Geduld contributed to this report.
This story was originally published October 13, 2023 at 7:25 PM.
