A coalition of South Florida groups supporting Palestinians began 48 hours of protests on Tuesday night in Miami to demand the Biden administration call for a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas militants.
Organized by the South Florida Coalition for Palestine, it is pushing for a ceasefire to allow more humanitarian aid to enter the war-torn Gaza Strip and to “stop the genocide of Palestinians in Gaza.”
Coalition members gathered at the Torch of Friendship off Biscayne Boulevard in Miami to begin a sit-in to commemorate the mass displacement of the 1948 war with Israel, which Palestinians call the Nakba, an Arabic word meaning catastrophe. In the months before and during the 1948 war, an estimated 700,000 Palestinians fled or were expelled from what is now Israel.
The current conflict with Israel is rekindling painful memories of the Nakba because Palestinians are being forced to move from their homes in northern Gaza and crowding into squalid tent camps in southern Gaza.
“The Gazan people couldn't be facing a more catastrophic situation,” said coalition member Anas Amireh in a statement before Tuesday night’s Miami sit-in protest.
The Associated Press reported that about 800,000 Palestinians have reportedly fled to the south in Gaza, but many have not, in part because they say nowhere is safe as Israeli airstrikes in the south have continued to cause civilian deaths.
More than 8,500 Palestinians have been killed in the war, mostly women and minors, the Gaza Health Ministry said Tuesday, without providing a breakdown between civilians and fighters. The figure is without precedent in decades of Israeli-Palestinian violence.
Over 1,400 people have died on the Israeli side, mainly civilians killed during Hamas’ initial Oct. 7 attack, also an unprecedented figure. Palestinian militants also abducted around 240 people during their incursion and have continued firing rockets into Israel.
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In addition to its planned sit-in, the South Florida coalition plans to call members of Congress, read the names of Palestinians killed in the war and hold a candlelight vigil on Thursday night.
Coalition members argue that Israel has “imposed a suffocating and illegal occupation on the people of Palestine.” They also note that several major human rights groups say Israel’s control over the Palestinians amounts to apartheid, an allegation Israel rejects as an attack on its legitimacy.
Wilfredo Ruiz, media director of the Florida chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, said coalition members cannot stay silent in the face of so many Palestinian deaths.
“As the violence escalates, we cannot sit by. We won’t sit by,” he said in a statement. “Our many communities Muslim, Jewish, Christian, and others — are joining together to demand justice for the Palestinian people.”
“We know that the only path toward peace and justice is an end to Israel’s occupation of Palestine,” he added.
The Associated Press contributed to this story.
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