Throngs of people gathered in New Orleans Sunday in support of Palestinians, calling for, at minimum, a ceasefire in Gaza and an end to U.S. support of Israel.
The protest, which began with a prayer followed by two hours of speakers at Louis Armstrong Park, marched in the streets that border the French Quarter. A group that spanned roughly three blocks from the sidewalk to the neutral ground started on Rampart Street, continuing on Canal Street and following the river to Esplanade Avenue.
Demonstrators held signs that said Free Palestine and urged peace and an end to U.S. aid to Israel as it wages war on Hamas. Signs said We can’t bomb our way to peace and Blessed are the peacemakers.
There were also repeated chants of From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free, a slogan that some, including the Anti-Defamation League, consider antisemitic as it implies the dismantling of the Jewish state.
Bystanders along the hotels that line Canal Street stopped and stared, with some shooting video of the procession, which shut down the street with police escorts on either end.
In Congo Square ahead of the march, the crowd filled the space before the stage stretching back to the auditorium. Organizers distributed Palestinian flags ziptied to thin pieces of wood. People in the crowd held handmade depictions of watermelons, which has come to symbolize support for Palestinians in the conflict.
The war, which erupted after Hamas attacked communities in southern Israel on October 7, killing roughly 1,200 people and taking about 250 hostage, has killed at least 28,985 Palestinians, mostly women and children, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry.
Militants in Gaza still hold around 130 hostages, about a quarter of whom are believed to be dead.
Several of the speakers spoke of Tawfic Abdel Jabbar, the 17-year-old New Orleans area teen killed by Israeli fire in the occupied West Bank, and Samaher Esmail, a 46-year-old Palestinian-American from Gretna who was detained by Israeli forces.
In front of the speakers, supporters held a billowing flag as large as the stage as children ran underneath it.
At the back of the crowd, perched on a bench, Maha Rashid, 56, sat with her 81-year-old mother. Her mom, who doesn’t speak English, spent most of her life on the West Bank of the Jordan River before moving to Baton Rouge 30 years ago. As the last speaker led protestors through a chant, she stood with a cane and walked to the middle of the crowd.
She has been waiting for the march from the beginning, said Rashid. A pedicab was waiting to take her down Rampart Street with the rest of the protestors.
The last large protest in support of the Palestinians in New Orleans was in December, when a crowd that filled about two blocks marched through downtown.
Talks on a potential cease-fire deal in Gaza have not been progressing as expected in the past few days after good progress in recent weeks, mediator Qatar said Saturday, according to the Associated Press.
