By Hannah Saunders

Cutting through the core of the Westlake Center’s Sunday bustle were hundreds of people, some holding large Palestine flags and others with signs, who demanded an end to the siege on Gaza. Although protestors in Seattle have been showing their support for Palestine for almost two years, Israel is closing in on its genocidal extermination: it’s forcibly starving Palestinians, who are increasingly dying as a result; it’s targeting all aspects of the shattered healthcare system that remains; and it’s murdering journalists— most recently killing two freelance journalists and four Al Jazeera journalists, including Anas Al-Sharif, who was known as the “voice of Gaza.” 

Seattle Against War, Nidal, and Bil-Yad organized the rally and march, which featured a rented U-Haul truck with Palestine flags and speakers in the back. As speakers began to shine light on the current situation in Gaza, and how no one is free until Palestine is free, some protestors were spotted pacing behind the stage area, holding flags and pictures of starving Palestinian children, attempting to bring awareness to those who were going about their afternoon plans. 

“They haven’t had a full meal in their belly for months, and every day they face a choice between death by starvation and death by an American bullet at the so-called aid sites of the so-called Gaza Humanitarian Foundation [GHF],” one speaker from Bil-Yad said. “Supporting Palestine is the only human option we have, because supporting Palestine is a battle between good and evil and between right and wrong. The enemy is on the side of fascism and colonization and genocide, and Palestine is on the side of humanity and justice and ultimately peace.” 

In Palestine, healing is a form of resistance, and saving lives is a death sentence, a speaker with Healthcare Workers for Palestine said. Not long after the October 7 attacks, Israel went after Al-Shifa Hospital with the encouragement of Western media outlets under the pretense that Hamas was hiding beneath the facility. 

“There’s still no evidence of any military operations in hospitals in Gaza,” the Healthcare Workers for Palestine speaker said. “This is just one arm of the broader genocide. The IOF is not just killing it is deliberately ensuring that Palestinians cannot live. They are targeting healthcare workers, paramedics, ambulances, and civil service workers.” 

The speaker highlighted how the IOF uses what’s called the “double-tap” method, wherein shortly after an initial strike, another bomb is dropped on the same location— when healthcare workers, journalists, and unarmed civilians are helping those harmed and documenting what happened. Healthcare Workers for Palestine demands the release of all abducted healthcare workers and every single Palestinian held hostage in Israel. It also demands international legal accountability for Israel’s targeting of hospitals and civilians. 

On the final day of her fast, Elizabeth, who is a mother and spoke for Seattle Families 4 Palestine, said her low energy and feelings of exhaustion have impacted nearly every aspect of her functioning. Elizabeth took part in the nationwide relay fast, which kicked off in Seattle on August 10 and involves several teams in different cities sustaining weeklong fasts before passing the fast to another team. 

The continuous fasting initiative involves four different types of fasting, including the 250-calorie diet. Elizabeth said the average adult in Gaza is only consuming about 250 calories per day, and that her ability to reach for stable amounts of food at any given time, and that resting in her home with her children safe and fed was “omnipresent in a way that it hasn’t been before.” 

“My fast has been an expression of my grief and an exercise in embodied solidarity, and most importantly, an expression of my sacred rage and anger,” Elizabeth said, adding how Israel is intentionally stopping Palestinian youth from growing into adulthood. 

About 40,000 children were forced to become orphans, about 4,000 are amputees, and all are extremely traumatized, Elizabeth said. And as she prepared her small children for their first week back to school, children in Gaza went another week without classrooms. 

“Since April this year, the reported numbers of children who have died from malnutrition have jumped from 52 to 80, and Visualizing Palestine reports that of the 2.1 million people in Gaza, 41% are under 18,” Elizabeth said. “Of those children Israel is killing through starvation, bombing, and bullets, a child in Gaza is killed every 45 minutes.” 

A person sitting behind a wooden piano in the audience began to softly play somber music while Elizabeth said she condemns corporations and politicians, like Senator Maria Cantwell, who arm Israel, and hopes those who have enabled Israel to carry out this genocide are brought to justice and held accountable. 

A net of cars, trailed by the U-Haul truck that now held several speakers, carved out the protestors’ marching route. The group chanted as they passed Pike Place Market to the Boston Consulting building at 1201 2nd Avenue, shutting down each street they crossed paths with. Bystanders stopped in awe, took out their phones, and began filming the show of solidarity of direct action.

When at the Boston Consulting Group building, which one organizer said is responsible for drawing logistical plans for killing fields in Gaza, protestors were invited to grab a handful of flour to toss in its direction. While protestors created white puffs of powder in the air, one person splashed handmade red fruit syrup on the ground to resemble the blood of Palestinians murdered at the company’s hands.

More eagerly threw flour, and the smell of burning wafted through the air, as several on the perimeter lit an American flag on fire, piling an Israeli flag and another American flag on top, with chants of “Death, death to the GHF!” which the Boston Consulting Group has ties to.