Global Day of Action: Hands Off Rafah aims for ceasefire in Gaza

On Saturday, Mar. 2, 2024, the Answer Coalition organized marches for the Global Day of Action for Rafah. The marches were organized in dozens of cities across the country, including Washington, D.C. One of the action listings was in Geneseo, NY, on the corner of Main Street and Route 20A. Many students and local residents of Geneseo and Livingston County participated, including members of organizations such as the SUNY Geneseo Peace Action group, as well as the Genesee Valley Citizens for Peace (GVCP), and the local Democratic-Socialists of Americas (DSA).

The website listed on action listings found online reads “On March 2, millions across the world will march for Gaza! The Israeli government is planning to have a full-scale invasion of Rafah one week later, on March 9, one day before the start of Ramadan. Today, the United States vetoed a UN resolution that insisted that Israel immediately cease its mass killing spree in Gaza.”

In late February, the United States vetoed a United Nations proposition for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza, marking the third time the U.S. has voted down a ceasefire resolution. The director of Doctors Without Borders in the U.S., Avril Benoit, referred to the repeated vetoes by Washington as “unconscionable.”

Holly Adams, a local resident involved in GVCP, who also participated in a rally in November organized by Geneseo’s Peace Action group said, “There are people that are starving and dying. Recently Palestinians got mowed down when they were going to get flour so they could eat. Their land has been turned to rubble and U.S. dollars are paying for it. So, we have to voice our descent and we have to go beyond letter writing, and we need to push. Because the world is standing, the majority of the American people are standing, in support of a ceasefire, and not just a ceasefire, but an end, a solution, a coming to the table. Violence begets more violence.”

The event Adams referred to, was on Thursday, Feb. 29, where over 100 Palestinians were killed when trying to access an aid convoy, one day before President Biden okay-ed airdrops of humanitarian aid and goods for the Gaza Strip.

Lauren Berger, a member of the Livingston County DSA addressed the crowd that gathered on Main Street on Saturday saying, “If all of this demonstration is not going to move the needle for our leadership then what do we do? At some point, we have to ask ourselves what we actually will stand for, because if we will stand for nothing, then what will we fall for?”

Berger also spoke about 25-year-old Aaron Bushnell, who on Sunday, Feb 25, set himself on fire outside of the Israeli Embassy in Washington D.C. and later died. “Because of [Aaron Bushnell’s] streaming of his self-immolation…most major media networks were obliged for the first time to talk about this issue in a way that doesn’t frame everybody who supports a free Palestine as radical or somehow outside of the norms of what American idealism should stand for.” Berger expanded further, “...His act of courage and extreme moral clarity obliges us all to ask what we are going to stand for.”

When asked to comment on the Answer Coalition’s organization of protests and marches across the country, Holly Adams said, “I think that we need to keep working together. We need to get stronger so that we can push.” According to the Working Families Party website, as of Mar. 3, 2024, 74 members of Congress have called for a ceasefire in Palestine. Adams mentioned this, and said, “We need more. We need that critical mass. We need to push the needle. It will take all of us.”

Thumbnail Photo courtesy of Lamron Photo Editor FP Zatlukal