Demonstrators gather in Cedar Rapids to stand in solidarity with Palestine

CEDAR RAPIDS — Demonstrators gathered Saturday in downtown Cedar Rapids in solidarity with Palestine, calling for a cease fire and an end to U.S. aid to Israel and criticizing U.S. leaders' response to the Israel-Hamas war.

About 60 people participated in chants, a vigil honoring lives lost in Gaza and listened to local speakers.

Group now chanting “resistance is justified when people are occupied.” pic.twitter.com/oWsRSPlvH4

— Tom Barton (@tjbarton83) October 21, 2023

The local demonstration came against a backdrop of several Republican candidates, campaigning in Iowa and elsewhere, calling for banning pro-Palestine protests and accusing pro-Palestinian demonstrators of being antisemitic.

The first convoy of aid trucks filled with humanitarian supplies such as food, water and medicines Saturday morning began entering Gaza from Egypt. Meanwhile, Israel’s military spokesman said it planned to step up attacks on the Gaza strip starting Saturday in preparation for the next stage of the country’s war against Hamas.

In the two weeks since the Palestinian militant group Hamas launched its assault on Israel, killing 1,400 people and taking 200 hostage, more than 4,000 people have been killed in Gaza and more than 13,000 injured since the Israel-Hamas war began, according to Palestinian authorities.

Cedar Rapids event organizer Mariam “Mimi” Daoud led demonstrators in chants of “resistance is justified when people are occupied” and “free, free, free Gaza” and “free, free, free Palestine.”

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“We are here to mourn the over 4,000 Palestinian lives lost in the genocide that is currently happening in Gaza … and, hopefully, bring some awareness to what is happening in Palestine,” Daoud said.

She said her best friend is Palestinian and grew up listening to her tell stories of family members who had been shot by Israeli forces.

While denouncing the senseless killing of innocent people and recognizing Israel’s right to defend itself, Daoud argued Israel’s blockade and airstrikes launched in the wake of a brutal incursion into southern Israel by Hamas “isn’t a defense, it’s an offense” — meting out collective punishment on Palestinians and cutting them off from vital resources.

“They were the ones that created the problem. They were the ones who began the occupation and the apartheid, not the Palestinians,” she said of the Israeli government.

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Ariel Levin, of Iowa City, is a member of the Jewish Voice for Peace, which labels itself as a grassroots, intergenerational movement of U.S. Jews who stand in “solidarity with Palestinian freedom struggle.”

“As American Jews we refuse let our grief and our fear be a weapon used to justify the murder of more Palestinians, and to justify the action of … an apartheid system that threatens the lives and well-being of Palestinians for the past 75 years,” Levin said. “ … As American Jews we demand a cease fire now. We say ‘No’ to killing in our names. We demand a stop to genocide in Gaza.”

Iowa Republican U.S. Sen. Joni Ernst, during a Cedar Rapids town hall Friday with GOP presidential hopeful and former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley, recounted accounts from Israel of Hamas militants executing children, burning homes and lighting bodies on fire.

Ernst met in person with top Israeli leaders four days after Hamas militants launched the assault on Israel from Gaza.

She said she talked to a brother and his sister whose 80-year-old father was taken away from a kibbutz at gunpoint by terrorists.

“They have no idea what is happening to their 80-year-old father,” she said, adding in that same event, their other brother was killed.

Ernst said the United States cannot “waver on our support” for Israel.

“And we must not allow some of these abhorrent protests that are going on across the country,” she said. “We must not allow them to resonate with in our communities.”

Cedar Rapids police officers, who monitored Saturday’s event to ensure the safety of demonstrators, briefly stopped and questioned a potentially suspicious person. A public safety spokesman said the person quickly was determined to pose no threat and was released.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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