Hundreds of Chennai residents stood in solidarity with Palestine and protested against Israel’s attacks outside the Rajarathinam stadium in Egmore on Saturday, November 25. The protestors, who were largely college-going students and young working professionals, condemned Israel for attacking hospitals, blocking the supply of food, medicines, and fuel and reiterated that their protest doesn’t just seek a ceasefire but demands freedom for Palestinians.
Sindhuja Sankaran, a professor at a private university, who took part in the protest, told TNM, “People are continuing to refer to it as an ‘Israel-Palestine conflict’. It is not a conflict, it is genocide. What we should be doing is speaking up against genocide and human rights violations in Palestine because it could happen to any of us at any time if it is happening at a different geographical location now.”
Safira, a resident of Alwarpet, participated in the protest with her family. “We learnt of the protest through social media and decided to show up as a family. We feel that the least we can do is to participate and show that we are standing with the millions of people in Gaza,” she said. The children from her family held up placards which read, “Don’t kill children like me.” Several youngsters whom TNM spoke to at the protest said that they will not remain silent as the humanitarian crisis unfolds in Gaza in the name of ‘collective punishment’.
Maryam Afzal, a student and one of the organisers of the protest, told TNM that more than a thousand people responded and agreed to participate in the protest after she posted about it on her page – Walk for Palestine. “Initially, we didn’t think that so many people would turn up, but that changed very quickly. Around 50 people volunteered to manage the crowd, and several others donated water bottles, speaker and mic sets, and even stationery for making placards,” Maryam said.
The protestors also raised slogans to free Palestine ‘from the river to the sea’, for an hour and a half and also stood in silence to honour the dead.
According to Gaza Health officials, more than 14,000 Palestinians have died due to Israeli attacks, and a majority of the casualties are women and children. A four-day ceasefire is currently in place from November 24 and will continue until November 28. During this period, civilian hostages are expected to be released from both Israel and Gaza.