Denver protesters stand outside of the state capitol to stand in solidarity with Palestine and demand that the state government advocate for a ceasefire. photo courtesy of Kevin J. Beaty
After seeing United Nations reports and the live accounts of many Palestinian Journalists, many Coloradans took the streets to demand a ceasefire and a change.
According to a UN News report published on April 22nd, 2024, more than 34,000 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza, including 14,685 children and 9,760 women. 77,084 people have been injured and over 7,000 are missing, assumed to be under the rubble.
It is estimated that about 1.4 million people are currently seeking refuge in the city of Rafah’s refugee camps, near the Rafah Border Crossing into Egypt. This is supposed to be the safest place for Palestinians, according to the Israeli authorities. Through the last seven month period, they have been urging Palestinian civilians to move south in order to avoid airstrikes and military offensives. Despite this, multiple Palestinian journalists and Al Jazeera have reported airstrikes were deployed in formerly considered safe zones, such as south of the Wadi Gaza wetlands in October, Khan Yonuis in December, and refugee camps in Rafah. There have been near daily air raids as the Israeli military prepares for an on ground offensive. The Rafah border crossing is the only place in Gaza where humanitarian aid can enter and the only place where Palestinians are allowed to evacuate, according to NPR.
Throughout Israel’s attack on Gaza, multiple Palestinian journalists have been reporting on what they have been experiencing, mostly on social media apps such as Instagram and Twitter. A woman named Bisan Owda is one of these journalists. She is originally from Beit Hanoun, a city in North Eastern Gaza, and is now currently seeking refuge in the refugee camps in Rafah. She mainly posts her reporting through her Instagram account (@wizard_bisan1) and her reports mainly include what daily life looks like as a Palestinian civilian during, as Bisan describes it, a genocide. She told Al Jazeera that about 70% of the infrastructure in Gaza has been destroyed, which includes plumbing and sanitation. This month, the UN Relief and Works Agency, UNRWA, reported that 62% of housing units have been damaged or destroyed. Nearly 90,000 units have been destroyed and 300,000 units have been damaged. In an Interim Damage Report released by the UN, The World Bank and the European Union on March 29th 2024, the cost of the damaged infrastructure was about $18.5 billion. In that same report, housing accounted for 72% of the costs, public infrastructure such as water, energy, health and education accounted for 19%, with damages to commercial and industrial infrastructure making up the final 9%. As of April 26th, there is about 37 million tonnes of bomb-filled debris that could take up to more than a decade to remove, according to a UN Official. The education system has completely collapsed with 100% of students out of school, with multiple UN experts referring to it as “scholasticide,” referring to the systemic obliteration of education through the destruction of educational infrastructure and the arrest, detaining or killing of teachers, students and staff.
About 122 journalists and media professionals have been killed since October, according to UN reports. “Israel won’t allow international journalists into Gaza and is killing those reporting from within,” Motaz Azaiza told the Guardian in February 2024. Azaiza is a Palestinian photojournalist who is originally from Deir Al-Balah, a town in central Gaza, who was also mainly reporting on this Instagram account (@motaz_azaiza). As a teen he was shot in the leg by an Israeli sniper. He narrowly escaped an attack by Israeli Forces in December of 2023. On his instagram account, he had expressed concern being purposefully targeted by drones and quadcopters. He began his photojournalist career as a teenager, wanting to showcase the beauty of the Gaza Strip, which turned into a photojournalist career meant to document the horrors of war. In his time of documenting the war, 15 of his own family members were killed by Israeli forces. Like many Palestinians, Aziaza refers to this as a genocide.
As a result, many people have taken to the streets in the United States to demand a ceasefire. The Colorado Palestine Coalition is a coalition of Colorado-based organizations that exhibit solidarity with Palestine. This includes organizations such as Denver’s chapter of Democratic Socialists of America, the Denver and Boulder chapters of Jewish Voice for Peace, the CU Boulder, Colorado State University, Colorado College chapters of Students for Justice in Palestine, Denver and Boulder chapters Students for a Democratic Society and the Denver chapter of Popular Party of Socialism and Liberation. These organizations are focused on progressive social and political change. This coalition helps organize protests, marches and picket lines, with the goals of bringing social awareness, pressuring local government officials, or shutting down or disrupting events. On previous strike days for Palestine, there have been protests and marches organized throughout the city, which were promoted on their instagram, in order to show public support for a ceasefire, to demand the end of U.S Aid to Israel, and demand divestment.
The Colorado Palestine Coalition frequently posts on their instagram (@copalestineco ) to let their followers know of how to get involved. They recently posted the Denver Students for a Democratic Society’s statement on the encampment on the Auraria Campus in downtown Denver on the Colorado Coalition for Palestine instagram account. “We established this encampment to advance our campaign against CU Denver, demanding that our university divest from genocide…They refuse to end the encampment until all of their demands are met: 1. The University of Colorado shall write and publish a statement condemning the genocidal actions of Israel. 2. Chancellor Michelle Marks of CU Denver will meet with student organizers within two weeks of the publication of this statement, without delay to discuss and plan the implementations of the above demands directed at CU. 3. The U.S government shall end all aid to “Israel.” 4. The University of Colorado shall fully divest from any corporations which operate in Israel. 5. The University of Denver shall terminate their study abroad programs to Israel. 6. The University of Colorado shall Refuse to accept grants or funding from corporations that contract with the U.S armed forces and terminate any relationship with said corporations. 7. Drop the charges against all protestors arrested at the Denver encampment.”
Despite these encampments being peaceful acts of civil disturbance, many students there have unfortunately been victims to police brutality and about 40 students have been arrested under the charge of trespassing according to a university official. There have been encampments on college campuses throughout the country, such as Columbia, UC Berkeley and Brown, all expressing solidarity with Gaza, all demanding their colleges to divest, to address Israel’s genocidal actions in Gaza, to publicly support a ceasefire, to demand the end of the U.S. Aid to Israel, and to demand divestment.
