Pro-Palestine Protestors Take to Boston Common and later, Storrow Drive

podcast produced and edited by Steph Conquest-Ware

Tens of thousands across the world gathered to protest what they, the UN’s International Court of Justice, experts, numerous governments, and non-governmental organizations call a genocide in Gaza which has killed nearly 43,000 Gazans—including over 17,000 children—over a year since the Israel-Hamas War began. On Oct. 6, I traveled to downtown Boston to cover a protest organized by the Boston Coalition for Palestine made up of more than 40 organizations in the area.

Tens of thousands across the world gathered to protest what they, the UN’s International Court of Justice, experts, numerous governments, and non-governmental organizations call a genocide in Gaza which has killed nearly 43,000 Gazans—including over 17,000 children—over a year since the Israel-Hamas War began. On Oct. 6, Steph Conquest-Ware traveled to downtown Boston to cover a protest organized by the Boston Coalition for Palestine made up of more than 40 organizations in the area.

STEPH CONQUEST WARE: There was no ignoring chants from protestors as they echoed through the streets near boston common. Thousands could be heard as I walked up to the protest which began as a rally in the Boston Public Garden.

JEFFREY JACOBSON: The Palestinian people are the first victims of Zionism, but Judaism itself is being wounded by this.

CONQUEST WARE: That’s Jeffrey Jacobson, an active member for Jewish Voice for Peace. He’s wearing a keffiyeh, to show his support for Palestine and a kippah to honor his Jewish heritage.

JACOBSON: My father's family was decimated in the Holocaust. My mother's family was killed in the pogroms in Russia. We sort of grew up with that trauma, but I never felt comfortable in Judaism because I didn't like Israel. And now that a genocide is happening for real, I mean it has been happening in slow motion, it kind of woke me up.

CONQUEST WARE: Kandy Monsta, another protestor, rushed through Boston Common as she arrived late to the rally. She holds a long pole with the flags of Palestine and the Democratic Republic of Congo. I ask why she’s here? She tells me…

KANDY MONSTA: Genocide everywhere and fighting against it and just supporting our brothers and sisters in Palestine, Lebanon, Iran, Congo, sedan, Tigray everywhere.

CONQUEST: And what brings her to the fight?

MONSTA: The fact that genocide is absolutely deplorable and my tax dollars are funding it. And so I'm going to literally do any and everything that I can to fight against it and make people aware of what's going on until it stops. From black lives to gay lives to, it doesn't matter if it's wrong, I'm against it and I'm going to fight for the right part of history on the right side of history.

CONQUEST: Monsta’s sentiments are quite similar to those in the crowd and speakers on stage with keffiyehs flooding the congregation of thousands. After our conversation, a Lebanese man takes the stage.

Man on stage: Words at this point are useless. The abject lack of humanity from the entire world is mind blowing. The daily carnage is enough to wake the dead. We need to act, we need to resist, we need to rise up, and we need to say that we are in the right

CONQUEST: I later stumble upon Eli Gerzon, another member of Jewish Voice for Peace. They lead me to Fwaz Abusharkh who organized the event as part of the collective day of action. It’s apparent that for Abusharkh, it’s personal.

FWAZ ABUSHARKH: I'm a Palestinian. I was born in Gaza, my family there. And well, my father is from Ash Colon. My mother is from Jerusalem. So I represent every side of the Palestinian issue and the Palestinian occupation. It's home to me. It's home.

CONQUEST: Abusharkh has been organizing for over 50 years, and he has no plan on stopping.

ABUSHARKH: We have to keep going until liberation. And once we liberate Palestine and Lebanon, we'll move into the other things. The indigenous people, the black movement. We cannot stop until everybody's free. And that's everywhere.

CONQUEST: Gerzon, who lost dozens of family members in the Holocaust, is eager to chime in

ELI GERZON: And because of the resistance here in Boston and resistance around the world, Zionism will end and this genocide will end in the same way that apartheid in South Africa ended. The apartheid in Israel will end. For me, it's the motivation of being somebody who has experienced genocide in my family. I want to stop genocide everywhere. Never again means everyone. Means for everyone. And it means right now.

CONQUEST: I ask Abusharkh how he feels about the thousands who came out to protest, and are now gearing up for their march through the streets, he says.

ABUSHARKH: I'm proud to be one of the people who started it, but I'm hoping it's not going to end by me. It's those next generations. I'm old, let's hope that new ones can do it and they can keep going on. Long live the revolution.

GERZON: Hell yeah.

CONQUEST: This is Steph Conquest-Ware for Northeastern University reporting to you from Boston Common.

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Later that afternoon, thousands continued the protest, marching through the streets near Arlington Station and blocking traffic in Storrow Drive.