Thousands of people marched on the streets of major cities across India and Pakistan on Sunday, October 5, marking two years of Israeli genocide and expressing their solidarity with the Palestinian people. Protesters demanded an immediate end to the Israeli genocide and the creation of an independent Palestinian state.
The protesters also warned their respective governments to not endorse US President Donald Trump’s so-called Gaza peace plan, announced last week, calling it insulting and unjust for Palestinians.
Protests in India were called by various organizations such as the Peoples in Solidarity with Palestine (IPSP), Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) India chapter and others. Protests were held simultaneously in the capital, New Delhi, Kolkata, and several major cities across India, such as Hyderabad, Pune, Patna, Bangalore and others.
Scores of protesters waving Palestinian flags, wearing keffiyehs, and carrying banners of Palestinian children in Gaza killed by Israel gathered in central Delhi. The protesters shouted slogans for the liberation of Palestine, demanded an end to the genocide in Gaza, and sang songs in solidarity with Palestinian resistance.
Several prominent speakers addressed the gathering. The speakers highlighted how the Palestinian people in Gaza are a symbol of resistance and an inspiration for all oppressed groups across the globe.
The speakers condemned the Israeli attack on the Global Sumud Flotilla (GSF) last week and demanded international action against Israel’s blatant violations of the human rights of the activists onboard the GSF. They also questioned the silence of governments across the globe over Israel’s repeated violations of international laws and demanded strict sanctions against the Israel.
Declaring that “colonial powers do not have any such rights,” speakers denounced the attempts of the Western media and nations to whitewash the Israeli war crimes in the name of its “self defense”.
Palestinians are liberating the world
Professor Nandita Narain urged the people and the movement in India to learn from the movements across Europe, where, despite state oppression, people are coming out in the millions to support the Palestinian cause. She urged the movement to organize more protests in India as well.
The professor warned of the attempts to portray the Palestinian movement as a movement based on religious identity, as has been done by India’s ruling political parties. She emphasized that the present Indian government’s growing bonhomie and closeness with Israel is based on the closeness of the hate-based ideologies of Hindutva and Zionism.
Shivani, from the Revolutionary Workers Party of India (RWPI), condemned the attempts to reduce Palestinian history to what happened on October 7, 2023. “For people who have been fighting against colonialism for the last 70 years history did not begin on October 7,” she asserted.
Shivani claimed that Israel is not a nation but a military checkpoint funded and supported by British imperialism in the past and the US and other western imperialists now and asserted that what happened on October 7 was an act of resistance against colonial occupation; a “prison break”.
Shivani noted that contrary to our belief of the international community liberating the Palestinians it is the Palestinians who are liberating the world by pushing people to question their governments and shaping global anti-imperialist alignments.
Pakistan rallies with Palestine
Similarly, thousands of Pakistani people took to the streets in Karachi on Sunday, opposing Israel’s continued genocide in Gaza and demanding freedom for Palestine.
The protesters opposed the Pakistan government’s attempts to approve US President Donald Trump’s so-called Gaza peace proposal, claiming no one but the Palestinians have the right to decide who will govern them.
On Sunday, the Mazdoor Kisan Party (MKP) and the Punjab Rickshaw Union (PRU) also held a protest in Lahore against the Israeli genocide in Gaza and its attacks on the GSF.
While addressing the gathering, Irfan Ali, leader of the MKP and PRU, expressed the complete solidarity of Pakistan’s working class with the people of Palestine. He condemned the government’s move to endorse Trump’s Gaza plan and declared that real peace in the region is not possible until Palestine is free.
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