‘Stop funding genocide’, protesters call on the United States

On Saturday, four organisations held a demonstration outside the U.S. Embassy to protest the country’s “unconditional support” for Israel despite its war on Gaza.

They said the U.S. continues to supply arms to Israel and “shield it with political and economic support”, allowing Israel to “continue its genocide undisturbed”.

In a letter to U.S. president Joe Biden and president-elect Donald Trump, the activists urged to “take concrete steps to stop facilitating, enabling, and further aggravating the ongoing humanitarian catastrophe through the supply of weapons and military hardware to the region”.

The protest was organised by Moviment Graffitti, Ġustizzja għall-Palestina, The Watermelon Warriors, Youth for Palestine, and endorsed by another 12 organisations, including aditus foundation, Il-Kollettiv, YMCA, and Young Progressive Beings.

NEWZ.mt talked to John P. Portelli, retired professor and author, about the widespread allegation that criticising Israel’s war itself amounted to anti-semitism.

“Reasonableness tells us genocide is not acceptable”, Portelli said, and that criticism of it “should not be seen as being anti-semitic”.

In fact, the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) clearly states that “criticism of Israel is by no means itself antisemitic”.

The professor emeritus also criticised universities for banning pro-Palestinian demonstrations organised by students on their campuses.

Earlier in the protest on Saturday, Portelli read from his book ‘The Shadow: Poems for the Children of Gaza’ – a collection of 42 original poems written by himself and Ahmed Miqdad.

The activists’ letter to Biden and Trump

Dear President Elect Donald Trump,

We, the undersigned groups and individuals, concerned about the growing military escalation in the Mediterranean region, stand here today to deliver our message to the government and people of the United States of America.

The catastrophic situation in Gaza, the West Bank and in Lebanon today was not inevitable. The failure to prevent repeated Israeli state war crimes is a horrifying failure of global and western diplomacy, and will go down in history as one of humanity’s most shameful chapters since the second world war. Further deterioration may still be avoided.

Recalling the letter sent on 13 October 2024 by the United States Government, exhorting the Government of Israel to take concrete measures to alleviate the humanitarian crisis in Gaza over the following 30 days, or face a reduction in the military support being funded by the United States taxpayer; 

Recalling the succession of warnings by the UN rapporteur, by international bodies and by the United States Government of the possibility that war crimes were being committed by Israel in Gaza;

We note with the deepest concern that the humanitarian situation has continued to deteriorate further, most critically in northern Gaza.

We further note that the deadline of 12 November, set by the Government of the United States, has come and gone, however the concerns that were raised repeatedly by the United States Government have not yet been translated into meaningful action.

We urge you to take concrete steps to stop facilitating, enabling, and further aggravating the ongoing humanitarian catastrophe through the supply of weapons and military hardware to the region. If you act decisively now, you are still in time to stand on the right side of history.