Protesters gather in Nob Hill to call for an end to Israel's siege of Gaza

Nov. 18—The chants began at Morningside Park in Albuquerque on Saturday as thunder rumbled above and fat, cold drops fell onto white sheets splashed with red paint, wrapped as if around the bodies of Palestinian children.

"From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free," the crowd of about 100 people yelled, parroting those holding a megaphone. "Free, free Palestine!"

They were activists and teachers, war veterans and women in hijabs, waving signs that read "resistance is not terrorism" and "this genocide proudly sponsored by the U.S. government." A young girl in a knit unicorn cap held a tiny sign that said "Free Palestine" beside a big heart and Palestinian flag.

The Shut It Down for Palestine protest was the most recent in Albuquerque calling for an end to Israel's military operations in Gaza that have left thousands of Palestinians civilians dead. The war was triggered by an Oct. 7 attack from Hamas' militants in southern Israel in which 1,200 people were killed, mostly civilians, and 240 were abducted and taken to Gaza.

The crowd marched from Morningside Park along Lead SE to the offices of the Democratic Party of New Mexico a few blocks away.

Several speakers, including children, took turns at the microphone calling Israel's offensive a genocide and laying blame at the feet of President Biden for providing billions in U.S. military aid.

"You are homing into your power and it's about damn time," Sandra Akkad, a Palestinian woman and local teacher, told the crowd. "... You have got to own your own world. That means you need to keep following up. You need to keep asking questions. You need to keep people uncomfortable."

Akkad added, to a symphony of cheers, "There is never a growing process if there aren't any growth pains."

She said she also wanted to address a "serious matter" — ending the conflation between anti-Zionism and anti-Semitism because "Semites encompass Jews and Palestinians."

"It is because the people of conscience — amazing Jews, amazing Christians, amazing Muslims, amazing agnostics and amazing atheists — that we will see justice prevail," Akkad said.

Lena Weiss, a Jewish woman who attended with her friend Roger McNew, said Israel's military needed to leave Gaza and the U.S. needed to stop funding the Israeli efforts.

"I think that we would all benefit from sitting down with some truth and reconciliation work," she said of the decadeslong Middle East conflict that has sent shock waves to Jewish and Palestinian people worldwide.

"There's a lot of trauma amongst all the peoples, people have given up their children to war and to genocide. And there's a deep pain there that we need some human healing and conversation and a bit of ability to share. I don't think we're beyond that as humans."

Weiss said she was surprised there weren't many Jews in the crowd — referencing a point where a speaker encouraged Jews to raise their hands.

"Sometimes it's hard for Jews to raise their hands, because it hasn't gone well for us in the past," she said.

McNew said any person with a conscience, whether Jewish or gentile, "cannot stand for this."

"They're pushing the Palestinians again, in 1948, they were pushed off their land, and now they're pushing them into the sea," he said. "And, you know, it's just, it's unconscionable."

Weiss said, as a Jew, she felt "especially disgusted" by the Israeli government.

"I feel like once you've experienced genocide, to turn around and do it, it makes me just wonder — how you hear that people who are abused often become abusers and how that's generational — and I'm really horrified," she said. "That's not to me what my people and my religion stand for."

Weiss looked around at the variety of people surrounding her, waving signs and screaming for justice until their voices cracked, and said "these are my peeps."

And before the group turned and left, an organizer pressed the Ring doorbell on the Democratic offices, knowing it would begin recording, and everyone chanted "Democrats you can't hide, we charge you with genocide."