‘Palestine Is Not for Sale, Donald Trump Belongs in Jail!’

As 100,000 people gathered on April 5 for the Hands Off protest in Washington, D.C., 5,000 people convened just blocks away to protest an issue that was conspicuously absent from the Hands Off agenda: the ongoing genocide in Gaza. 

While the Hands Off movement, which reported millions of people participating in more than 1,300 anti-Trump protests nationwide, notably did not include foreign policy demands or any mention of Palestine in their motivations for mobilizing the national day of action, the March on Washington called for an end to the Israeli occupation of Palestine and the ongoing genocide.

The March on Washington was led by the Party for Socialism & Liberation (PSL) and the Act Now to Stop War and End Racism (ANSWER) Coalition, who, among other organizations that obtained permits, bussed in groups of protesters and sponsored the staging for the day’s demonstration. Guest speaker Nihad Awad, the executive director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), called for a practical show of force by becoming more civically engaged. “It is not enough to come here and speak to ourselves—we must engage our politicians [directly] with the megaphones and our voices,” Awad said, advocating for protesters to attend the April 28 and 29 National Muslim Advocacy Day in Washington, D.C.. 

Demands for the end of the U.S.-backed genocide in Palestine and the release of Rümeysa Öztürk, Mahmoud Khalil, Badar Khan Suri, and other scholars recently detained by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Department of Homeland Security (DHS) agents echoed through the masses. 

The demonstrations remained nondisruptive throughout the day. Organizers deployed a team to keep protesters off sidewalks as they passed by tourists entering and exiting the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum and as they gathered on the road in front of ICE headquarters.