Demonstrations and memorials marking the anniversary of the 7 October attacks on Israel and the ensuing war in Gaza are taking place around the US, where cities and campuses are on high alert for any unrest as the threat of a full-scale war in the Middle East looms.
Competing rallies took place in New York, where hundreds of pro-Palestinian supporters marched through downtown Manhattan in protest of the Israeli offensive, which was sparked by the Hamas-led attacks in southern Israel that killed about 1,200 people and resulted in another 250 being taken hostage. Israel’s retaliatory war has killed more than 41,000 people in the besieged territory.
The march was led by by the group Within Our Lifetime, which called on people to “flood New York City for Palestine”.
Gamal Amin, 26, an Egyptian American protester, said he was marching against US support for the war as much as Israel’s military operations. “This is ultimately all part of American imperialism … America is Israel’s colonial metropole and guarantor,” he suggested, adding, “It’s not a war, it’s a genocide” and that “the expansion into Lebanon is just another phase in [US] imperialism”.
Nearby was a smaller yet vocal group waving large Israeli and US flags, calling for the return of hostages captured by Hamas on 7 October.
Shy Galor, 38, an American Israeli from Jerusalem, took the day off from work to demonstrate. “I’ve decided I want to channel my pain into coming here and making sure people on the street who see this remember: it all started while we attacked,” she said.
At Columbia University, in New York, where a pro-Palestine protest encampment last year inspired dozens of others on campuses across the country, dueling demonstrations were held inside and around the campus. Israel supporters gathered outside the gates singing Jewish prayers and chanting “Bring them home”, in reference to the hostages.
Pro-Palestinian students, many wearing keffiyehs, had gathered after heeding a call by Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) for a “national student walkout”. Other students waving Israeli flags stood nearby, next to an exhibit of structures resembling milk cartons displaying photos of hostages.
In Washington DC, vice-presidential candidate JD Vance spoke at a “Standing with Israel” rally organized by the Christian group Philos Project at the National Mall.
He called the attacks of 7 October “the worst terrorist attack since 9/11” and an attack not only on Israel and Jews but “on Americans”. He also used the event as an opportunity to attack Joe Biden and Kamala Harris.
“It is disgraceful that we have an American president and vice-president who haven’t done a thing,” he said. “Vice-President Harris, our message is: ‘Bring them home.’ Use your authority to help bring them home.”
Vance also criticized what he described as “pro-Hamas” protests happening across the country and the students that he said are “supporting Islamic radicals, destroying property, and threatening Jewish students and professors”.
A Trump administration, Vance warned, “would stop funding anti-American and anti-Jewish radicals” – a threat to withhold federal funds to universities.
Campus administrations and police departments have come under scrutiny for a heavy-handed response to the protests, and, in the case of universities, a clampdown on pro-Palestinian speech, in part in response to pressure from politicians. In an effort to neutralize tensions leading up to the anniversary, the University of Maryland revoked its permit for an SJP vigil planned for Monday, announcing that only university-sanctioned events would be permitted on the day. A federal judge reinstated the permit after the group filed a lawsuit alleging its first amendment rights had been violated.
At Wake Forest University in North Carolina, a talk planned for Monday by Rabab Abdulhadi, a Palestinian American scholar, was cancelled after students circulated a petition against it, drawing criticism from the free expression group Pen America. The university said it was not confident it could ensure security at the event. Abdulhadi called the cancellation “a new McCarthyist attack intended to silence Palestinian voices and criminalize Palestine in the academy”.
Elsewhere, synagogues and other Jewish institutions held vigils throughout the day. The progressive group If Not Now planned memorials in a handful of US cities to “mourn every Israeli, Palestinian, and Lebanese life taken – every universe destroyed”.
The anniversary comes amid rising tensions, as Israel has vowed retaliation for an Iranian missile strike that itself was a retaliation for a series of high-profile assassinations attributed to Israel. The escalating tit-for-tat has led to fears that a wider regional war could quickly spin out of control.
Julius Constantine Motal contributed reporting
• This article was amended on 8 October 2024 to better reflect the comments made by Gamal Amin.
