WASHINGTON: Tens of thousands of people protested outside the White House this weekend, demanding an end to the Israeli military offensive in Gaza.

The march — the largest display of solidarity with the Palestinians in many years — drew people from all ethnic and religious groups living in this large country, including Jewish Americans.

The protesters also urged the Obama administration to stop supporting “Israeli war crimes” in Gaza and to reconsider its Middle East policy.

“The massive demonstration received wide media coverage, and is further proof that the world is uniting for Palestine,” said a spokesperson for ANSWER (Act Now to Stop War and End Racism), which organised the march. The organisation is a coalition of about 40 anti-war groups.

Protest rallies and meetings, which started on Friday, continued till Sunday, but the largest one was held on Saturday. It turned “Pennsylvania Avenue and Lafayette Square, the park opposite the White House, into a sea of demonstrators,” observed ABC News.

“It’s an exceptionally large number of protesters,” a Washington DC police spokesman told The Washington Post, adding that there were no disturbances during the protest.

“Demonstrators waving Palestinian flags and dressed in the flag’s green, red, white and black colours filled a square outside the White House,” the Associated Press reported.

“Children of Gaza, don’t you cry, we will not let you die,” the crowd chanted as they reached the White House from an adjacent street. “Free, free Palestine, killing children is a crime.”

Many among them were holding Palestinian flags while some also carried cardboard boxes decorated as coffins and pictures of those wounded in Gaza.

“We have come to show solidarity with the children of Gaza,” said Sue Thompson of Orlando, Florida. “This is not about politics. This is about children killed by Israeli soldiers and about Israeli citizens killed by Hamas rockets.”

She said the violence would end only “if the US administration stops supporting the Israeli government”.

Tariq Abu Khdeir, the 15-year-old Palestinian-American from Florida, who was arrested and beaten up by Israeli security forces in Jerusalem last month, also participated in the rally. His cousin Mohammed Abu Khdeir was kidnapped and killed by rightwing Israeli activists the day before Tariq was detained.

On Friday, he shared his ordeal with a select gathering on Capitol Hill.

Tariq’s family also came with him from Florida to participate in the march.

“We do not like dragging children into this but we are forced to,” said Tariq’s father Salah Abu Khdeir who also brought his daughters, Jenna, five, and Shahad, 10, with him.

“When they see all this on TV, they want to know what’s happening and why.”

Many Jewish Americans were among the crowd. Shelley Cohens Fudge, 57, of Silver Spring, Maryland, told the Post that she was one of many Jewish Americans in the crowd.

Ms Cohens, a coordinator for Jewish Voice for Peace in Washington, said she came because she was against violence.

“We have Arab Americans, Jewish Americans, people from Pakistan, people from all walks of life here,” she said.

Caya Cagri, 60, of Kensington, Maryland, told reporters she was from a mixed family. “Our mother’s Jewish and our father’s a Muslim,” Ms Cagri said, explaining the family’s Turkish roots.

“They had three daughters; one married a Jew, one married a Muslim and one married a Catholic.”

Ms Cagri’s husband is Catholic and his sister’s is Jewish.

The protesters urged President Obama to stop providing weapons to the Israeli military.

Published in Dawn, August 4th, 2014