Hundreds In Parsippany Rally To Support Palestinians

PARSIPPANY, NJ — Four local teens previously never saw Morris County stand up for Palestine. That all changed when hundreds showed up Sunday to their rally in the wake of Gaza-centered attacks.

About 300 people attended the rally at the side of Route 46 by Baldwin Road. People came from throughout to line the busy road with Palestine flags and messages supporting Palestinians.

The rally came after an 11-day bombardment between Israel and Palestine. The violence killed at least 222 Palestinians and 12 Israelis, according to the United Nations. Although Israel and Hamas agreed to a ceasefire, the battles Israel and Palestine arguably further in alleviating the humanitarian crisis.

"The message we wanted to promote is that this is something we should all be concerned about," said Noor Zaman, one of the organizers. "This is not a Palestinian issue or a Muslim issue. It’s a human rights issue. We as people of the United States have the right to act when we see situations of injustice, and we should feel compelled to act."

The event includes several speakers, including Wesley Lebron, a Puerto Rican imam and activist; Madelyn Hoffman, a Green Party candidate for governor and descendent of Holocaust victims; and Dijuan Higgins, a member of the Respect My Life Foundation.

Organizers included four high school juniors: Morris County School of Technology students Zaman, Nicole Piccininni and Medina Kandil and Parsippany High Schooler Sumaiya Rehman.

"The reason we wanted to do this in Parsippany was that Parsippany is such a diverse town with people of so many different backgrounds," Zaman said. "We felt like it would be a great place to have this, to raise more awareness about what’s happening."

Before the ceasefire, missiles destroyed 450 buildings in the Gaza Strip, including six hospitals, nine health-care centers and a desalination plant that provided 250,000 Palestinians with clean drinking water.

Human-rights experts pointed to the forced evictions of Palestinian families in Sheikh Jarrah and Silwan — in Occupied East Jerusalem — as the point of escalation for the violence, according to the UN. Although the crisis goes back decades, Zaman believes something about recent events made Americans more aware of the suffering in Palestine.

"The reason I feel this is getting more news coverage now is especially because the attacks on Ramadan have been so prevalent," Zaman said. "It’s been so much more horrific in terms of victims and casualties that it’s been almost impossible for people to ignore."

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