Diversity in defiance: Pro-Palestine demonstrations across three cities
I’ve been photographing protests in Puerto Rico for six years, but the pro-Palestine demonstrations I’ve covered there and in the United States this year have stood out with their incredibly beautiful and dizzying array of people who stand against the war.
These demonstrators’ tactics of resistance are as diverse as they are themselves, from occupying university buildings to boycotting to taking direct action against weapons manufacturers.
But I have been most moved by how people have used their faith to resist.
On a cold January Saturday in Washington, DC, protest organizers asked participants to quiet down. I was awed by how silence rippled through a crowd of thousands as people made space for Muslim prayers.
And on a cool Friday in May, Jewish anti-zionists held a Shabbat service in Washington Square Park in Lower Manhattan, New York. I teared up as dozens sang the Hebrew anti-war song Lo Yisa Goy. “A nation shall not raise a sword against a nation, and they shall not learn any more war.”
Similarly, the decolonization movement has taken on a new urgency as Black, Native, Latinx and Asian people have pointed out parallels between the Israeli occupation of Palestine and their own histories with colonialism.
As a Puerto Rican born and raised in a U.S. colony, it is an urgency I know all too well. Yet I still found myself surprised upon meeting fellow Boricuas — a moniker for Puerto Ricans derived from Borikén, the island’s indigenous name — at pro-Palestine demonstrations in the US. They often proudly raised the Puerto Rican flag — red, white and blue with a single star — alongside the Palestinian flag.
The solidarity between Puerto Ricans and Palestinians is not new; I was just seeing it for the first time. Through the decades, it has been forged in their common struggles against imperialism.
Vieques, a small island off the eastern coast of Puerto Rico, is particularly linked to Palestine. The US Navy used it as a bombing range for decades, confining the population to a small slice of the island. In 2001, two years before Puerto Ricans finally kicked the US Navy out of the island, activists unfurled a banner I've been seeing again and again since October 7: "US bombs tested in Vieques dropped on Palestine.” Presently, Boricuas continue to lead pro-Palestine demonstrations on and off the island.
In this diversity of people I have documented, I can see a new future being built out of solidarity and justice in staunch opposition to a merciless war machine.
Text and photographs by Cris Seda Chabrier
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