US anti-Israel activists vow to keep up ‘the struggle’ after ceasefire news

Anti-Israel protest groups in the United States on Thursday heralded an emerging ceasefire deal with calls to keep up pressure on Israel, while expressing some relief for Palestinians in Gaza.

The Palestinian Youth Movement announced Thursday protests in New York City and several other cities in the US and Canada, saying, “Gaza will rise, the struggle never dies.”

The group vowed to continue to work “to lift the siege, liberate all prisoners, end the occupation, and free our land. From the river to the sea.”

The protest announcements were shared widely by anti-Zionist activist groups around the US.

The anti-Zionist Jewish Voice for Peace said the ceasefire plan “seeks to create a new Middle East in which Israeli apartheid and genocide are normalized.”

“Justice can only begin once Israeli impunity is challenged,” the group said.

“We will continue to advocate for an arms embargo, an end to the siege, and a liberated Palestine from the river to the sea,” said the Palestinian Feminist Collective.

“From the river to the sea” refers to the land between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea — encompassing all of Israel and the Palestinian territories — and is seen by Israel’s advocates as a call for the elimination of the Jewish state.

Other statements from activist groups were ambiguous and some leading groups have not commented on the potential deal.

“Freedom is only born in the womb of suffering,” National Students for Justice in Palestine said.

The hardline activist group Within Our Lifetime said, “Every free person must feel a debt upon their shoulders toward Gaza and its people, a debt that can only be discharged by the complete removal and dissolution of this occupation.”

The news of the ceasefire came after anti-Israel activist groups held widespread rallies this week for the second anniversary of the October 7, 2023, invasion of Israel that started the war in Gaza.

A Within Our Lifetime rally marking October 7 sparked outrage among members of Congress and federal officials when one of the group’s leaders, Abdullah Akl, told a crowd, “We did not act enough.”

“We will show up stronger than we did the first October 7th,” he said. “We will keep fighting until Palestine is free, from the river ot the sea.”

Earlier this year, during a previous ceasefire in Gaza, anti-Zionist activists hailed the development as a victory for the “resistance” and also pledged to continue their activism.

The leading non-Jewish anti-Israel activist groups in the US are committed to Israel’s destruction; none are opposed to Hamas or the October 7 attack, or in support of a two-state solution to the conflict.

Groups such as Within Our Lifetime and National Students for Justice in Palestine supported the October 7 attack the day it happened, and have condemned the destruction in Gaza since.