More than 200 members of the Bloomington community gathered at the Monroe County Courthouse this past Saturday evening in response to the ongoing humanitarian crisis in Palestine.

Organized by “Jews Against Israeli Apartheid,” the “Free Palestine” rally featured passionate statements from local community members, live music and a diverse audience. Members of the crowd brought with them Palestinian flags, as well as signs displaying their support in phrases like “Free Palestine” and “Stop the Killing.”

Throughout the event, multiple speakers touched on the importance of recognizing and opposing the oppressive military and police action taken by Israel against Palestinian civilians.

“It was through an Israeli human rights organization that calls Israel an ‘apartheid regime,’ it was through them that I started using that term ‘apartheid’ and feeling comfortable with it…Shortly after B’Tselem, the leading human rights group in Israel, put out this report earlier this year, Human Rights Watch, the leading human rights organization in the world, put out an exhaustive report detailing Israeli apartheid and that’s the word we need to use. The more we say ‘Israeli apartheid’, the more it becomes normal to say the truth."

Another speaker would go on to share the definition of the term ‘apartheid’ as “a policy or system of segregation or discrimination on grounds of race.”

The B’Tselem and Human Rights Watch reports referenced by the speaker describe in greater depth the oppression and discrimination Palestinian civilians face every day.

Many of the speakers would go on to echo these points as they described the inhumane treatment of Palestinians at the hand of Israeli police and military action.

"There is indisputable, unequivocal evidence that Israel is committing crimes of apartheid and persecution, and no-one can look you in the face and deny that. No-one can look you in the face and say that Palestinians aren't second-class citizens, and that's when its the best position; most Palestinians aren't even citizens... we can't deny this fundamental truth."

"Don't forget that it's in reaction to the blockade and the intense misery that Israel imposed on Gaza through this blockade, beginning right in the middle of the 2000s, that allowed Hamas to come into power. So if there are folks who are trying to criticize Hamas, you have to remind that what the source of Hamas's power has been; the misery inflicted on Palestine by Israel."

"Colonialism, enslavement, and all the other horrors that we are familiar with and know, had in fact been part of this hypocritical claim of taking civilization and light to the world... those hypocrites are the ones who are responsible for what is going on in places like Palestine."

"Palestine, right now, is said to have about 6-7million people under care of the United Nations as refugees. How many billions, perhaps trillions, have been spent on keeping these people in prison? These refugee camps are no camps; they are in fact, prisons."

With more than 3 billion dollars of taxpayer money pledged “in annual U.S. security assistance to Israel through FY 2028,” it is safe to say that the United States government is a significant source of Israel’s funding. This “security assistance,” is almost entirely used on behalf of the Israeli military, as was seen in 2019 when Israel spent over 99% of the $3.8billion they received in aid from the US on their military.