Truthout is an indispensable resource for activists, movement leaders and workers everywhere. Please make this work possible with a quick donation.
Tens of thousands of people took to the streets across the Middle East on Friday to protest Israel’s assault on the occupied Gaza Strip, which has killed more than 1,500 people, displaced more than 330,000, devastated the enclave’s infrastructure, and pushed its healthcare system to the brink of collapse.
Demonstrators in Jordan, Yemen, Iraq, Pakistan, Malaysia, Bahrain, Iran, Egypt, and Lebanon expressed outrage over Israel’s ongoing attack and the decadeslong occupation of Palestinian territory.
“This rally is aimed at condemning what is happening in occupied Palestine, the bloodletting, and the violation of rights,” Abu Kayan, an organizer of a rally in Baghdad, told Agence France-Presse.
The outlet added that “in the Saudi capital Riyadh, where protests are prohibited, an AFP journalist witnessed police cuffing a worshipper who interrupted Friday prayers by shouting at the imam: ‘Speak about Palestine! Gaza is under bombs!'”
Massive protests have erupted in Jordan, Iraq, and some in Egypt. Arab countries & governments can normalize relations with Israel as much as they want, but their people remain firm in their support of Palestinian freedom & liberation. https://t.co/U1dZvMCbar
— Yumna (@yumna_patel) October 13, 2023
The mass demonstrations erupted hours after Israel issued an evacuation order for northern Gaza, instructing the entire civilian population there — roughly 1.1 million people — to move to the southern half of the territory within 24 hours ahead of an expected ground invasion.
International humanitarian groups and aid organizations on the ground in Gaza condemned the order, warning that it would be impossible for so many people to move so quickly in such appalling conditions. The World Health Organization called the directive “a death sentence” for the wounded Gazans who have filled the territory’s hospitals over the past week — a period in which Israel dropped 6,000 bombs on the densely populated enclave.
“The images are already flooding in as people in Gaza begin to flee their homes in fear of what comes,” Yumna Patel, Palestine correspondent for Mondoweiss, wrote Friday. “Men, women, and children, walking through the rubble of their destroyed land, holding onto whatever bags and belongings they can carry. A march to the south, not knowing if tomorrow, the south will be next. A death march.”
“We sacrifice our blood and our souls for your sake, al-Aqsa Mosque!”
— Middle East Eye (@MiddleEastEye) October 13, 2023
Solidarity protests erupted in Egypt's Al-Azhar mosque on Friday, as worshippers took part in an unplanned demonstration after Friday prayers, chanting against the Israeli strikes on Gaza pic.twitter.com/kyUZWOGkmB
Al Jazeera reported that the large crowds at Friday’s protests across the Middle East “denounced Israel’s heavy bombardment of the besieged enclave,” an assault that came after a Hamas attack on Israel that killed more than 1,300 people.
“In Baghdad, large crowds filled Tahrir Square in the center of the Iraqi capital for protests called by the influential Shia leader Muqtada al-Sadr. In Yemen’s capital, Sanaa, demonstrators took to the streets waving Yemeni and Palestinian flags,” Al Jazeera reported. “After prayers in Islamabad, Pakistan’s capital, some worshippers stepped on U.S. and Israeli flags, in a sign of disrespect.”
A demonstrator in Jordan told Middle East Eye that “we are here to support the Palestinian people in Gaza.”
“I have seen scores of police, who have attacked us,” the protester said. “They cannot suppress our rights. We are here to defend our human rights. Jordan is beside Palestine. We are here because of our feelings for a people without weapons.”
We lost 15 percent of our traffic overnight.
We now have three full months of data since Google changed its search to feature AI results. The numbers are worse than we anticipated. Overall readership that comes to Truthout through Google is down 54 percent against last year. The number of new readers who discover Truthout via Google searches is down 49 percent, and returning users from Google are down 51 percent.
We lost 15 percent of our readership overnight. This was a readership we painstakingly built over decades, and it vanished because Google chose corporate greed over a healthy democracy.
We anticipate a loss of roughly $500,000 in online revenue as a result of this massive traffic plunge in the next year alone.
The only way we can keep publishing is with strong reader support. We are asking you to start a monthly donation to Truthout today — anything you can do, whether $5 or $25, makes a difference.