Hundreds of demonstrators, including pro-Palestine activists, have gathered outside the annual Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Leaders’ Meeting to call for an end to Israel’s genocidal war on the besieged Gaza Strip.
The protest took place in the US city of San Francisco on Sunday as the week-long global trade summit started.
Waving Palestinian flags, the participants carried signs reading, “Stand with Palestine,” “Resistance to occupation is justified,” and “No Genocide APEC.”
They also sprayed the words “Free Gaza” on the side of a “self-driving” car.
“I’m here to protest in solidarity with Palestinians who have been undergoing 75 years of occupation and genocide and ethnic cleansing,” said protester Eleonore Collet.
“It’s truly a genocide, and we are funding it in the US and that feels deeply wrong,” she said. “The cause of the liberation of peoples is international, all these causes are interconnected.”
Suzanne Ali, an organizer for the Palestinian Youth Movement, said that Washington needs to be held to account for supplying weapons to Israel amid its carnage in Gaza.
Israel waged the bloody war on the Gaza Strip on October 7 after Hamas carried out a surprise operation against the occupying entity.
Since the start of the aggression, the Tel Aviv regime has killed at least 11,180 Palestinians in Gaza, mostly women and children, and injured about 28,200 others.
It has also imposed a “complete siege” on the coastal sliver, cutting off fuel, electricity, food and water to the more than two million Palestinians living there.
Sunday’s protest also included activists protesting corporate profits, environmental abuses and poor working conditions. They demanded participants in the APEC forum put people and the planet above business.
APEC was established in 1989 as a forum to promote trade, investment and economic development among nations around the Pacific Ocean. It has 21 member countries, including the world’s two largest economic superpowers – China and the US.
The annual APEC leaders’ conference brings together heads of states and other top economic and diplomatic leaders.
