Pro-Palestine protest confronts VP Harris in Jacksonville, FL

Jacksonville, FL – More than 200 community members rallied alongside Jacksonville Palestine Solidarity Network (JPSN) to protest the visit of Vice President Harris, May 1, who had come to campaign the same day the Republican-led state began enforcing the six-week abortion ban.

The Democratic party is using this ban as an opportunity to shore up support for Democratic candidates that will appear on the November ballot alongside Florida Amendment 4, which would codify reproductive rights in the state’s constitution.

“We won’t allow Harris to coopt the hard work of grassroots organizers,” said Sara Mahmoud of JPSN. “The Biden-Harris administration has no leg to stand on in coming to our city to virtue signal support for reproductive rights when they are the butchers of Gaza, where miscarriages have tripled since October and the U.S.-backed siege has forced Palestinians to use tent fabric to substitute menstrual products.”

JPSN organizers led the crowd in chants against the vice president and her guests as they arrived at the speaking venue, along with segments of political education. At one point, a Christian faith leader who was among Harris’ invited guests approached the crowd, exclaiming “I wanted to come get a picture with you all. Because I want everyone to know we support you!”

“I need everyone here to understand,” shouted Ryan Delaney of JPSN and FRSO through a bullhorn, “that we are stronger together. We are here making an impact because we are organized. We must be strong because our strength is the strength of the Palestinian people. When we strike a powerful blow against the empire, it brings those in Gaza hope to keep going, which is why you see them writing messages of gratitude to the Columbia students on the tents in their refugee camps. It’s our duty to be as strong as we can be for their sake, and to do that we must organize!”

The Harris campaign fled the venue from the opposite end of the building. JPSN says they will continue to fight for a free Palestine no matter who wins in November or how long it takes.

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