A Portland demonstration drew attention to the unfolding tragedy in and around Gaza and tested perceptions of what constitutes legitimate means of resistance and self-protection for nation states

With the death toll in Israel’s Gaza region approaching 3,000 Wednesday evening, a pro-Palestine demonstration in Portland’s Monument Square drew about 60 attendees. The “Free Palestine!” event came on the heels of Hamas’ deadliest attack on Israeli soil to date and the brutal retaliatory air assault that followed. The rally was organized by the Maine Party for Socialism and Liberation and Maine Voices for Palestinian Rights. The demonstration featured a group of speakers who often appeared to justify the unprecedented brutality of Hamas’ rampage last Saturday while condemning Israel’s lethal response and 55-year occupation of the Gaza strip. 

Amid the clattering of city buses on their nightly rounds, more than one speaker at the rally made appeals for peace and security for both Palestinians and Israelis in the long-running and costly conflict. Sally Bowden-Schaible spoke of the self-perpetuating cycle of “trauma heaped upon trauma.” A common thread among the speeches was the assertion that without freedom for Palestinians, peace would elude all efforts to end the conflict. 

Emailed for comment on the recent hostilities, SMCC Political Science Professor Dr. Julie Mueller said the movement of goods and people in and out of Gaza is tightly controlled by surrounding nations. “The blockade by both Israel and Egypt, as well as in-fighting among Palestinian groups, has caused massive suffering for the people living in Gaza. Food insecurity, unemployment, and power shortages that impact services like water and health care, are the main issues,“ Mueller said.

Reports of the October 7th attack document that Hamas launched thousands of rockets that indiscriminately target civilians. They also gunned down victims in their homes, cars, a music festival, and places they hid from their assailants. It has been widely reported that children were not spared the carnage. Amnesty International’s secretary-general Agnès Callamard said of the attack, “Massacring civilians is a war crime and there can be no justification for these reprehensible attacks”. 

At the rally, speakers repeatedly equated Hamas’ attacks as resistance, stating that the form it took was the inevitable result of a people living under unjust and brutal conditions. One speaker said of the Hamas attack, “it’s not for us to judge.” 

At about 40 minutes into the rally, organizer Zach Campbell said, “It is understandable that our first reaction might be to say that both sides are wrong and violence is bad. But we must put violence in context. Only one side in this war is under occupation.” 

Pro-Palestinian demonstrators carried homemade signs adorned with a range of demands ranging from “Yes2Peace, No2War” to “Free all Palestinian Political Prisoners” and “End All U.S. Aid to Israel”. 

On the sideline of the rally, Tyler Washburn of Harpswell was the sole counter-demonstrator on site for much of the evening. Holding a sign reading “Israel deserves our support. #No to Hamas”, Washburn said he “came to show his support for Israel” and wanted “to make sure all voices of Mainers were represented”. 

Mary Cook of the Maine Party for Socialism and Liberation said her group came “in solidarity with the Palestinian People and their right to resist against the unlawful occupation by the [the State of] Israel.” Asked for further comment, Cook said “what we witnessed [in the recent Hamas attack] was a move to a more aggressive approach to the resistance, but that’s what happens when people are under this occupation.”

When asked if the protest condoned Hamas’ attack, Cook said, “We of course hate to see any lives lost, but history has shown time and time again that for people to be liberated this is the type of action that is required. So, we stand in solidarity with their right to resist in this way”.

As the night air grew chill in Monument Square, enough of a breeze wafted down Congress Avenue to gently billow one demonstrator’s tricolor Flag of Palestine. For an hour and half, the rally proceeded relatively calmly with only sporadic counterpoint offered by people who were mostly passing through. 

War veteran Gary Elmer of Portsmouth, NH yelled in response to one speech, “Free Palestinians! Yeah, kill the children!” in apparent disgust. Immediately after, a woman with Elmer leaned in toward a nearby demonstrator and screamed, “Jewish haters!”

At times, other bystanders heckled the rally participants, yelling “What about the children?” and “It’s a holocaust!” In another incident, a motorcycle rider drove by the Square twice with his horn blaring—an apparent attempt to drown-out the speaker’s voice. 

On the same evening as the Free Palestine rally, over 300 supporters crowded into Portland’s Temple Beth El to attend a vigil dedicated to Israeli victims of the Hamas attack. Amid shock and grief, the death toll meted out by Israel’s punitive action in Gaza continues to rise. Like Hamas’ attack, Israeli air strikes have led to large numbers of civilian casualties, including over 400 children. 

In her correspondence with The Beacon, Dr. Mueller said that Hamas “would characterize everything they do as ‘resistance’ to a hostile enemy that has taken over land they believe should be the Palestinian homeland.” She added, “A poll of Palestinians conducted in June 2023 found strong support for Hamas. I would speculate that this is because of the strong position that Hamas has taken in support of Palestinians.”

In addition to the poll cited by Dr. Mueller, a Washington Institute poll in July 2023 found that 62% of Gazans supported Hamas maintaining a ceasefire with Israel. About half of Gazans agreed with the statement: “Hamas should stop calling for Israel’s destruction, and instead accept a permanent two-state solution based on the 1967 borders.”

Amid protests from the United Nations, international community and watchdog groups, Israeli authorities on Friday ordered a 24-hour forced displacement of over 1 million Gaza residents to the south, ostensibly to separate civilians from militants in preparation for a ground campaign in the besieged enclave. The U.N. issued a warning that it is “impossible for such a movement to take place without devastating humanitarian consequences”. 

Under these rapidly evolving conditions the legitimacy and human cost of not only Hamas’ means of resistance—but also Israel’s response—will continue to draw scrutiny and rebukes by the international community, humanitarian organizations, and people of conscience everywhere. Whether these are sufficient to ameliorate the tragic circumstances forced upon civilians in the crossfire, is of course, uncertain.