50 people congregated at the Islamic Center of East Lansing, making conversation, and comparing neck pillows and protest signs. Some said “Genocide Joe has got to go” and others said “30,000 dead. Blood on your hands.”
Many had made their signs weeks in advance, when the DC rally for Palestinian Rights was first announced online. Thasin Sardar, a trustee at the Islamic Center, said planning ahead allowed for Islamic Centers all across Michigan to send 10 buses to DC. There was so much interest, that the Islamic center had to create a waitlist.
At 9:30PM, Sardar announced with excitement that the bus had arrived, beginning a 10 hour journey with few rest stops. After distributing paper bags with snacks and fruit, Sardar settled in and fell asleep.
Carly Lesoski, an MSU alumni, was seated on the bus behind Sardar with her husband, Corey Brown. “We missed the first one. I heard about that after the fact… so we jumped on the opportunity immediately as soon as we heard about it. It is important to us that we support our Palestinian neighbors”
“Like a lot of Americans, I’m kind of guilty of not really looking past the headlines, and it’s something that October 7 has really changed.” she told WKAR in an interview.
Lesoski said the videos coming out of Gaza, where 30,000 people have been killed by Israeli Forces, horrified her. “What we're witnessing something that's never been able to be witnessed in this way before of people filming their own genocide. And I yeah, I can't sit around and not say something about that.”
Leoski said she considers protesting the war in Gaza to be her civic duty, citing US aid to Israel using taxpayer money.
“ We’ve seen Biden flat out say so many times, a ceasefire is not an option. And now he's attacking Yemen, who has killed no one in stopping people from going into the Red Sea. And now we see that we're bombing Yemen, and killing innocent civilians there too. As a taxpayer, I don't want my money going to bombs,” Lesoski said.
Beyond attending protests, Lesoski has also joined a 1000 member strong phone bank group which sets targets daily to reach out to members of congress and their representatives.
As the bus drove into Ohio, snow started to ease, and Raheem Wilkerson, the bus driver, laughed about not having any wiper fluid left as he tore down interstate I-90.
At Union Station in DC, a mile away from the White House, Thasin Sardar stretched his back and unloaded the signs he planned to hold aloft the march to the National Mall. Sardar, who lives in East Lansing with his wife and two sons, told WKAR that the conflict in Gaza felt personal to him, after Tariq Thabet, an MSU Humphrey Scholar he knew well, was slain by an Israel strike along with 15 of his family members including his wife, parents and children.
“I’m affiliated with the organization called the Greater Lansing United Nations Association. We receive Humphrey scholars when they arrive in the United States. We mentor them during their stay here, engage with them. In that sense, I knew Tariq very well. And I was shocked when his entire family was bombed to death, when they were basically struck from an airstrike which destroyed the building,” Sardar recalled somberly
Sardar said he isn’t here just for Tariq. “To me, every single Gazan’s life matters and this is a good way of remembering Tariq as well. He’s always on my mind.”
A man on a bicycle sped past behind Sardar, shouting “USA! USA!” at him. Sardar chalked the outburst up to “ignorance,” shaking his head in disgust.
The city of East Lansing rejected a resolution to call for a ceasefire in Gaza on Jan 10, 2024, but Sardar says he is interested in helping draft a new bill.
The original plan for this protest was to meet passengers from other buses coming from Michigan, but given Wilkerson’s brisk driving, the Lansing group left early for the White House and Freedom Plaza with Sardar leading.
The Council of American-Islamic Relationsestimated that 400,000 people attended the March Saturday, surpassing another March on Nov. 7, 2023 which had an estimated 300,000 attendees, as the largest turnout for a Palestinian solidarity protest.
US President Joe Biden was not at the White House during the time of protest and was in Camp David.
On the way to Freedom Plaza, the Lansing group chanted “Free Free Palestine!” while waving their flags. At overhead bridges, they stopped briefly to hold protest flags calling for a ceasefire over the railing before traveling on again. Many passing motorists honked and gave them a thumbs up.
In front of the white house, the Lansing group watched on as a theater troupe held a reenactment of Gazan men being stripped, searched and humiliated by a masked actor playing an Israel Defense Force (IDF) officer. The actors playing Gazan men were shoved around and had “delousing powder” thrown onto them.
The reenactment is based on highly publicized videos and photos that emerged in early December, of Gazan men being stripped to their underwear by the IDF.
Sardar said the sea of black, red, green and white flags hanging over a large crowd in Freedom Plaza gave him “goosebumps”, as prominent speakers such as Cornel West called President Biden a “war criminal”
“And I say personally to Biden and company: You’re not just enabling. You’re not just facilitating. You’re not just coagulating and cooperating with the vicious crime of genocide. That makes you war criminals yourselves! You ought to be shamed. Who do you think we are? You think that you can suppress the love that we have for our Palestinian brothers and sisters? No, you got the wrong people,” West shouted into his microphone, garnering loud cheers from the crowd.
At Freedom Plaza, where the Lansing group and thousand others listened to speeches, chanted, prayed and lit flares, Judeya Hya, a Lansing Community College student from the West Bank, said she went to DC with her friends to “represent my people” and that she was happy to be “around more Palestenians and Arabs”
Hya said her family is lucky to be in the West Bank and not in Gaza where almost 200 people are killed each day by continuous bombing. The sheer death toll on civilians, Hya thinks, “woke up America and half the world. It’s a blessing that people are awake now to see what is going on.”
Hya said she feels a measure of survivor’s guilt, living away from warfare. “I feel guilty as a Palestinian living in America, paying my taxes in America which go to wiping us out. It’s disappointing, inhuman, and there’s nothing we can do but use our voice.”
DC Police reported no arrests at the protest, though protestors were chased away by a group of DC Parks Police for scaling the David G. Farragut memorial. The rally largely stuck to the path blocked off by police who made their presence visible at every corner.
After the rally, everyone regrouped at Union Station, where they had first arrived and awaited another 9 hour journey. This time, clear skies turned into harsh frost, dripping onto Wilkinson’s shoulder through a leaky roof.
The group arrived back in East Lansing Sunday morning 7 AM, two hours ahead of schedule. Sardar did head counts and helped coordinate rest areas inside the Islamic Center and travel for those who did not have cars.
“ It was bittersweet when we said bye to each other after the trip. And I'm really grateful to all of them for their solidarity with, with the cause that we all went to rally for. It means a lot, it was not an easy decision for anyone to take off in the middle of a storm. And under dangerous conditions But we made it there,” Sardar said.
“And hopefully everyone will continue carrying forward the message asking for peace in the region.”
