Laura Glesby Photo
Hajyahia at City Hall protest: Gazans are not numbers, but "human beings with hopes, dreams, and aspirations for a better life."
“As a Palestinian, I learned early what it means to fear for the safety of my family on a daily basis,” said local law student Alaa Hajyahia.
A hundred protesters who had gathered outside City Hall in support of a ceasefire in the Gaza war fell silent as she spoke.
The activists, convened by a group of local organizations including the Party for Socialist Liberation, the Democratic Socialists of America, Jewish Voice for Peace, and Socialist Alternative, protested for three and a half hours on Monday evening.
The heart of their message was a call for the Board of Alders to advance a proposed resolution supporting a permanent ceasefire in Gaza. They said they were holding their own hearing outside City Hall as they wait for an official one to be scheduled.
Meanwhile, as alders concluded their own biweekly meeting inside City Hall, Board of Alders President Tyisha Walker-Myers announced that she had assigned the resolution to a committee — the Committee of the Whole, helmed by President Pro Tempore Jeanette Morrison — the week prior.
The activists modeled Monday’s protest after the structure of a public hearing, hosting “public testimony” from many dozens of speakers who were each allotted three minutes to talk into a bullhorn.
“This is our public hearing. This is the peoples’ public hearing,” said activist Francesca Maria.
Speakers were told to submit their testimony in advance of the hearing. Individuals who had not signed up in advance could spontaneously decide to speak, as long as they brought another activist alongside them to “vouch” for them.
“This is to avoid bad actors and racists taking over our space,” Maria said.
All the testimony heard by this reporter supported the ceasefire resolution.
Before the individual speeches, a handful of organizers led collective chants in support of Gaza.
City outreach worker Thabisa Rich kicked off the chants. “Free, free Palestine!” she called into a megaphone, echoed by the crowd.
Other protest organizers followed her with a separate series of chants.
“Settlers, settlers, go back home! Palestine is ours alone!” they shouted.
“Israel bombs, U.S.A. pays. How many kids did you kill today?”
Various activists called for an “intifada,” for legislators to funnel military funding toward public schools, and for fellow Democrats to vote “uncommitted” in the upcoming Connecticut presidential primary rather than support Joe Biden.
Amidst these calls, the voices of Palestinians themselves testified to the anguish they have experienced here in New Haven, hearing from family members and reading news updates from their homeland.
One Palestinian high schooler now living in New Haven submitted an anonymous speech to be read by one of the organizers.
“It pains me to see thousands of my people dying and to know my city has not called an end to it,” the student wrote.
The student recalled how “a distant cousin told us that his sister, along with her family, died in the rubble.”
“The residents of Gaza cannot be held responsible for Hamas’ actions,” the student wrote.
Hajyahia described her personal knowledge of “waking up each morning to the reality of violence and oppression” and to the “constant fear of displacement.”
“The people in Gaza are not just numbers,” she said. “They are not just headlines. They are human beings with hopes, dreams, and aspirations for a better life.”
The sky grew dark as speaker after speaker took the bullhorn.
At around 7:45, as the alders’ meeting concluded, a couple of protest organizers approached individual legislators with a stack of printed-out “public testimony” delivered at the protest.
President Walker-Myers received the stack, then asked the organizers if their need for a public hearing had been satisfied by the makeshift testimony-reading.
“Are you all set in what you said outside?” she asked.
“I thought they had their public hearing already,” she later said. But she committed to having a yet-to-be-scheduled public hearing through the alders’ Committee of the Whole.
The activists remained outside until 9 p.m., long after alders had trickled out of the building.
Tiff Brisbane: "I hope your life, or the life of your family, your friends, or your neighbor, is never subject to being tabled as an agenda item among car taxes, street closures or parking garages."
Protester Nora hands "public testimony" from the protest to Board President Tyisha Walker-Myers.
Settlers, settlers, go back home! Palestine is ours alone! they shouted.
There you have it.