Palestine Solidarity Waterfront March and Rally

Sponsored by Hoboken Justice, Ceasefire Now NJ, Stevens Institute Students for Justice in Palestine, Stevens Amnesty International, Hudson County Democratic Socialists of America, Jewish Voice for Peace Northern NJ, Palestinian Youth Movement NJ Network.

It is high time the Hudson County community come together again in support of and in solidarity with our Palestinian friends and neighbors. Please show up, tell your friends, bring signs, flags, and all of your heart.

We'll gather uptown at Pier 13 at 11:30 a.m. and we'll march, beginning about noon, along the water down to Pier A, where we'll hear some speakers, and when we disband, hopefully we'll all have new friends and neighbors to have lunch with.

Please RSVP for a general advance headcount and any last minute notifications, but come and bring friends even if you don't RSVP! Please note, only the organizers will see your RSVP.

Background: Why now? Why here?

On March 27, a Hoboken resident was arrested for planning, from his Hoboken residence, to assassinate Palestinian organizer and activist Nerdeen Kiswani in New York City. While assuring residents that there was no active threat to public safety, public officials and community leaders failed to address the impact of events on Palestinian locals and their allies and to specifically ensure the safety of Palestinian residents and activists. Zionist community leaders in Hoboken issued no public statements disavowing the rhetoric and bigotry that leads to such violent threats coming from within our own mile square city.

In response, Hoboken Justice launched a petition, which was sent two days later with 100 signatures to municipal, county, and state elected representatives of Hoboken and to the leadership of United Synagogue of Hoboken, Chabad of Hoboken and Jersey City, Jewish Federation of Northern New Jersey, and Jews for New Jersey, demanding a statement disavowing anti-Palestinian rhetoric, threats, and violence. Similarly, CAIR-NJ called on "local leaders in Hoboken to take a substantive stance against the root motivation of Heifler's alleged plan, and to publicly condemn it and the Jewish Defense League." No such statement was forthcoming.

As noted in the Hoboken Justice petition, anti-Palestinian and Islamophobic rhetoric and bigotry have skyrocketed in our community, both online and in person, since October 2023. And as stated poignantly by Dyaa Terpstra of CAIR-NJ, "Hate does not spawn spontaneously in a vacuum." Yet Hoboken officials have issued only milquetoast, generic condemnations of “extremism.” Mayor Jabbour emphasized that Hoboken is “a close-knit community where neighbors look out for one another, where diversity is embraced, and where people come together to build something better.” But there is one element of that “diversity” that most of our elected officials cannot seem to bring themselves to name or explicitly embrace.

To demonstrate that we and our Hudson County neighbors indeed embrace a diversity that openly names and supports Palestinians, as citizens of this city and as proponents of the just cause of Palestinian liberation, several local groups are co-sponsoring this Palestine Solidarity March and Rally on April 12 along the Hoboken waterfront.