(video made in the tradition of DC’s WSQT Guerrilla Radio’s pirate radio broadcast coverage of similar protests circa 2006-2007)
When a Gaza ceasefire resolution came before the Orlando City Council, Mayor Buddy Dyer refused to support it. One protester asked him “how do you sleep at night?!” Later, he sent a message that he sleeps at night just fine.
Infuriated by this response, pro-Palestine protesters marched on the Mayor’s ritzy gated community, demanding he endorse a Gaza ceasefire as many other cities have. They also called out his language so callously dismissing activists seeking to stop the brutal genocide of Gaza.
On the 5th of February, University of S Florida’s Tampa campus SDS chapter held a protest demanding the university divest from Israeli genocide. Protesters also demanded the US stop bombing Yemen and stop sending military aid to Israel.
The protest was small but USF-Tampa has become notorious for police violence against protesters. Notably, this was where the Tampa 5 case originated in a storm of police brutality. It takes courage to sail into the teeth of such a storm, to stand forth against real risk to say NO to genocide. This goes doubly so with all of the proposals for charging out of state tuition, reporting students to Homeland Security, and possibly more spewing from the sewer that is DeathSantis’s mouth and pen.
Also note that this is just one of a great many protests being held nationally by SDS as part of a Feb 5-11 week of action for Palestine. National demands are “Stand with Palestine, Hands off Yemen, End US Aid to Israel.” This is but the first of many such protests
