On October 20, thousands of protesters marched through the streets of New York City to call for an immediate cease-fire and an end to hostilities in Gaza. Jeremy Cohan, cochair of New York City Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) and a Jewish organizer, told reporters that “we have to do what we have to do for justice and for peace.” Sumaya Awad, a prominent Palestinian member of DSA and author, said much the same that night: “We’re out here, it’s pouring rain, we’re wet, but they have blood on their hands.”

These are the sentiments of the hundreds of thousands of Americans who have mobilized for a cease-fire in recent weeks, as Israel carries out its indiscriminate bombardment of Gaza following the brutal October 7 Hamas attacks. Just one month into the ongoing crisis, with well over nine thousand Palestinians in Gaza killed (the vast majority of them civilians, including some four thousand children), and with international pressure heightening, the United States is witnessing perhaps its largest and most coordinated antiwar movement since the demonstrations against America’s invasion of Iraq in 2003.

A week ago, Palestinians in New York marched across the Brooklyn Bridge in droves, while demonstrations in Los Angeles and San Francisco drew thousands the last two weeks of October. Hundreds rallied in Austin, Texas, last weekend. Students have walked out at universities in New York and California, defying the on-campus repression that organizations like the Anti-Defamation League are trying to stoke. Tens of thousands showed strength in the Palestinian stronghold of Chicago through a series of marches last month, demanding an immediate cease-fire and the end of Israel’s decades-long occupation. Thousands of young Jewish Americans staged dazzling actions over the last two weeks, including a sit-in on Capitol Hill and an occupation of Grand Central station in New York and the 30 St Station in Philadelphia.