A group of protesters faces charges after attempting to enter an office building in downtown Dallas on Friday.
Sumayyah Chenault was one of 12 arrested on Friday after protesting in and near the Boston Consulting Group’s (BCG) office building in the 2500 block of N. Hardwood Street.
Dallas Police said a group got into the building and was warned they were trespassing. Police said when they tried to arrest people, “an unruly crowd began to gather,” and “continued to grow.”
Chenault and demonstrators with the Palestinian Youth Movement said the BCG helped create the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), the controversial new aid distribution system in the enclave.
“Which is essentially a death trap for Palestinians who are seeking aid, who are seeking food, and… formula for their babies,” Chenault said.
The protesters in Dallas echo nearly 200 aid groups who want the GHF shut down, believing that the system, backed by the U.S. and Israel, is “designed to sustain a cycle of desperation, danger, and death,” according to a joint statement released by the aid groups earlier this month.
GHF took over aid delivery after Israel’s three-month blockade of humanitarian aid. The U.N. estimates that Israeli forces have killed more than 1,000 people looking for food, mostly near GHF’s militarized distribution sites.
The Israeli military said it has only fired warning shots near distribution sites, and the GHF denied what it called “false and exaggerated statistics” from the United Nations, according to the Associated Press.
On their website, BCG said two of their now-former partners consulted on the GHF project, but did not have permission to do so.
“Recent media reporting has misrepresented BCG’s role in post-war Gaza reconstruction. Two former partners initiated this work, even though the lead partner was categorically told not to. This work was not a BCG project. It was orchestrated and run secretly outside any BCG scope or approvals. We fully disavow this work. BCG was not paid for any of this work,” reads a post from earlier this month.
Protesters say it’s not enough– they want BCG to sign the “anti-genocide pledge,” and plan to target not only BCG but other companies.
“We want to see the complicit actors that are making it happen, held accountable,” Chenault said.
She said many protesters stayed at Dallas County Jail overnight, waiting for their counterparts to be released.
“We want to show them that they are not alone with what they took up for Palestine,” she said. “We are all here as a community to show them support, as well to show Gaza that we will never stop until it is free and until this genocide ends.”
Dallas Police said of the 12 people arrested, nine are charged with criminal trespass, two for public interference with public duties, one for interference, resisting and assault on a public servant.
DPD said one person who was arrested was taken to the hospital as a precaution after bumping their head with another protester during their arrest.
As of publication, a spokesperson for the protesters said most of those arrested had bonded out.
Great Job Tahera Rahman & the Team @ NBC 5 Dallas-Fort Worth Source link for sharing this story.
