(Photo by Bellanee Plaza)
ORLANDO | A group of 300 people marched up to Congressman Maxwell Frost’s MadSoul Music Festival March 2 outside of Loch Haven Park to protest Israel’s ongoing war in Gaza and to demand local representatives for a ceasefire.
Over two dozen people from the music festival left the festivities to join in on the protest, chanting from inside the park fence.
Sophie Swan, a member of Reproductive Rights, saw the protestors chanting and rushed over to join. She says she knew the protest was coming to the festival because Reproductive Rights is pro-Palestine and they had been preparing.
“People need to be held accountable,” Swan says. “We need to stop a genocide that we are watching live. I was happy to go, stand there and use my voice the second that we were able to. I’m really proud of everyone who was out there and I’m really grateful to them.”
The protest was arranged by End to Genocide Coalition as a global day of protest, their goal was to make it known that there is no business as usual during genocide.
As the protest continued so did the festival. A member from Las Semillas went onto the MadSoul Stage to speak about the protest as he was an extension of it. He says there needs to be truth and justice from Pine Hills to Palestine.
According to End to Genocide Coalition’s Instagram, the group felt it was “completely tone-deaf for a fundraising musical festival to be held while Israel continues to wage murder, devastation, bombardment, state-sanctioned violence and displacement of the Palestinian people.”
The group divided itself into two groups to chant outside the fence so more guests from the festival could hear them. Some of the chants were, “Joe Biden, you can’t hide, we charge you with genocide!” and “Not another nickel, not another dime, no more money for Israel’s crimes!”
Swan was one of the guests who used her voice to amplify the protestors during the chants. She says she’s grateful to those who are speaking out about the people in Gaza.
“We have so many different political and social justice organizations here,” Swan says. “I feel like it’s implied that this should be a place where we are talking about what is real and what is happening in the world.”
The End to Genocide Coalition states it will continue to demand an immediate and everlasting ceasefire of Israel’s aggression, to stop arming Israel until Palestine is free, according to their Instagram page.
Swan says she wants people to know that the war against the Palestinian people is the most important thing happening in the world as it has implications across the board.
“We’re looking at Congo, Haiti and Sudan, we’re looking at all of these places that are affected by the same system but the thing at the end of the day is if people aren’t paying attention,” Swan says. “We are watching this live on our phones and people who are still choosing to not listen to that need to know because this is a genocide that is stoppable.”
Photos by Bellanee Plaza.
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