About 1,200 people gathered at Lake Eola Park in downtown Orlando on Saturday to call for a ceasefire in Gaza in a massive rally that ended in two getting arrested.
In a mostly peaceful gathering, protesters marched from the northeast lawn, making it the largest in recent memory with scores carrying Palestinian flags and wearing keffiyehs.
Chants echoed through the park calling for a ceasefire in Gaza, where at least 35,000 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli forces following an attack by Hamas on Oct. 7 that killed about 1,200 Israelis.
Pro-Palestine protestors chant and walk around Lake Eola during the statewide Florida rally in support of Palestine in Orlando, Fla., Saturday, May 11, 2024. (Willie J. Allen Jr./Orlando Sentinel)
Pro-Palestine protestors chant and walk around Lake Eola during the statewide Florida rally in support of Palestine in Orlando, Fla., Saturday, May 11, 2024. (Willie J. Allen Jr./Orlando Sentinel)
Protestors lead a chant during the statewide Florida rally in support of Palestine in Orlando, Fla., Saturday, May 11, 2024. (Willie J. Allen Jr./Orlando Sentinel)
Young and older Pro-Palestine protestors attend and chant during the statewide Florida rally in support of Palestine in Orlando, Fla., Saturday, May 11, 2024. (Willie J. Allen Jr./Orlando Sentinel)
Pro-Palestine protestors chant and walk around Lake Eola during the statewide Florida rally in support of Palestine in Orlando, Fla., Saturday, May 11, 2024. (Willie J. Allen Jr./Orlando Sentinel)
Pro-Palestine protestors attend and chant during the statewide Florida rally in support of Palestine in Orlando, Fla., Saturday, May 11, 2024. (Willie J. Allen Jr./Orlando Sentinel)
Pro-Palestine protestors hold hands and take a moment while watching others walking around Lake Eola during the statewide Florida rally in support of Palestine in Orlando, Fla., Saturday, May 11, 2024. (Willie J. Allen Jr./Orlando Sentinel)
Pro-Palestine protestors chant and walk around Lake Eola during the statewide Florida rally in support of Palestine in Orlando, Fla., Saturday, May 11, 2024. (Willie J. Allen Jr./Orlando Sentinel)
Restaurant guests watch as the Pro-Palestine protestors chant and walk around Lake Eola during the statewide Florida rally in support of Palestine in Orlando, Fla., Saturday, May 11, 2024. (Willie J. Allen Jr./Orlando Sentinel)
Orlando Police officers watch the Florida statewide rally in support of Palestine as they walk around Lake Eola in Orlando, Fla., Saturday, May 11, 2024. (Willie J. Allen Jr./Orlando Sentinel)
Pro-Palestine protestors chant and walk around Lake Eola during the statewide Florida rally in support of Palestine in Orlando, Fla., Saturday, May 11, 2024. (Willie J. Allen Jr./Orlando Sentinel)
Pro-Palestine protestors run as Orlando Police Department officers take two protestors into custody and deploy a noxious gas into the crowd during the Florida statewide rally in support of Palestine in Orlando, Fla., Saturday, May 11, 2024. (Willie J. Allen Jr./Orlando Sentinel)
Orlando Police Department officers take two Pro Palestine protestors into custody during the Florida statewide rally in support of Palestine in Orlando, Fla., Saturday, May 11, 2024. (Willie J. Allen Jr./Orlando Sentinel)
Orlando Police Department officers take one of two Pro Palestine protestors into custody during the Florida statewide rally in support of Palestine in Orlando, Fla., Saturday, May 11, 2024. (Willie J. Allen Jr./Orlando Sentinel)
Police arrest and carry away one of two people arrested during the Florida statewide rally in support of Palestine in Orlando, Fla., Saturday, May 11, 2024. Orlando Police Department officers entered the crowd after protestors used a bull-horn, sprayed crowd with a noxious gas after a peaceful rally around Lake Eola. (Willie J. Allen Jr./Orlando Sentinel)
Orlando Police Officer yells at Pro-Palestine supporters to during the Stop the War protest in Orlando, Fla., Saturday, May 11, 2024. Orlando Police Department officers entered the crowd after protestors used a bull-horn, and sprayed the crowd with a noxious gas after a peaceful rally around Lake Eola. (Willie J. Allen Jr./Orlando Sentinel)
A photojournalist has water poured onto his face after being sprayed with a noxious gas by the Orlando Police during a statewide rally in support of Palestine in Orlando, Fla., Saturday, May 11, 2024. (Willie J. Allen Jr./Orlando Sentinel)
Pro-Palestine protestors yell at Orlando Police Department officers after they took two protestors into custody and deploy a noxious gas into the crowd during the Florida statewide rally in support of Palestine in Orlando, Fla., Saturday, May 11, 2024. (Willie J. Allen Jr./Orlando Sentinel)
Pro-Palestine protestors attend and chant during the statewide Florida rally in support of Palestine in Orlando, Fla., Saturday, May 11, 2024. (Willie J. Allen Jr./Orlando Sentinel)
Pro-Palestine protestors attend and chant during the statewide Florida rally in support of Palestine in Orlando, Fla., Saturday, May 11, 2024. (Willie J. Allen Jr./Orlando Sentinel)
Pro-Palestine protestors march around Lake Eola during the statewide Florida rally in support of Palestine in Orlando, Fla., Saturday, May 11, 2024. (Willie J. Allen Jr./Orlando Sentinel)
Pro-Palestine protestors attend and chant during the statewide Florida rally in support of Palestine in Orlando, Fla., Saturday, May 11, 2024. (Willie J. Allen Jr./Orlando Sentinel)
Orlando Police Department officers put on gas masks after taking two Pro Palestine protestors into custody during the Florida statewide rally in support of Palestine in Orlando, Fla., Saturday, May 11, 2024. (Willie J. Allen Jr./Orlando Sentinel)
Protestors lead a chant during the statewide Florida rally in support of Palestine in Orlando, Fla., Saturday, May 11, 2024. (Willie J. Allen Jr./Orlando Sentinel)
Pro-Palestine protestors yell at Orlando Police Department officers after they took two protestors into custody and deploy a noxious gas into the crowd during the Florida statewide rally in support of Palestine in Orlando, Fla., Saturday, May 11, 2024. (Willie J. Allen Jr./Orlando Sentinel)
Young and older Pro-Palestine protestors attend and chant during the statewide Florida rally in support of Palestine in Orlando, Fla., Saturday, May 11, 2024. (Willie J. Allen Jr./Orlando Sentinel)
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The arrests came after marchers returned to the lawn. A line of Orlando police officers shoved through the crowd as a woman addressed the gathering using a megaphone. Protesters were warned against using it at the beginning of the march, but that confrontation was quelled by the group’s marshals ushering the crowd.
“As Floridians, we are united here as we stand with the millions who are standing with Palestine,” the woman said, before police arrived to disrupt her speech. Two people appeared to block the police from reaching the woman, knocking over several others before police pepper-sprayed the crowd, dispersing them.
Tensions had briefly flared minutes before, as protesters walking the inner perimeter on the park’s west end suddenly moved toward Rosalind Avenue before they were turned away. As the two people who were arrested were hustled into police cars, the crowd repeatedly chanted, “Let them go” as volunteer medics tended to those affected by the gas.
Shortly after the rally ended, an Orlando Police Department spokesperson confirmed the arrests and said they will be charged with battery on a law enforcement officer. Their names have not been released.
“The Orlando Police Department is committed to keeping everyone safe who chooses to peacefully assemble in the City of Orlando, while also maintaining the safety of residents and businesses,” OPD said in a written statement.
Saturday’s march takes place days ahead of the 76th Nakba Day on May 15. The day commemorates the period in 1948 known in Arabic as “the catastrophe,” when Palestinians were violently displaced from their lands in the early formation of Israel, which celebrates its independence the same day. Saturday was also the anniversary of the killing of Palestinian-American journalist Shireen Abu Akleh by Israeli soldiers.
“We honor our martyrs,” Florida Palestine Network Rasha Mubarak said to cheers of Abu Akleh.
The calls for ceasefire comes amid an ongoing onslaught by the Israeli military in the Gaza Strip, where it’s gearing up for an expanded offensive in Rafah, the latest since Oct. 7, when 1,200 Israelis were killed by Hamas and allied insurgents in Tel Aviv.
Since then, nearly 35,000 Palestinians were killed by Israeli forces in the Gaza Strip, likely an undercount. Many in the international community accuse Israel of conducting a genocide. This week, the United Nations General Assembly overwhelmingly approved a resolution making Palestine the 194th member state, a long-sought goal by Palestinian authorities. Nine countries, including the U.S. and Israel, voted against the resolution.
Since Oct. 7, thousands of demonstrations across the world have called for a ceasefire in Gaza as the public turns against Israel’s handling of its war with Hamas. In the U.S., encampments have been established by students at dozens of universities calling on administration to divest from companies and funds benefiting Israel.
At the University of Central Florida, students organized daylong picnics doubling as rallies throughout the week calling on the university to reconsider its relationships with companies like Lockheed Martin and sever ties with Tel Aviv University with Israel. UCF told FOX 35 that students’ calls for divestment “based on political or social grounds would not comport with the directives of the law.”
Meanwhile, students are seeking to reestablish the university’s Students for Justice in Palestine chapter, or SJP, as orders by state officials to “deactivate” its chapters at state universities have not been enforced amid legal challenges.
Beyond UCF, pro-Palestine advocates have continually urged the City of Orlando to pass a ceasefire resolution, which it has yet to do formally consider.
Last weekend, Mubarak, the organizer for Florida Palestine Network, was arrested and trespassed from a Florida Democratic Party gala after heckling U.S. Sen. John Fetterman, D-Pa. At the gala, where Fetterman was a keynote speaker, Mubarak, “Fetterman, you don’t care about people,” “Your legacy is genocide,” “Free Palestine,” and “Shame on you, shame on FDP.”
Mubarak was released hours later.
