Agung Sandy Lesmana, Dea Hardiningsih Irianto – The Musicians Coalition for Gaza held a demonstration in front of the United States Embassy in Central Jakarta on Friday May 10 as a form of protest against the situation in Rafah, Palestine.
At this defend Palestine action, the demonstrators setup tents or a tent village in front of the embassy. Musicians Coalition for Gaza field coordinator Eka Annash explained that the action is a form of opposition to the violence and genocide against the people of Palestine.
The Coalition is demanding that Israel implement an immediate ceasefire, withdraw troops and halt military operations, end Israel's occupation of Palestine and for the US to stop supporting Israel in any form.
"Even more crucial we are also doing this in response to the situation taking place in Rafah which is a point of concentration, the last point for the Palestinian people in the south which is being increasingly bombarded", said Annash in front of the US Embassy on Friday.
"We think this is the resistance of the Palestinian people, it is a symbol, not only of their independence but also a symbol of for us as human beings demanding the abolition of occupation, genocide in the world", he added.
Meanwhile the idea for establishing a tent village was adopted from protests against the genocide of the Palestinian people by activists and students globally.
The vocalist from the group The Brandals explained that students in America and Europe who reject the genocide against the Palestinian people have been holding actions by suddenly setting up tents on their campuses without prior notification.
"So we're doing the same thing, so we, without informing the police, did it straight away here, the publication of the notification on social media was also only done earlier at 10 am this morning, so we adopted this method", asserted Annash.
The action was carried out by the Musician's Coalition along with the Commission for Missing Persons and Victims of Violence (Kontras) and the Indonesian Forum for the Environment (Walhi).
They established the tent village in front of the US Embassy without setting a time limit on how long the action would continue.
[Translated by James Balowski. The original title of the article was "Protes Kebrutalan Israel di Rafah, Koalisi Musisi Bela Palestina Mendadak Kamping di Kedubes AS".]
