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Protesters in downtown Boston demand ‘complete end’ to ‘illegal wars’ with Iran, Lebanon
“I’m seeing it happen again where new military families are seeing their loved ones sent off to an illegal, immoral, and unjustifiable war,” Military Families Speak Out co-founder Nancy Lessin said.
A crowd of nearly 150 demonstrators gathered in downtown Boston Wednesday evening in response to a post by President Donald Trump they said had threatened genocide agains Iran.
The group — organized by the National Iranian American Council, Jewish Voice for Peace Boston, Military Families Speak Out, and other local peace groups — had announced the rally earlier in the day on Wednesday, calling for “an immediate and complete end to the illegal wars on Iran and Lebanon.”
“So we’re out here today on a very short notice; we mobilized to say, ‘All out of Iran, of Lebanon, of Gaza,’ to say, ‘We will not stand for this war,’” Ximena Hasbach, a protest organizer for the Party of Socialism and Liberation, told Boston.com.
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Just minutes before church bells commenced the protest outside of the Park Street MBTA station, a man walked through the crowd yelling profanities.
“F— Palestine, f— Gaza, f— you,” the man said.
During the rally, multiple speakers addressed the crowd, like Joe Tache, a member of the Party for Socialism and Liberation who is running for a U.S. Senate seat, Military Families Speak Out co-founder Nancy Lessin, and Hannah Didehbani, an outspoken Iranian activist.
“I’m seeing it happen again where new military families are seeing their loved ones sent off to an illegal, immoral, and unjustifiable war,” Lessin told Boston.com.
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Since the start of the war, 13 US service members have been killed.
Throughout the hours-long protest, multiple speakers, including Didehbani, called the president’s Tuesday morning post a threat of genocide.
On Tuesday morning, President Trump posted to his Truth Social platform, warning that “a whole civilization will die tonight, never to be brought back again” if Iran did not agree to a ceasefire deal.
Less than two hours before Trump’s deadline, a two-week ceasefire was struck, contingent on the Strait of Hormuz being made safely accessible.
The strait supplies transport to about one fifth of the world’s oil. As of Wednesday, Iran had only been letting in certain vessels, with the country reportedly planning to charge ships passing through the strait the cryptocurrency equivalent of $1 per barrel of oil on board during the ceasefire.
Meanwhile, many of Wednesday’s protesters questioned the war’s legality.
“You have an obligation to not follow unconstitutional orders like bombing a children’s school that’s not a legal target. They taught us that in [the Naval Academy],” Emma Remus, 27, a former naval intelligence officer, told Boston.com.
The children’s school Remus mentioned was the Iranian all-girls school the US apparently bombed on Feb. 28, killing over 100. The Trump Administration has said it is investigating the incident, which an Amnesty International investigation found was clearly the result of a US tomahawk missile attack.
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Sen. Ed Markey also called the war illegal just hours prior to the rally, at a press conference held in the Boston Common.
“This is Trump’s war of choice,” Markey said during the conference. “Only diplomacy can bring lasting peace.”
A young protester, Amanai Arunga, 18, a future Harvard undergrad, said she discovered the protest on social media and asked her friends to attend with her.
“I really think it’s important for the younger generation to come out and protest, mostly because I think it’s important to connect with other people who have things to say or have strong opinions, stances, against things going on in the government,” Arunga told Boston.com.
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