Young Arab activists have been organizing in the Big Easy for the last six years. Now, they’re watching their work pay off.

At Jackson Square, in the center of New Orleans’ French Quarter, more than a thousand people gathered on January 4 to protest Israel’s invasion of Gaza. It was one of the largest demonstrations the city had seen in recent years. Tracie Washington, director of Louisiana Justice Institute, a legal advocacy group, attended with her son. Addressing the crowd on a megaphone, she said, “My son asked me today about what is happening in Gaza. He asked, ‘Is it like if I pinched you and you punched me?’ I said to him, ‘No, it’s like if you pinched me and I shot you with an AK-47.’”

The cheers of the crowd rang several blocks away. Palestinian youth led raucous chants of “No Justice, No Peace” and “Gaza, Gaza, don’t you cry. In our hearts, you’ll never die.” Children held up signs that read: “This is what an Israeli target looks like.”

The Jan. 4 march was the second of four mass demonstrations for Gaza during the Israeli bombing that week. The first demonstration, organized in less than 24 hours by young Palestinian activists, brought out more than 300 people, including entire families. 

The size of the demonstrations surprised even the organizers. “New Orleans is a small town,” said activist and business owner Emad Jabbar. “For 1,200 people to come out with just a few days notice—I’m speechless.”  

The demonstrations were the culmination of years of activism in New Orleans’ Arab and Palestinian communities. This activism has included everything from organizing arts events about Palestine to talking about the issues with newspaper editorial boards. The city’s young Arab activists in particular have also been inspired by successes in other cities, including a recent successful campaign to get Hampshire College to divest from companies that supply the Israeli military as well as sit-ins and building occupations on other campuses in the U.S. and Europe. And organizing among New Orleans’ Vietnamese, Latinos and Blacks since Hurricane Katrina has also been encouraging to the city’s Arab community.

According to Angelina Abbir Mansour, the co-founder of the chapter of the General Union of Palestinian Students at the University of New Orleans, the devastation in Gaza this year was a catalyst that took their city’s activism to a new level.

“When the Gaza massacre happened, the first thought that came to everyone’s head was ‘We can’t be quiet anymore,’” she said.

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It’s difficult to estimate the size of New Orleans’ Palestinian community. According to the U.S. census, the pre-Katrina population was 67-percent Black and 27-percent white, with less than 2 percent identifying themselves as Arab American.

What can be said is that the city’s Palestinian community is both spread out and insular. Families are located in several suburbs on New Orleans’ Westbank (on the other side of the Mississippi River), but there isn’t a particular neighborhood where most live. The community is rarely discussed in national coverage of New Orleans, or even in the local media. “Growing up, I didn’t know there was a Palestinian community here,” Mansour said. “I guess [that's] because we’re a small population and were not making headlines.”

Many of New Orleans’ Palestinians are from a handful of small towns and villages near Ramallah and Jerusalem, such as Silwad, Al-Bireh, Al-Mizra’a and Beit Anan. Many are small business owners, owning restaurants, convenience stores and clothing stores. In the aftermath of Katrina, much of the city’s Arab community was displaced, losing both their stores and homes.

“A lot of us lost businesses,” said Maher Salem, a community leader and small business owner. “And many from our community moved to other cities.”

Although they no longer live in New Orleans, many of those who are displaced still feel connected to the city. “I know guys that are in Dallas now,” Salem said. “But every time we have a protest or something else happening they call and ask what happened. They miss living here.”

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