Protest Near Harris-Trump Presidential Debate Opposes Bipartisan Support for Israeli Genocide in Palestine

Philadelphia, PA – Protesters opposing the ongoing Israeli genocide in occupied Palestine marched and rallied near the security perimeter erected outside the National Constitution Center — the site of the first debate between 2024 presidential candidates Kamala Harris (D) and Donald Trump (R). A call to “shut down the presidential debate for Gaza” was announced by the Philly Palestine Coalition to rally at City Hall, which is east of the debate site.

Pennsylvania is considered the largest swing state in the presidential election. The statewide winner will take all 19 electoral votes. Street closures entered effect Tuesday morning on Arch and Market streets between 4th and 7th streets in Philadelphia’s historic Old City east of Center City. Eastbound lanes of the Benjamin Franklin Bridge are also closed. Watch our live coverage.

A flyer from the Philly Palestine Coalition circulated online

Demonstrators first rallied and gathered on the plazas around City Hall, chanting various slogans as more people filled in. By the time the crowd began marching east on Market Street towards the debate venue in Old City, numbers swelled from several hundred to around a thousand people; dozens of police clustered nearby.

The protest then worked its way further east, briefly pausing then passing the Independence Hall area in front of the security fencing erected around the National Constitution Center. A network TV live studio overlooked the protesters from a Independence Visitor Center balcony behind the fence. A few dozen pro-Trump and other more conservative demonstrators had gathered on the non-fenced portion of Independence Mall; a handful of Democrat-leaning pro-Harris pro-Israel individuals were also present, some with protest signs. Some tense words were exchanged but the pro-Palestine march passed through the area without incident, eventually turning off Broad Street and snaking around Old City.

At Arch and Third the march eventually paused and heard from several speakers, including a representative of the Swarthmore College chapter of Students for Justice in Palestine; a 2022 statement by Palestinian resistance fighters from ‘The Lion’s Den’ was also read and met with cheers and applause from the crowd.

When marching resumed many in the crowd hustled west quickly towards a concrete vehicle barricade securing the blocks around the debate site at the National Constitution Center. For a dozen minutes or so as Philadelphia Police officers in riot gear and a Philadelphia Sheriff K-9 unit looked on from behind jersey barriers along the backside of the brutalist U.S. Mint facility. More police could be seen under a vehicle checkpoint canopy behind the security fence.

The protest then marched south back to the intersection of 4th and Market, just southeast of the televised debate, stopping to occupy the intersection. Some protest leaders began advising those present on how to safely disperse, as many different police formations had begun to swarm the area, clearly looking to surround and intimidate the group. As police continued to amass, some protesters sat down in the intersection while others began to leave.

An individual wearing a mask with horns then walked around the intersection carrying a lit road flare, which apparently served as pretext for the hundreds of Philadelphia Police officers who quickly moved forcefully against the crowd. Some Philadelphia police sported crowd control riot gear, or bicycles wielded as objects to shove people.

Several people were arrested and/or struck with police batons and bikes as officers pushed the crowd south on 4th Street. Some protesters resisted and delayed the dispersal maneuvers with tactics such as linking arms, and one or possibly a few water bottles got tossed. The main push was initially carried out by a front line of dozens of bike police with the main mass of officers behind them. After the crowd had been pushed at least half a block away from the intersection, a unit of Philadelphia Police in all-black SWAT gear sporting “counter-terrorism” badges held batons and marched in a double line formation through the mass of officers to then form a line in front of where the bike officers had been; they were reinforced a few minutes later by additional black-clad SWAT-style officers holding tall riot shields. (These types of protest control equipment and tactics are part of a national training doctrine called “Field Force Operations” or “Mobile Field Force.”)

After a standoff lasting a few minutes at this scene near 3rd & Market, most of the remaining protesters quickly sprinted several southwest in order to disperse with less risk of arrest. Several clumps of bike police were seen shadowing groups of demonstrators leaving the area but no additional arrests are known to have taken place in that stretch of time.

After the event had ended, various Pro-Palestine and anti-occupation messages were found spraypainted on or near the NC Nix Federal Courthouse/US Passport Office in the historic Post Office building along 9th Street between Chestnut and Market streets.

Graffiti at US Post Office/Passport Office in Philly, cont’d: pic.twitter.com/pf1EAlr2PR
— UNICORN RIOT (@UR_Ninja) September 11, 2024

A number of small groups of people remained long after the protest ended, some playing music from portable speakers and milling around in the lawn north of Independence Hall.

While Trump has promised he would help Israel “finish the problem” in Gaza, the Biden administration, which includes Kamala Harris as Vice President, has repeatedly gone out of its way to continue arming, funding and politically supporting Israel throughout its deliberate mass killings of displaced civilian children, women and men alongside the targeting of life-supporting infrastructure in Gaza, including the destruction of hospitals and water treatment plants and the torture of healthcare workers.

As of September 10, at least 41,020 Palestinian residents of Gaza have been reported killed and 94,925 injured, while 692 Palestinians in the West Bank were killed and more than 5,700 injured. At least 1,139 Israelis have been killed and 8,730 injured, according to Al Jazeera, based on regional agencies’ data.

Protests outside the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee in July criticized Trump and the Republican Party’s alignment with Israel’s racist and far-right government; demonstrations during the Democratic National Convention in Chicago late last month highlighted the fact that no Palestinians were allowed to speak onstage at the party’s national gathering.

Clips below from Milwaukee and Chicago highlight the scope of Palestine protests that have been the most visible element of dissension around the presidential race.

While paying lip service to talk of a ceasefire, the Biden-Harris administration has continued directly enabling Israel despite the International Court of Justice’s findings that allegations of genocide are “plausible” in regards to the invasion of Gaza and that Israel’s occupation of Palestine is illegal under international human rights law and should be ended.

Recent reporting has also shown that Israeli authorities are subjecting Palestinians held in crowded administrative detention camps such as Sde Teiman to rape and torture at a mass scale – a revelation that has apparently not impacted Harris’ public, unconditional support for Israel in recent media appearances.