DATE: August 9, 2025, 5pm
LOCATION: Lafayette Square
EVENT: Rally and March Demanding Action to Lift the Siege on Gaza
New Orleans, LA – On Saturday, August 9, at 5PM, local organizations and community members will convene at Lafayette Square in downtown New Orleans to raise awareness about the growing humanitarian crisis in the Gaza strip, caused and facilitated by the Israeli State and our own U.S. government. The protest is being led by the New Orleans for Palestine coalition. The coalition includes New Orleans Stop Helping Israel’s Ports, Palestinian Youth Movement, Eye on Surveillance, Voice of the Experiences, local chapters of Students for a Democratic Society, and other allied organizations such as Indivisible New Orleans.
Two days prior, on Thursday, August 7, 2025 at 2PM, protestors convened outside of Representative Troy Carter’s office in downtown New Orleans to demand that he take immediate action and stand against the current siege and humanitarian crisis in Gaza. Rep. Troy Carter had been meeting in private with many of those local activists, making empty promises to take a concrete stand against the current administration’s complicity with occupation and destruction of Gaza. However, Thursday was a different story. Protestors were met with a completely fenced office building and over twelve Louisiana State Police officers. Palestinian activists were explicitly forbidden from entering Rep. Carter’s office building. A few individuals wearing MAGA hats were seen standing on the police side of the fence throughout the demonstration.
The Saturday mobilization is taking place in response to the ever-growing humanitarian crisis in Gaza, directly caused by Israeli and U.S. forces. The organizations demand an end to the U.S./Israeli-led Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) in Gaza. Since the GHF started operating Gaza this past spring, close to 1,000 civilians have been killed while in line to receive food. Furthermore, the Rafah Crossing, Gaza’s lifeline, has been re-occupied by Israeli forces in March 2025, and closed since May 2024. In the meantime, the U.S. government continues to send aid to the Israeli-entity, both military and otherwise.
Lafayette Square is surrounded by both Rep. Carter’s office and U.S. Senator John Kennedy’s, a staunch opposer of the BDS movement, who has received over $225,000 from the zionist lobby AIPAC. The protestors will also highlight other Louisiana representatives such as Steve Scalise, who has received over $1 million in funding from the same lobby, and Mike Johnson with over $700,000.
For further inquiries please contact: Shreyas Vasudevan, (412) 515-7709
