The Israeli military distributed leaflets across Gaza City Sept. 9 urging around 1 million residents to evacuate westward to Al-Mawasi pending Israel’s plan to occupy the city. One month later, community activist group NoCo4Palestine began a 14-mile march from Fort Collins to Loveland, Colorado, in solidarity with the displaced Palestinians.

Dozens of people from a variety of local activist groups gathered at the Old Town Library Oct. 11 to begin the walk to Dwayne Webster Veterans Park, roughly the same distance between Gaza City and Al-Mawasi. The walk was broken into three legs and took roughly 10 hours, though not all participants marched the entire way.

“It’s a simple thing that we can do to honor the people that have had to flee their homes repeatedly,” said Chelsea, a NoCo4Palestine member who asked her last name be kept anonymous. “This walk is to replicate the Gaza City leaflets being dropped and then having to evacuate again to another humanitarian zone. I think that’s why it’s really powerful.”

The demonstration came two years after the events that occurred Oct. 7, 2023, prompted Israel to launch a military campaign in Gaza, killing over 67,000 Palestinians and displacing around 82% of the population, according to a United Nations report. The United Nations Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory recognized these actions as a genocide Sept. 16. Israel and Hamas have since agreed to phase one of a ceasefire deal effective Oct. 11, but the path to peace still remains unclear as negotiations continue.

“This is our genocide; the United States is supporting it through tax dollars. We should be talking about it locally and, eventually, at every single level. When (officials are) not working to bring justice at the national level, we need to do what we can.” -Kimberly Conner, NoCo4Palestine member

“This activity is not an effort to understand the tremendous stress and devastation that Palestinians from Gaza City are undergoing, as this is something that can never fully be understood by anyone but those who are experiencing it,” NoCo4Palestine wrote in a media release. “Rather, this activity is designed to bring attention to the fact that Gazans are being ordered to leave their homes under such dire circumstances with a destination that will be far from safe.”

News of a ceasefire did not dissuade protesters from taking to the streets. Instead, many reiterated the need for continued action that promotes the complete liberation of Palestine.

“Israel has violated ceasefires before, including one right now with Lebanon,” NoCo4Palestine member Kimberly Conner said in a speech. “There is still a shortage of food and medical supplies. There is still a blockade. There are still soldiers on the ground. And there is still an ongoing occupation, not only of Gaza, but throughout Palestine. Israel has not been held accountable for its crimes and neither has our own government.”

To Conner, local activism is vital in strengthening the community and connecting people’s individual lives to national issues. She pointed to Woodward Inc. and Innosphere — two companies in Fort Collins that have been accused of contributing to Israel in some capacity — as examples of Fort Collins’ local ties to the greater war.

“This is our genocide; the United States is supporting it through tax dollars,” Conner said. “We should be talking about it locally and, eventually, at every single level. When (officials are) not working to bring justice at the national level, we need to do what we can.”

Echoing Conner’s call for local accountability, Caleb Goins, a member of Coalition for the Upper South Platte and Grito en Colorado, said grassroots action is crucial when government officials fail to listen.

“I understand that the democratic process is slow and that it takes a long time for a change to happen, but our President isn’t waiting for that change, and I don’t think that we should wait in stepping up against that,” Goins said. “A fascist regime can only take over if the government officials let it.”

Also in attendance was mayoral candidate Adam Hirschhorn, who said he hopes to use his candidacy to advocate for the dignity of Palestinians.

“It’s the power of the mayorship itself that will give more impetus to recognition that Palestinians are human beings,” Hirschhorn said. “I definitely aim to affirm the dignity of Palestinians as a human being.”

Along the walk, NoCo4Palestine member Janie Stein delivered letters to the offices of Sen. Michael Bennet, Sen. John Hickenlooper and Rep. Joe Neguse.

“You and others have not sought to end the unbelievable destruction, but continue to enable it, making all of us — Americans, Israelis, Palestinians, Jews, Muslims and Christians — all of us less safe,” the letter reads. “If Israel can torture, bomb and starve Palestinians to death and use warrantless surveillance with the consent of our own government, we are all threatened.”

Stein, alongside a handful of community members, demonstrates twice weekly on the corner of South College Avenue and East Mulberry Street in support of Palestine. By regularly protesting and participating in demonstrations like the Walk to Al-Mawasi, she said she hopes to encourage a sense of solidarity and curiosity within the community.

“It encourages like-minded folks who are driving by, and they can say, ‘Oh, I’m not the only one,’” Stein said. “We hope that our signage or our presence might make people who don’t know about the issues go into it and study it or ask questions. And maybe the truth can get out that Zionism is opposed to Jewish values.”

Although the protest did not garner significant counteraction aside from the occasional hand gesture from passing drivers, one man shopping nearby spotted the group and trailed behind to shout expletives, accusing the bunch of antisemitism. The man eventually left when no one engaged, but Chelsea said the broader narrative of activists for Palestinian freedom being antisemitic is upsetting.

“Israel is not Judaism,” Chelsea said. “Israel is a state, just like America is a state, and Americans aren’t the U.S. Just because we’re funding a genocide as a country doesn’t mean that we as a people are the ones that want to fund that genocide; just as people that are Jewish don’t want to commit a genocide in Palestine. And I think that it’s really, really sad that it’s been misconstrued that way.”

Chelsea added that she only hopes to be on the right side of history, and that the Israel-Hamas war conjures memories of learning about World War II in grade school.

“Because there’s genocide, I have to ask myself, ‘During World War II, what did the people do?’” Chelsea said. “Now it’s happening again. Do I want to be the people that stayed and did nothing, or do I want to be a part of the people that spoke up when things were happening?”

Goins said the protests extend beyond Palestine, representing a stand against oppression worldwide.

“When people are out protesting for Palestine and against fascism and against genocide, that is a protest against all fascism and all genocide and all terrorism,” Goins said.