HOUSTON — Protests in Houston were organized following escalated conflicts in the Middle East.
The Palestinian Youth Movement spent Sunday afternoon in the Galleria area condemning the Israeli airstrikes targeting Hezbollah leaders. Lebanese officials said those strikes also hurt and killed civilians.
Meanwhile, pro-Israel groups like the Anti-Defamation League said they are concerned with a rise of anti-Semitic acts in the past year since the Israel-Hamas war began. They do respect peoples’ right to protest the actions of the Israeli government.
President Joe Biden said that an all-out war has to be avoided and that he plans to speak with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
In Houston, along Westheimer Road and Post Oak Boulevard, a pro-Palestinian group with dozens of people in attendance said it stood in support of Lebanon.
A pro-Israel group says it is within people's rights to protest, but they don’t want protest to turn into aggression.
“The last week has been characterized by an unprecedented escalation of attacks by Israel,” Faoud Salah, an organizer for the Palestinian Youth Movement said.
Salah said he is calling for an immediate ceasefire in the Israel-Hamas war.
“When the effort to resolve these conflicts gets overtaken by voices who want to destroy Israel, it changes context of those conversations,” Mark Toubin, regional director for the Anti-Defamation League Southwest said.
He acknowledges the rights of those to protest actions of the Israeli government but draws the line at attacks on anti-Semitic acts, which have been on the rise since the Israel-Hamas-war began.
“We hope that [Hassan] Nasrallah and Hezbollah are seen for what they are, which Is a terrorist organization which has killed thousands people throughout the region for the past four decades,” Toubin said.
Those sentiments are shared by President Joe Biden -- who is working to de-escalate the ongoing conflicts.
“We’re standing in support with Palestinian and Lebanese people facing Israeli aggression,” Salah said during the protest.