Anti-war demonstrators call for halt on US-Israeli Iran attacks

Several hundred demonstrators gathered at Park Street Station Monday night to protest the U.S. and Israeli attacks on Iran, which have targeted a school, hospitals and residential areas as well as military installations.

The joint bombing raids began Feb. 28 amid talks between U.S. and Iranian officials aimed at de-escalating tensions between Iran, the U.S. and Israel. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has for decades claimed that Iran is close to producing a nuclear weapon.

The initial Israeli and U.S. strikes killed Iranian head of state Ali Khamenei and President Donald Trump on social media urged Iranian citizens to overthrow the government there, though demonstrators Monday such a scenario is unlikely.

“Bombing schools and hospitals does not bring peace and democracy,” said Jamaica Plain resident Ziba Cranmer, representing the Massachusetts Chapter of the National Iranian American Council. “Apparently, peace negotiations don't bring peace either. Right after Iran agreed to no nuclear material stockpile, zero nuclear material, the US and Israel attacked.”

Iran responded with missiles and drones striking military targets in Israel and U.S. and allied military bases and embassies in neighboring countries including Kuwait, Quatar, Saudi Arabia and the U.A.E.

In the weeks leading up to the attacks on Iran, Trump moved U.S. warships into the region and professed concern for Iranian demonstrators who were killed in violent clashes with Iranian police during protests over worsening economic conditions in the country, which has been under crippling U.S. sanctions in recent years.

Cranmer said U.S. and Israeli leaders’ professed concern for the Iranian people is a smokescreen for a darker objective.

“Just like the war in Gaza, the point is to create a failed state,” she said. “They don't want a more amenable regime. They want a collapsed state. They want to make sure that Israel can exercise unchecked hegemonic power across the Middle East.”

Demonstrators at Monday’s rally drew parallels between U.S. aggression in Iran and the Trump administration’s deployment of state violence in the Americas.

“This illegal war on Iran is just the latest violent outrage from the Trump administration,” said Brian Garvey, Executive Director of Massachusetts Peace Action. “Trump’s illegal attack, like his assaults on Venezuela, Cuba, Gaza, and on Minneapolis, Chicago, and Los Angeles, are making our government more authoritarian by the day.”

Jewish Voice for Peace member Susan Escovitz said her anti-Zionist organization stands in solidarity with the people of Iran.

“We cannot be fooled — Netanyahu and Trump do not care about the people of Iran — they care about land, oil, money, and power,” she said. “They lie. Over and over again.”

After rallying at Park Street, demonstrators took to the streets around Downtown Crossing chanting anti-war slogans and carrying banners urging peace.