On the Ground in Texas: From Eagle Pass to Pro-Palestine Protest in Austin

Thousands of people marched through the streets of Austin, TX on February 4th, calling for a ceasefire and for the state government to withdraw all state funding from Israel. According to the US Campaign for Palestinian Rights, Texas’ share of the annual funding the US gives Israel is $298.367,616. Austin alone pays nearly $15 million of that. Houston’s at $32 million, Dallas about $19 million, and Fort Worth $11 million. And this is while 13.9% of Texans lived below the poverty line from 2018 to 2022, and 76 of the state’s 254 counties - mostly rural with fewer than 50,000 residents - actually had increased poverty rates in that time period. That’s all according to the latest US Census as reported by the Texas Tribune.

And of course, just under 4 hours away, far-right groups including Christian Nationalists are waging a war on migrants in the border town of Eagle Pass. 

Our very own Rachel Hu was in Austin for this massive demonstration. And after we talk about what it was like on the ground in Austin, we’re going to bring you the audio of Matthew Hoh, a former US Marine Corps Captain, Iraq veteran and State Department official, speaking at CovertAction’s February 5th webinar on the genocide. In his presentation, Hoh provides an overview of the situation on the ground, and five key ways in which the US provides the support to apartheid Israel: Military, intelligence, political, diplomatic and media.

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