About 50 people gathered Saturday afternoon at Circus Square Park for a pro-Palestinian demonstration.

The rally was organized by BowlingGreen4Palestine, which has hosted a number of demonstrations of Palestinian solidarity locally.

The organization, which coalesced shortly after the Israeli response to an Oct. 7 attack on Israel by Hamas militants, has also taken part in interfaith prayer vigils and has held fundraisers to benefit the Palestine Red Crescent Society, a humanitarian organization that provides health and emergency services to Palestinians.

Protests have taken place in several U.S. cities and internationally, with demonstrators speaking out against killing and forced relocations of Palestinians living in the Gaza Strip.

“We’re here to stand in solidarity not only with the people of Palestine, but the people all over the world, all over our country, students at universities all over the country who have been saying for months now that the Israeli response to Oct. 7 is wrong, that what it happening in Palestine is collective punishment and a genocide and needs to stop immediately,” said John Conley, a Bowling Green resident and member of BowlingGreen4Palestine.

Protesters gathered at the corner of the park abutting Sixth Avenue and State Street for about 30 minutes, yelling chants that included “Resistance is justified where people are occupied,” “Justice is our demand, no peace on stolen land” and “Biden, Biden come November at the polls we’ll remember.”

As demonstrators arrived, a sound system played “Hinds Hall,” a pro-Palestine protest song released earlier this month by rapper Macklemore.

The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs has said that at least 35,233 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza between Oct. 7, 2023 and May 15, citing the Ministry of Health in Gaza, and the U.N. humanitarian affairs office said that 273 Israeli soldiers have been killed in Gaza as of May 15, citing Israeli military officials.

The last several months’ worth of casualties are the latest development in an ongoing conflict that revolves around a territory dispute between Israel and Palestine, particularly over control of the Gaza Strip, and is rooted in warfare that broke out shortly after World War II when the United Nations proposed a partitioning of Palestine that called for the creation of Arab and Jewish states.

Recent pro-Palestine protests at some American university campuses have been met with police crackdowns, with an estimated 2,000 people being arrested. 

“I think that we’ve seen that since October, the sort of global critique of the Israeli aggression in Gaza has been very loud and very consistent,” Conley said. “People have been in the streets for months all over the world, and the vast majority of folks condemn what is happening in Gaza.”