Jakarta – Protesters from the Musicians Coalition for Gaza held a demonstration demanding "Stop the Palestine Genocide" in front of the United States Embassy in Central Jakarta on Friday afternoon, April 19.
The protesters, the majority of which wore black clothing, had been demonstrating since 3.19 pm. Coming from a variety of age groups, they brought protest materials and Palestinian flags to the event.
Hardingga, a musician who lost his family in the 1998 abduction of pro-democracy activists, opened the performance. The next appearance was by Bella and Chiki Fawzi with a song titled The Land of the Prophets. Bella shed tears during the performance.
This was followed a number of art actions such as painting using tape that read "Free Palestine" and pictures of watermelons.
There was also a poster painting action using watercolors on paper with various images and message such as "From the River to Sea Palestine will be Free", "Ceasefire Now", "Don't Stop Talking About Palestine" and many more.
Then there was a poetry reading by several people who attended the action. In general, the poetry read out was about the struggle of the Palestinian people in fighting the occupation by Israel.
Some participants could also be seen distributing posters and stickers to the demonstrators consisting of various kinds of messages with the theme of defending Palestine, opposing Israel's genocide and rejecting the United States' support for Israel.
The protest action then continued with speeches. Slogans such as "American the Great Satan", "Israel the Enemy of God", "Palestine will be Free" and so on continued to be echoed by the crowd during the speeches.
A number of bands were present such as The Brandals, Jerry, the Indische Party, the Panturas, Dongker, The Jansen, the Straight Answer, Greenhouse Effect, Humanimal, The Safari, Tashoora and the Rocket Flight Group.
In addition to this there was also several other names such as Godplant, Melanie Subono, Rebecca Reijman, Siksa Kubur (Grave Torture), Swellow, Mouthless, Bella & Chiki Fawzi, Ananda Badudu, Sisitipsi, Grow Rich and Kojek Rap Betawi.
However not all of the musicians performed. There are some who only give speeches bearing in mind the limited time available and the large number of participants.
Following this, the Indische Party band performed a song about Palestine. The last musicians to perform were The Brandals with the song Voice of the People's House.
Before performing with Eka Annash appearing as vocalist, The Brandals took up several demands in the name of the Musicians Coalition for Gaza.
The demonstration ended at 5 pm with some participants seen dispersing of their own accord, although not a few were still remained carrying out documentation around the US Embassy building. (csp/bmw)
[Translated by James Balowski. The original title of the article was "Aksi Bela Palestina di Depan Kedubes AS, Massa Gunakan Pakaian Hitam".]
