Photos by Cherrie Hanson

Volunteers from multiple grassroots organizations in the Greater Milwaukee area drop protest banners every week at a high traffic location on Lincoln Memorial Drive.

Activists in Milwaukee have fervently committed themselves to solidarity with Palestine by way of weekly morning banner drops on a busy boulevard, 8 – 9 a.m. near the Milwaukee lakefront.

Every week since New Year’s Day 2024, folks have gathered at the Brady Street Bridge on Lincoln Memorial Drive, holding Palestinian and Lebanese flags and signs with phrases like “Not Another Bomb” and “No Tax $ For War Crimes,” calling for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza and an end to U.S. support for Israel.

Grassroots organizations Milwaukee 4 Palestine, MKE Mamas For Liberation, and Healthcare Workers For Palestine Milwaukee have been the facilitators of these banner drops.

Heba Mohammad of Milwaukee 4 Palestine explains, “After October 7, 2023 happened, we were working with a coalition of organizations, and initially this was an idea from Jewish Voice For Peace Milwaukee to do daily weekday banner drops during rush hour to make sure we were keeping the focus on what was happening in Palestine and Gaza specifically, and demanding an end to the genocide.”

The banner drop crew provide an unwavering visual reminder for liberation and a permanent ceasefire.

Interest picked up quickly, and for over six months, activists gathered for the banner drops every weekday. Now the drops still happen two or three days weekly, typically every Monday and Friday (with a third day if people are available).

“It’s really been great to see the kind of community-building and collaboration that’s ebbed and flowed around this and has brought new people in,” Mohammad continues. 

Maya Falkenberg, founder of MKE Mamas For Liberation, recalls feeling a strong sense of camaraderie and passion with the banner drop crew right away. “Our consistency in being up on the bridge became a steadfast visual reminder for commuters and passersby that we wouldn’t waver in our advocacy for a permanent ceasefire. Organically, I started encouraging friends and folks I was meeting to join us.”

Reema Ahmad, local organizer and co-leader of the Listen to Wisconsin campaign, supports the weekly banner drops.

Holidays have been particularly successful occasions for banner drops, according to Falkenberg. “They really highlight peoples’ need for like-minded, pro-liberation, anti-Zionist community on days when a lot of people are celebrating as if thousands of men, women and children are not being massacred with our U.S. tax dollars.”

As a rule of thumb, for safety reasons, banner drops have a minimum of three individuals present at all times. The organizers have nightly check-ins where they coordinate with one another on who all is going out the next morning.

“More and more people started using this pedestrian bridge as the weather warmed up, and we started having confrontations with Zionists,” Mohammad explains.

However, she affirms, “There are more of us than there are of them, we’re not afraid to stand our ground, and we have the morally correct position to be here. They can continue to scream into the void and we’ll continue to show up.”

Despite the naysayers from time to time, the weekly banner drops receive a ton of community support in the forms of friendly honks, waves and thumbs up from passing cars, and the organizers often have productive conversations with passersby and bikers. Some folks have even pulled over to show solidarity with the organizers, resulting in new members joining the banner drop crew.

“We’ve met so many new volunteers through this,” Mohammad notes. “They’ve taken on leadership roles.”

Karen Squire of MKE Mamas For Liberation adds that the banner drops are a great opportunity for folks who cannot make events later in the day. “It’s a nice alternative for people who want to do something to protest this genocide. If they live nearby, they can walk over, so it’s convenient.”

Amy Donahue, co-founder of Healthcare Workers for Palestine Milwaukee, observes how the banner drops have been an effective way for like-minded healthcare workers to find one another. “Because of this visibility, we’ve had a couple people say they or a family member works in healthcare, so it’s just another way to help people realize that there are others out there, even if they don’t see them at work.”

On left, Amy Donahue, co-founder of Healthcare Workers for Palestine Milwaukee, represents healthcare workers standing against the US-backed genocide of the Palestinian people.

She continues, “Healthcare is a place where we’re supposed to value life, and the silence of healthcare in the U.S. has been heartbreaking, and we’re going to keep fighting for that human right for Palestine.”

Following long, horrible nights of scrolling on social media, seeing atrocity after atrocity being committed in Gaza, folks know that they have a space with the banner drops for listening to and hugging one another, crying together, and waving their flags in defiance.

“These mornings I will carry with me for the rest of my life,” Falkenberg contends. “Becoming a part of the banner crew has shown me exactly what humanity looks like.”

“Being here is keeping it on peoples’ minds,” Squire assures. “It gets people talking, which helps a lot.”

In addition to the multitude of banners, signs and flags, organizers also bring chalk to adorn the concrete with expressions of solidarity. On cold winter days, hand warmers are provided, and organizers may meet at the nearby Colectivo Coffee prior.

“We started with banners from the ISM and the Wisconsin Coalition For Justice in Palestine, and they’ve let us continue using them,” Mohammad mentions. “Milwaukee 4 Palestine has created banners over the past several months, and we have a lot of fabric banners from the Listen to Wisconsin effort.”

The temporary ceasefire between Israel and Hamas went into effect mid-January, but the banner crew makes it clear that the work for Palestinian liberation has only just begun.

“I changed my banner this morning from “Stop the Genocide” to “End the Israeli Occupation”,” Squire shares. “Even if this ceasefire holds, it’s the bare minimum, and we are going to be out here still as much as we can.”

Mohammad elaborates, “When we started the banner drops, the demand at that time was still ceasefire, and that still felt like our primary important ask. Obviously that has changed over the past several months, and the ceasefire is really for the people in Gaza. We’ve been fighting for that for them. But here, our job is not over. 

Despite occasional confrontations from Zionists, the volunteers are affirmed by motorists’ friendly honks, waves and effective conversations with pedestrians and bikers.

“Here, we’re still in the imperialist core, and we need to do everything we can to end U.S. imperialism and colonization, and see an end to this Zionist apartheid state. Arms embargo continues to be the primary demand of the movement, and an end to the occupation overall. Our foot is on the gas right now, and the Zionist entity and the U.S. are vulnerable to the pressure we’ve been putting on it. We still have demands that we need to see through, and I’m really heartened that people are still coming out to these events.”