Scenes of police crushing protests in Ferguson, a suburb of St. Louis, Missouri where an unarmed black teenager was shot on Saturday, have prompted outrage in the U.S. and shock around the world.
As the streets of Ferguson filled with tear gas and heavily-armed SWAT teams moved in, some protesters said Ferguson feels like the war-torn Gaza Strip. Some chanted "Gaza Strip" as they faced the lines of police, L.A. Times reporter Matt Pearce wrote on Twitter. "We are being occupied,” one commented to the Daily Beast. “Will we as a people rise up like the people of Gaza?"
Palestinians in Gaza -- where fighting between militants and the Israeli army is on pause after weeks of violence left more than 1,900 dead -- and around the world have expressed their solidarity with the protesters in Ferguson.
Some people even offered advice to the Ferguson protesters on how to deal with tear gas inhalation, and other riot control methods.
Some took the advice as confirmation that Ferguson is akin to an international war zone. "You know things are out of control in Ferguson, MO, when people in Gaza are tweeting advice on how to cope," wrote one Twitter user.
However, others urged caution about any comparisons between the police violence in Missouri and the devastating war in the Gaza Strip.
The Palestinians tweeting advice referred to the response of Israeli military and police forces to protests in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, not airstrikes in Gaza. Others noted that issues of police force, accountability and race in Ferguson are part of America's own troubled history.
i don't think anyone is trying to compare #Ferguson to #Gaza. the point is solidarity and justice.
— kimberly dawn (@hiitskim) August 14, 2014