West Bank violence | Andy Worthington

Photos and Report: Amidst Unprecedented Chaos, the Monthly Global Vigils for Guantánamo’s Closure Continue

Photos from the monthly global vigils for Guantánamo’s closure on April 1, 2026. Clockwise, from top left: Washington, D.C., New York, Brussels and London.

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Despite unprecedented global chaos caused by just two rogue nations — the US and Israel — who have wilfully eviscerated all the rules regarding the conduct of warfare over the last two and a half years, and massively increasing the geographical scope of their illegal actions over the last six weeks, campaigners across the US and around the world held their 39th monthly consecutive global vigils for the closure of the US’s “war on terror” prison at Guantánamo Bay last week.

On Wednesday April 1, campaigners gathered outside the White House in Washington, D.C., in New York City and Detroit, while other campaigners were outside the Houses of Parliament in London, the European Parliament in Brussels, and in Mexico City. The Saturday before, on “No Kings Day”, campaigners in San Francisco highlighted the rank injustice of the prison’s continued existence, with other campaigners, in Cobleskill, NY, joining on Saturday April 4, as part of weekly protests reflecting the demands of the times that have been running every Saturday for the last 25 years. There were also solo participants in Oakland, CA and in Liège, Belgium.

Please see below for photos from all of the vigils, and read on for my assessment of the importance of the vigils as part of wider resistance to the collapse into depravity of all notions of any kind of moral order since the start of Israel’s genocide in Gaza 30 achingly long months ago.

Donald Trump appears to join the vigil outside the White House in Washington, D.C. on April 1, 2026. As Helen Schietinger of Witness Against Torture wrote, “We were joined by a live, stand-up Trump lookalike wearing a mask, who was letting people photograph themselves with him for tips. Many had on ‘Make America Great Again’ hats they had just bought from a conveniently-stationed nearby vendor. We invited him to have his photo taken with us — and he didn’t even ask for a tip! My best to you as we all navigate how to survive the complexity of the hydra that’s the United States.”

Four campaigners with the UK Guantánamo Network in Parliament Square at the start of our vigil in London on April 1, 2026, where passing traffic honked in support, and passersby also took an interest. Other campaigners joined later. (Photo: Andy Worthington).

Campaigners at the vigil led by the World Can’t Wait, with the support of other organizations, on the steps of the New York Public Library on the corner of Fifth Avenue and 42nd Street in New York on April 1, 2026. Linda Novenski, who took this photo, and the other New York photos below, wrote, “The Metro Grannies sang, John Breitbart spoke, and we handed out flyers, spoke to people and received a warm welcome with applause.”

Campaigners on Ocean Beach in San Francisco on March 28, “No Kings Day”, highlighting Guantánamo as they did throughout a busy day of protests against Trump’s dangerous authoritarianism.

Campaigners in Brussels outside the European Parliament on April 1, 2026.

A campaigner in Mexico City on April 1, 2026, when Nat and Alli held a vigil to remember those still cruelly detained at Guantánamo.

Campaigners outside the Patrick V. McNamara Federal Building on Michigan Avenue in Detroit, Michigan on April 1, 2026. Geraldine Grunow, of Detroit Amnesty, wrote, “It was a chilly, windy day in Detroit, and only Ken and I were able to be there. But we held [the recently deceased former prisoner] Tariq El Sawah in our thoughts while we were there, and we were glad to get some supportive honks and even verbal thanks. Love and best wishes to fellow vigilers everywhere.”

Campaigners with the Peacemakers of Schoharie County in Cobleskill, NY on April 4, 2026. Sue Spivack wrote, “22 people joined the global Close GITMO vigil on Main and Union Streets. This, less than a week after more than 400 supporters of US democracy, the Constitution, and justice for all gathered in our small village’s center, in Veterans Park, for the nationwide ‘No Kings’ protests and rallies on Saturday March 28. The number of weekly peace and justice vigils are multiplying across our upstate NY county and region. A new one will begin in Middleburgh NY, 12 miles from here, next Saturday. Other weekly and ‘No Kings’ events have been happening in Sharon Springs, Cherry Valley, Cooperstown, and Oneonta, NY for a while. Keep in mind this entire region voted strongly for the current administration in the last presidential election. We’re aiming to change that. Thanks so much for coordinating these events worldwide.”

In Oakland, CA, Ed Charles, the editor of the World Can’t Wait’s Spanish website, sent this supportive photo.

Mariefrance Deprez, who normally helps organize and take part in the Brussels vigils, was unable to attend, but in Liège, where she lives, she took this poignant photo and another below at a place called ‘Enclos des fusillés’, where the fascist Nazi regime kept prisoners, mainly from the resistance, during the Second World War, before sending them to concentration camps or shooting them.

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Trump Unites the World in Support of the Palestinians Through His Call for Ethnic Cleansing and the US Takeover of Gaza

Donald Trump with Benjamin Netanyahu at the White House on February 5, 2025, when, however it was spun by the media, Netanyahu frequently looked unsettled as Trump not only proposed the total ethnic cleansing of the Gaza Strip, but also called for the US to take over Gaza and redevelop it.

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Last Tuesday, the full delusional derangement of Donald Trump’s narcissistic opinion of himself as a god-like emperor entitled to reshape the world according to his whims was on full display.

At a press conference at the White House with the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu — the first foreign leader that Trump has met with since he took office, despite Netanyahu being a wanted war criminal — he called for the complete ethnic cleansing, or, to put it another way, the forced displacement of the entire Palestinian population of the Gaza Strip, outrageous crimes under international law, which he nevertheless sought to dress up as a benevolent humanitarian intervention, and then, seemingly out of nowhere, pledged to take over the entirety of the Gaza Strip, and to rebuild it as “the Riviera of the Middle East.”

Middle East Eye helpfully transcribed and posted the whole of the press conference and the Q&A session that followed it, including the following section in which, in his typically rambling and frequently incoherent manner, Trump announced his ethnic cleansing plan:

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