GREENFIELD — Residents gathered on the Greenfield Common on Thursday morning to protest the injustice they say has taken place at Guantanamo Bay, the U.S. detention camp located in Cuba, for the past 22 years.

“We want people to call for its closure and we want people to know it is still open,” said Nancy Talanian, an organizer with the group No More Guantanamos and a Whately resident.

Activists started in Greenfield and then headed to another protest in Northampton. They also held a press conference with residents who are fasting until Israel’s government and Hamas agree to a cease-fire in Gaza. Protesters drew a connection between the injustice they say takes place at Guantanamo Bay and the ongoing war in Gaza.

“They are connected by the word ‘empire.’ It is empire that causes the dehumanization of people,” said Charlemont resident Sherrill Hogen, a member of Witness Against Torture and No More Guantanamos. “We are dehumanizing the people of Gaza and that is why we get to bomb them to death; we are dehumanizing the men of Guantanamo, that is how come we get to torture them and leave them there.”

Hogen said that protesting the two together draws attention to the larger picture of the empire of the United States.

This day of action was organized as part of a nationwide wave of protests by Witness Against Torture, an activist group that was founded in 2009 with a goal of shutting down the Guantanamo Bay detention camp. Groups across the U.S. are demanding its closure and the release or subjection to a fair trial for the remaining 30 prisoners.

Guantanamo Bay opened Jan. 11, 2002 as a prison to house suspected terrorists captured by American forces during the War on Terror. Nearly 800 men have passed through the facility at some point over the past 22 years.

Protesters on the Greenfield Common decried the facility as an “abomination” due to the living conditions and decades of reports alleging the use of torture methods such as waterboarding, as well as physical and sexual abuse.

On the detention camp’s 22-ye 30 men remain, 16 of whom have been cleared for transfer. Some have been cleared for as long as 14 years.

Eleven of the remaining prisoners have been charged with war crimes. One has been convicted and the other 10 are awaiting trial.

Many of the protesters on Thursday came wearing orange jumpsuits. They were referencing famous pictures of the Guantanamo Bay prisoners dressed in orange jumpsuits with their senses deprived, having their eyes, ears and mouths covered.

“We wear these to symbolize the injustice that was perpetrated against these men by the U.S. military,” Talanian said.

The local events were sponsored by No More Guantanamos, Witness Against Torture, CodePink, and Amherst Amnesty International Group 128. Protests also took place in Washington D.C. and elsewhere across the country and the world.

“We need to be out here for Guantanamo, too, so people can see these injustices don’t stand as separate entities. They are all completely connected and supporting each other,” commented Shelburne Falls resident Hana Porrúa. “The way to do that is by raising awareness in our community.”

Reach Bella Levavi at 413-930-4579 or blevavi@recorder.com.