Pro-Palestine protesters urge Fetterman to support a ceasefire in Israel-Hamas war

About 100 protesters descended on U.S. Sen. John Fetterman’s office in Philadelphia on Thursday, urging him to support a ceasefire in the Israel-Hamas war as the siege in Gaza ends its second week.

The demonstration, organized by the progressive Jewish groups IfNotNow and Jewish Voice for Peace, targeted the first-term senator over his support for Israel’s ongoing military assault in Gaza since the Hamas attack. Those groups also staged a rally pushing for a ceasefire on Capitol Hill on Wednesday, where organizers said hundreds were arrested.

Outside the U.S. Custom House in Old City, where Fetterman has his Philadelphia office, Jewish activists, many of whom said they had family in Israel, said they were grieving for the estimated 1,400 Israelis killed and 200 held hostage by Hamas. But they also condemned the ongoing Israeli response in Gaza that Palestinian authorities said has now killed more than 3,500 people.

“We are mourning our Israeli and Palestinian friends and loved ones, but we refuse to let our grief be weaponized to justify the murder of more Palestinians,” Miryam Coppersmith, an organizer with IfNotNow, said at the rally.

The long-simmering Israeli-Palestinian conflict is something of an uncharted territory for the former Braddock mayor who was elected to Congress last year with a broad base of moderate and progressive Democratic support.

Like many of his congressional colleagues, Fetterman has been a vocal backer of Israel’s military offensive since the Hamas invasion, saying in a statement Wednesday that he would discuss supporting a ceasefire “after Hamas is neutralized.”

“We must support Israel in their efforts to eliminate the Hamas terrorists who slaughtered innocent men, women, and children,” he said. “Hamas does not want peace, they want to destroy Israel.”

About a dozen activists briefly entered the federal building in Philadelphia where Fetterman’s office is located on Thursday, but left after Department of Homeland Security officers threatened to arrest them, organizers said. A Fetterman staffer briefly met with demonstrators in the lobby. The senator himself was in Washington at the time, where he and Democratic colleagues later called to establish a humanitarian aid corridor to the resource-starved Gaza Strip. (”We can’t allow Hamas’ barbarism to rob us of our humanity,” Fetterman wrote Thursday afternoon on X, formerly Twitter.)

The protest was also notable in that Fetterman’s Pennsylvania colleague, fellow Democrat U.S. Sen. Bob Casey, has largely avoided backlash from his base, despite voicing near-identical support for Israel.

Fetterman quickly joined the bipartisan, near-unanimous chorus in Washington backing the war against Hamas. He also jumped to Israel’s defense after the Gaza hospital blast on Tuesday, berating lawmakers who he said were too quick to cast blame. (Much remains unclear about the explosion that Palestinian authorities said killed hundreds of civilians; Hamas said an Israel Defense Forces airstrike was responsible and Israel said an errant rocket fired by a militant group caused the blast, a claim backed by U.S. intelligence officials.)

Meanwhile, about a dozen Democrats in the U.S. House called on the Biden administration to implement an immediate ceasefire this week, citing reports of the rapidly growing civilian casualties as Israel’s bombing campaign continues in the sealed-off coastal territory.

Beneath a chorus of chants — “Fetterman, for shame! No genocide in our name!” — progressive activists who had backed his campaign said they were disappointed to see Fetterman embrace wartime rhetoric.

“I don’t think it’s a partisan issue. It’s about the value of life,” said Arielle Cohen, an activist with IfNotNow. “In both Israel and Gaza, no one is safer when there is an active war. It puts us all at risk.”

Kathleen O’Donnell, 69, of West Philly, said she feared that the war would only lead to more suffering and instability in the Middle East, and possibly a larger regional conflict. A ceasefire, she said, was a simple anti-war message.

“I think everyone in Israel deserves to be safe,” said O’Donnell, who said her partner is Jewish. “But I’m terrified. … I think they are summoning the storm.”