Pro-Palestinian and pro-Israel rallies held simultaneously in Lower Merion

Pro-Palestinian and pro-Israel demonstrators staged simultaneous rallies in Ardmore on Saturday afternoon that — although unusual in the Philadelphia region — underscored the deeply emotional and persistently polarized divide over the Israel-Hamas war.

The two groups remained separate, save for a brief face-off at the popular Suburban Square shopping center where some of the rival demonstrators attempted to drown out each other with chants before dispersing without incident. The Lower Merion Township Police Department reported no arrests.

About 100 student activists marched from Haverford College along Lancaster Avenue about 1 p.m., with plans to disrupt the weekend shopping at Suburban Square. Donning keffiyehs and masks, protesters called for a cease-fire and railed against the U.S.-backed Israel military siege in Gaza that has killed an estimated 29,000 Palestinians, many of them women and children, while leaving much of Gaza in ruins.

Akintade Asala, 20, a Villanova University student, said Israel had long since crossed the line of reasonable retaliation for the 1,200 people killed and about 250 kidnapped by Hamas on Oct. 7.

“That was a tragedy and an atrocity, and we condemn that,” Asala said, “but at the same time, the Israel government has responded by killing 30 times the number of people in a couple months.”

As Asala and others marched from the bucolic college campus, about 100 demonstrators waved Israeli flags at Suburban Square, holding up photos of the hostages who remain missing after more than four months, many of them children and toddlers. “Rape is not resistance,” the crowd chanted. “Bring them home!”

For Dafna Ofer, a physician and pro-Israel organizer, there is only one path to peace in Gaza: Release the hostages and dismantle Hamas.

“We’re peace advocates, and now we’re heartbroken, because now we don’t know who we can have peace with,” Ofer said. “It’s a very impossible situation.”

Wrapped in an Israeli flag, Yair Lev, a physician and pro-Israel community activist, noted that Lower Merion has a large Jewish community. Many wanted to give voice to their ongoing grief and take a stand against what he described as the hateful rhetoric often espoused at pro-Palestinian marches.

“Everybody has their own pain. We’re here to express our pain over what’s happening in Israel,” Lev said. “Most of us can’t sleep since Oct. 7.”

Lev urged his camp to demonstrate peacefully and not engage with the pro-Palestinian side. The student-led group from Haverford rerouted their march away from the Israel crowd, but later encountered a smaller oppositional group. A brief standoff ensued between an Urban Outfitters and a Starbucks, where both sides volleyed chants at each other.

Others joined the fray extemporaneously.

Meadow Offenbecher, a pro-Palestinian Jewish mother, was running errands in Lower Merion with her husband and kids when she saw the pro-Israel rally, stopped at Staples, hastily fashioned a poster board sign that read “Jews say ceasefire,” and staged a one-woman counterprotest across the street.

“I refuse to let Zionists paint all Jews as Zionism,” she said. “Zionism is not Judaism. We need a cease-fire.”

Pro-Palestinian rallies have far outnumbered those in support of Israel in the Philadelphia region, which is home to one of the nation’s largest Jewish populations. After a brief lull in January, those marches have begun to intensify again as the Israeli siege escalates in southern Gaza.

A protest in Center City on Feb. 13 drew a crowd that organizers estimated in the thousands. About 150 young people spoke out against Israel on Friday during a citywide high school demonstration at City Hall.

Israel faces mounting condemnation from the United Nations and dozens of countries as its military offensive presses into Rafah, a city holding more than half of Gaza’s population, according to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.

At Israel’s behest, families have fled bombardment in northern Gaza and sought refuge in the southernmost city. But citing Rafah as a Hamas stronghold, Israel has launched air raids against the city and threatened to extend its ground invasion there by the start of Ramadan in March.

Both camps in the Philadelphia region have acknowledged that — even at the local level — conversations between sides remain strained. But organizers expressed hope for healthier dialogue between local communities as cease-fire negotiations continue overseas.

As a pro-Palestinian Jewish student, Sadie Chernila, 20, said the climate in Ardmore on Saturday — with protesters shouting down each other between stores — was not the ideal setting. “I believe in Judaism without Zionism,” Chernila said. “I’m always open to talking to let them know where I’m at.”

Holding up a poster of missing Israeli children, Mikhal Mary, a pro-Israel community organizer and Lower Merion resident, said she, too, hoped for more civil debate. But it would have to come with conditions.

“We can have a dialogue, as long as they realize that Hamas cannot be in control,” Mary said.

Staff writer Ximena Conde contributed to this article.