Protests on Philly streets and campuses continue push for Gaza cease-fire

Nearly six weeks into the Israel-Hamas war, protests continue to sweep through the streets and college campuses in Philadelphia as tensions remain high over the ongoing bloodshed in the Gaza Strip.

Recent actions have been dominated by calls for a cease-fire, with pressure aimed at elected officials and major institutions to demand an end to Israel’s military siege. More than 11,000 Palestinians have been killed since the Oct. 7 terrorist attack that left more than 1,200 Israelis dead, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry.

While pro-Israel rallies have been less abundant locally in recent weeks, the Jewish Federation of Greater Philadelphia bussed protesters to Washington on Tuesday, where they joined thousands at the National Mall for the March for Israel. Demonstrators aired support Israel’s military offensive, condemned antisemitism, and demanded the release of Israeli hostages by Hamas.

U.S. Sen. John Fetterman, whose Philadelphia office has been the scene of protests, was spotted at the rally, an Israeli flag draped down his back.

Here’s a look at some of the recent rallies around Philadelphia.

A group of graduate and undergraduate students at the University of Pennsylvania on Tuesday announced the formation of “the Freedom School for Palestine,” an initiative that organizers said would serve as a meeting place for pro-Palestinian students and a “candid discussions” about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Flanked by some faculty and alumni, students staked out a corner of Houston Hall, held up banners that criticized Penn’s response to the war, and said they planned to stay put into the evening to commemorate the new club.

The goals are threefold: Urge Penn leaders to back calls for a ceasefire, protect freedom of speech on campus, and expand critical academic studies of Palestinian issues.

Miranda Sklaroff, a graduate student who is Jewish, said the campus has been tense and reiterated frustrations over what some students believe has been a lack of support for Palestinian students and those who sympathize with the cause.

“The call for a ceasefire is not radical,” Sklaroff said, “and it has felt very scary and alone on campus to be critical of what Israel is doing.”

During a walkout protest last month, Penn students aired frustration at what they criticized as a biased administrative response in support of Israel. Sklaroff pointed to how the administration described pro-Palestinian messages projected onto campus buildings last week as antisemitic and “vile.”

“I felt like the administration has really been trying to tamp down on freedom of expression at Penn, really making it clear that they think that certain things are forbidden or antisemitic when in fact they are not,” Sklaroff said.

The new group scheduled language workshops, history lessons, and poetry readings through Tuesday evening at their location in Houston Hall.

Meanwhile, Penn faces a federal complaint filed by the Brandeis Center, a Jewish civil rights advocacy group, alleging that the school has failed to root out antisemitism on campus and fostered “an increasingly hostile environment” for Jewish students.

The complaint cited disruptive protests, the recent theft of an Israeli flag from a student’s house, and the university’s handling of the Palestine Writes festival on campus in September, a cultural event that some criticized for including speakers with a history of making antisemitic remarks.

Activists continued to pressure Fetterman, who has been a staunch defender of Israel’s military siege and rebuffed repeated calls for a cease-fire.

Teddy bears, flowers, and tea-light candles were carefully placed outside of the Pennsylvania Democrat’s Old City office Monday afternoon to memorialize the dead in Gaza. The war has now killed one out of every 200 residents of the blockaded territory, according to a Washington Post analysis, including more than 4,600 children.

The American Friends Service Committee, a Philly-based organization that says it has worked in Gaza since 1949, said the memorial was part of a national day of action by the group, which also demanded Congress stop military funding to Israel.

As dozens of people lined up to drop off their contributions to the memorial, Tala Qaraqe, 20, shared a long, deep hug with a friend. Qaraqe was born in Jerusalem and raised in the West Bank. She said many people she knew in the West Bank were killed in the last month and friends of friends were killed in Gaza.

“They have been texting, they have been reaching out for help,” said Qaraqe. “And no one is responding, no one is doing anything for them.”

Qaraqe and a friend — who declined to give her name, citing the tense political climate — said that they’d lost count of the number of actions they’d been to, but that they had no plans of stopping.

“We’re just going to keep going out to the streets until the representatives hear us, until Biden stops this genocide,” said Qaraqe.

Still, Qaraqe and her friend described a sense of despair. Qaraqe’s friend said her daily calls to Fetterman’s D.C. office went to voicemail or were hung up on.

Denis Asselin, 75, made the trip from Cheyney in between visits to his new grandchild. A Quaker and member of Westtown Monthly Meeting, Asselin said he wants the government to fund health care and education for future generations instead of funding the military and “investing in instruments of hate.”

“Sometimes you feel so helpless you ask what can I do?” he said. “Well, I showed up.”

Other demonstrations swept through pockets of the city over the weekend.

On Saturday afternoon, a large crowd gathered near Broad Street and Girard Avenue for a rally that broadly called for an end to U.S. military occupation and intervention in numerous overseas conflicts, from Palestine to Haiti.

Not far from Penn’s campus in West Philadelphia, hundreds marched along Baltimore on Sunday from Clark Park to Cedar Park in another show of solidarity with the besieged Gaza Strip. It was a billed as a family-friendly protest, and the march leaders carried a massive banner with the words “Kids say ceasefire.”

Staff photographer Monica Herndon contributed to this article.