“Not in our name.”

So read many of the signs held by the 150-odd people assembled outside Congresswoman Diana DeGette’s office last Thursday. The protestors gathered to demand that Rep. DeGette sign the Ceasefire Now resolution to call for an immediate ceasefire in Occupied Gaza, where Israeli airstrikes have killed over 5,000 Palestinians in the last two weeks following Hamas attacks, which killed over 1,400 Israelis. 

Introduced by a coalition of representatives led by Missouri Rep. Cori Bush last Monday, the resolution urged President Joe Biden to “immediately call for and facilitate de-escalation and a cease-fire” and to “promptly send and facilitate the entry of humanitarian assistance into Gaza.”

The U.S. gave the sole veto against a motion to implement a ceasefire during a United Nations Security Council meeting last Wednesday. American ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield said the U.S. could not support the resolution since it did not explicitly name Israel’s right to self-defense. 

“How can you be against a ceasefire?” questioned Rob Prince, a long-time Palestinian rights advocate and protest attendee. “To be against a ceasefire is basically … to support the ongoing genocide of the Palestinians and also to understand that many more Israelis are going to die too.” 

Despite publicly supporting a “humanitarian corridor” in Gaza and saying “we must do more to protect innocent civilians” on X, Congresswoman DeGette still has not signed the Ceasefire Now resolution.

The protestors gathered outside her office wanted action.

“In this immediate moment, our demand is for a ceasefire,” said Alex Borenstein, a member of JVP. “But…we [also] want an end to the occupation, we want an end to US military aid to Israel and we want genuine peace for the Palestinian people.”

Led by JVP and If Not Now, two Jewish-led organizations dedicated to expressing solidarity for the Palestinian liberation movement among Jews and allies, the crowd sang protest songs, led chants and listened to speeches and poetry performances outside Rep. DeGette’s office while ten JVP and If Not Now representatives met directly with the congresswoman and her team inside.

Organizers also incorporated Jewish rituals into the protest, reading the Mourner’s Kaddish and performing Kriah to commemorate Jewish and Palestinian lives lost over the past two weeks.

Kaddish is typically read to mourn the loss of a loved one. Kriah, which means “tearing” in Hebrew, refers to the tearing of one’s own clothing to express strength in grief and anger.

Expressing solidarity as Jewish people and highlighting Jewish traditions in the Palestinian liberation struggle was essential to many of Thursday’s organizers and attendees.

“It is important … specifically as a member of the Denver Jewish community, to lead with my Jewish values and to say that I cannot and will not [allow] the atrocities that Israel, funded by the U.S., is committing in Gaza to happen in my name,” said Hannah Recht, who had addressed the protest earlier.

To Prince, the community of Jewish Denverites and their allies who showed up on Thursday was reason for hope.

“To see something like this that brings out the other side of Judaism, its beauty, its richness, its caring about all peoples, it’s just something I never thought I would see,” he said. “I’m not alone anymore.”

After days of negotiations headed by the U.S, Israel and Egypt permitted 34 trucks carrying emergency food and medical supplies to cross into Gaza last weekend. The UN estimated that at least 100 aid trucks per day would be necessary to sustain the 2.3 million people living in the enclave, many of whom now lack access to fresh water, shelter and food as a result of Israeli bombardment.

While Thursday’s protest focused on Israeli military aggression, protestors were quick to point out links to American history.

“A part of us needs to recognize the original sins of the United States of America, which is slavery, the treatment of enslaved people and the genocide of Native Americans,” said Yazan Fattaleh, protest attendee and speaker. “We wrote the playbook for Israel, and now we’re seeing it and we’re horrified.”

Correction: the original publication of this article incorrectly referred to the American ambassador to the United Nations as Linda Greenfield. The ambassador’s full name is Linda Thomas-Greenfield.