Last Thursday, over 150 people gathered outside Rep. Diana Degette’s office to demand that the congresswoman sign onto the Ceasefire Now resolution introduced by Rep. Cori Bush in the House of Representatives.
While the protestors outside sang protest and peace songs, performed Jewish mourning rituals and led chants demanding a ceasefire, ten organizers from Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP) and If Not Now were inside Rep. Degette’s office, meeting with the congresswoman and her staff to seek her signature of the resolution.
Rep. Degette declined to support the resolution, instead signing a letter alongside other House democrats commending President Joe Biden’s response to the Hamas attacks and Israeli bombardment of Gaza.
Here’s what five protesters had to say about the ceasefire, Jewish identity, and Palestinian liberation.
On demands for a ceasefire
“How can you be against a ceasefire? 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.” – Rob Prince, speaker and attendee
“We have very little control in this situation, but as Americans, we have a connection to our government and trying to connect specifically to our representative is what we have power to do. Since there is something going on in Congress, we want [the Congresswoman] to sign onto that.” – Evan Weissman, JVP safety marshal
“Mo’ bombs, mo’ problems.” – Yazan Fattaleh, speaker and attendee
“In this immediate moment, our demand is for a ceasefire. But, I am here to push that even further…we want an end to the occupation, we want an end to US military aid to Israel and we want to have genuine peace for the Palestinian people.” – Alex Borenstein, JVP member
On Jewish identity
“As Jews, we are clear that we will not let our grief justify a genocide.” – JVP statement to Diana Degette
“We don’t want our grief to be used for vengeance and for further bloodshed.” – Weissman
“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 support the atrocities that Israel, funded by the U.S., is committing in Gaza to happen in my name.” – Hannah Recht, speaker and attendee
“My grandparents both survived the holocaust, and I see what’s happening in Gaza as exactly what my grandparents went through, but worse because it’s been going on for so much longer,” said Borenstein. “As a Jewish person, I could potentially benefit from being a settler in Israel, but that is absolutely racist and disgusting to me.”
“You see a group of young Jews…they get it, they understand what’s wrong with the whole Israeli project, how cruel it is, how inhumane it has been, and that, if you want to put it in religious terms, it’s just so un-Jewish,” said Prince. “So 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.”
On Palestinian rights and liberation
“I personally am one degree of separation away from people who were taken hostage by Hamas,” said Recht. “I don’t know anyone in Gaza, and most of us don’t know anyone in Gaza, because it’s been under a military blockade since 2007…the people of Gaza have been systemically erased from our view for a long time and that’s what’s allowed this situation to happen.”
“Imagine if the $3.8 billion dollars being sent to Israel, what if we invested that in our education? In our housing? In nutritious food and green energy? In repairing our environment? Anytime I walk around my work [on Colfax], I see dozens of homeless people,” said Borenstein. “I think every cent we send to Israel should be used to house them.”
“There is a part of us that 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 Fattaleh. “We wrote the playbook for Israel, and now we’re seeing it and we’re horrified.”
All photos courtesy of Cassis Tingley
