Kansas City protesters stage sit-in demanding Rep. Cleaver call for ceasefire in Gaza

Around 30 people donning mostly all-black outfits sat outside the doors to Rep. Emanuel Cleaver II’s Kansas City office Wednesday afternoon, demanding he sign a resolution urging a ceasefire in the Israel-Hamas war that has killed thousands of innocent civilians over the past month following the Oct. 7 Hamas attack on Israel.

Protesters chanted, “Cleaver, Cleaver don’t you see Palestine will be free,” and, “Cleaver, Cleaver don’t you hide, stop condoning genocide,” criticizing his support for Israel and the Biden administration.

Led by members of the local Palestinian group Al-Hadaf KC, the protesters delivered a letter signed by more than 30 area social justice organizations to Cleaver, urging him to call for an end to Israel’s bombardment of Gaza. The group has hosted rallies in Mill Creek Park for the same purpose.

Protesters outside of Cleaver’s office demanded he sign the Ceasefire Now Resolution backed by a dozen progressive congressional representatives, including Rep. Cori Bush, a St. Louis Democrat, and reject increased military funding to Israel while it commits “atrocious war crimes,” said Fatima Mohammadi, a member of Al-Hadaf KC.

“It’s crippling what the siege has done for the last 17 years,” Mohammadi said of the situation in Gaza, “but these military assaults that come every few years in Gaza are really meant to continue and further and escalate the genocide and ethnic cleansing of the Palestinian people from their indigenous lands.”

Maha Odah, a Palestinian Kansas Citian who participated in the sit-in Wednesday, said in a statement that she wanted to show her, “heartbreak that our own Congressman has not listened to us and shown his humanity towards Gazans,” and to urge the congressman to not, “be written on the wrong side of history.”

While no one from Cleaver’s office spoke to protesters during the sit-in, Mohammadi said Cleaver has agreed to meet with constituents in Kansas City once he returns from D.C. to discuss the issue further.

In a statement, Cleaver said he has called on the Biden administration for the past month to de-escalate the violence and provide humanitarian aid to civilians. Cleaver said he supported the White House and G7 calls for humanitarian aid, including water, food shelter and medical care for civilians, and a humanitarian pause in the violence.

“There is nothing I want more than an immediate cessation of hostilities to protect innocent Palestinian and Israeli citizens alike,” Cleaver said, “and I support the Administration’s ongoing diplomatic efforts to achieve that goal as we speak.”

Despite protests throughout the world, including one at the White House over the weekend where protesters left handprints in red paint, the White House has stood firmly with Israel since the Oct. 7 attack from Hamas that killed more than 1,000 Israelis and resulted in Hamas taking more than 200 Israeli citizens and soldiers hostage.

At the White House Wednesday, John Kirby, the spokesman for the National Security Council, reiterated that the Biden administration does not support a ceasefire in Gaza, saying he believes it would benefit Hamas and legitimize its attack on Israel.

“A ceasefire not only gives them time to plan and execute, but it legitimizes what they started on October 7,” Kirby said.

Instead, the White House has pushed a series of humanitarian pauses, primarily so that they can get hostages out of Gaza and allow for humanitarian aid to get into the area.

Kirby said the White House has been emphasizing the benefit of humanitarian pauses to the Israeli government and that it has urged Israel to be “cautious, careful and deliberate” to avoid killing and displacing civilians.

Protesters in Kansas City argued Wednesday that a humanitarian pause wouldn’t be enough to save Palestinian lives.

The United States, they said, instead needs to use its power to push for an end to Israeli attacks that have killed more than 10,000 people in the last month, including over 4,100 children in Gaza as of Nov. 6, according to the Associated Press.

Lawmakers at the U.S. Capitol have shown little support for a ceasefire. Both Republican and Democratic lawmakers have pushed aid packages that would give $14 billion in support for Israel against Hamas.

While a House Republican effort failed to attract Democratic votes because it cut funding allocated to the IRS, Democrats have supported aid for Israel in a larger spending package that also allocates money for Ukraine.

While some members of Congress have called for a ceasefire, notably Sen. Dick Durbin, an Illinois Democrat, the House on Tuesday voted to censure Rep. Rashida Tlaib, a Michigan Democrat and the only Palestinian member of Congress, over comments she made about Israel.

“Trying to bully or censure me won’t work because this movement for a ceasefire is much bigger than one person,” Tlaib said. “It’s growing every single day.”

While the resolution was brought by Republicans, 22 Democrats joined them to censure Tlaib, which is a formal process to condemn a member’s behavior.

Michael Wolfe, a Jewish man who wore a shirt that read “Not in our name” to the sit-in, said he learned every detail of the Holocaust growing up in the Kansas City area.

He said his support for Palestinians has caused friction with some of his Israeli family members over the years.

After the Hamas attack on Israel Oct. 7, he checked in on those family members. Wolfe said his Israeli family has the financial privilege and freedom to leave and escape the conflict, unlike Palestinians, whose roads, borders and hospitals have been destroyed in the attacks.

“I’m here because the root of this violence is oppression,” Wolfe said. “It’s 75 years of apartheid enabled by my tax dollars and the weaponization of my people’s trauma.”

“I’m here because a lot of people, Jewish or not, seem to be pushing for a genocide in my name,” he continued. “I’m here because never again means never again for everyone.”