State congressional officials not in support of growing protests seeking Gaza cease-fire

As the worldwide swell of protests demanding a cease-fire in Gaza reached the Delaware residence of President Joe Biden this weekend, the state's political leaders have not joined calls on Israel to cease its deadly bombardment of the occupied territory.

Several hundred gathered Saturday morning, flying Palestinian flags and rallying alongside Route 141 before marching to the entrance of Biden’s Greenville residence, calling for the president to use his influence to end Israel's shelling of Gaza.

“No cease-fire, no votes,” rang around Barley Mill Road as the march reached Biden’s driveway.

Over the past month, the Palestinian death toll has climbed as pressure on Biden to support a cease-fire has grown from human rights leaders, local civic leaders and some members of the Democratic Party, who view the ongoing bloodshed as inhumane, collective punishment upon innocents in Gaza.

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More than 11,000 people, 70 percent of those being women and children, have been killed, according to figures from Palestinian officials.

Israeli officials have estimated 1,200 people, mostly civilians, were killed in the Oct. 7 Hamas attack that sparked this latest bombardment. Those officials have said their bombing campaign and military encroachment into Gaza is a war with Hamas, who they accuse of using citizens as human shields.

They have said the bombing will not cease until the release or rescue of some 200 hostages they said were captured in the initial attack and the destruction of Hamas, according to reporting from the Associated Press.

In Delaware, Saturday's rally was heavy with anguish for civilians killed and the American government’s continued support of both the latest bombing campaign and the Israeli government’s long occupation of Palestinian people.

“Joe Biden, where is your humanity?” read one of many signs critical of the president.

Dr. Afnan Albahri, a Delawarean and pediatrician whose grandmother was displaced from the occupied territory decades ago, addressed the rally wearing scrubs in solidarity with doctors in Gaza operating in impossible conditions.

She spoke about the growing crisis in Gazan hospitals that have been shelled by the Israeli military and choked off from supplies needed to save lives. She punctuated a litany of horrors streamed in the news and on social media from hospitals in the besieged territory with one word: “shame.”

Airstrikes have hit hospitals, refugee camps and leveled residential blocks. In recent days, international focus has centered on strikes and fighting around Gaza's largest hospital. On Tuesday, John Kirby, a U.S. National Security Council spokesman endorsed, without presenting evidence, Israeli claims that Hamas uses hospitals as cover for their operations. Kirby also noted the White House does not support airstrikes on hospitals, according to reporting from CNN.

Gaza is about a third of the area of New Castle County and home to about four times the county's population. Tens of thousands have been injured and three-quarters of its residents have been displaced as strikes continue and residents face shortages of basic food, water and medical supplies, the World Health Organization reported this weekend.

“We want people to see that this is a rally for the human rights of Palestinians,” said Faizal Chaudhury, a Delawarean who marched Saturday. “Cease-fire is a human rights issue at this point more than anything else.”

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The rally, which organizers estimated was attended by more than 1,500 people, was the largest supporting the Palestinian cause in Delaware history, rally organizer and state Rep. Madinah Wilson-Anton told the crowd.

She was the lone Delaware elected official to address the rally. Those attending described a “deafening silence” by Delaware’s public institutions toward the suffering in Gaza and said they felt their voices have gone unheard.

‘Like nobody cares'

Biden did not arrive at his Greenville residence until the protest had largely dissipated in the late afternoon. The White House did not respond to an inquiry seeking comment on the protest and calls for a cease-fire.

The president has made no proclamation supporting a cease-fire. He has issued support for what is being described as "humanitarian pauses," limited in time and location, to allow for aid to enter the besieged territory. Israeli officials have cast aside calls for a cease-fire and said it would allow Hamas to reorganize.

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Members of Delaware’s congressional delegation, Sens. Chris Coons and Tom Carper and Rep. Lisa Blunt Rochester, all Democrats, likewise did not specifically address calls for a cease-fire in response to email inquiries ahead of the protest.

A spokesperson for Coons relayed statements the senator made on CNN last week, calling for a “several-day pause” for humanitarian relief to enter and “international workers and dual citizens” to get out, as well as the release of hostages held by Hamas.

When directly asked about the calls for a cease-fire, Coons told the CNN host he had shared with Israeli officials lessons learned from "urban conflicts" in the American invasion of Iraq. He added that he has urged them to keep the campaign “short and focused” because of the “risk” that the “human suffering” seen in Gaza will enflame the region against Israel.

Though a spokesperson, Carper, who is retiring next year, said he regards the “loss of life over the last several weeks” as “tragic” and said he is “focused on solutions” to “limit innocent civilian casualties.”

Last week, his office issued a press release advertising his signature alongside two dozen senators on a letter to Biden that condemned the Hamas attack a month ago and expressed support for U.S. funding of Israeli’s “defense systems." It does not call for a cessation of the bombardment.

Rather, it asks the White House for information, including its assessment of how Israeli “rules of engagement” align with “U.S. policy and practice,” as it relates to “mitigation of civilian casualties” and how “our assistance” will help abate the “ongoing humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza.”

In a written statement, Blunt Rochester, who is running without a Democratic opponent for the Senate seat being vacated by Carper’s retirement, said the “loss of life in the region” has been “profoundly tragic” and endorsed the “humanitarian pause” to allow aid in and potential release of hostages.

For the people gathered in Greenville on Saturday, these positions dehumanize Palestinian victims and disregard the swell of domestic support for a cease-fire.

“It’s like nobody cares," said Saba Mian, a Philadelphia resident who traveled to Delaware for the rally. "People are dying as if they are not human.”

One person likened a humanitarian pause to being stabbed repeatedly and asking your assailant for a few minutes to take a drink of water before the attack resumes.

Newark resident Ismail Alburea attended the march with his two sons hoping that it would pressure the U.S. government to stop “adding oil to the fire.”

“Cease-fire is better at this point,” he said. “There have been so many people, kids, women, killed. These are the people affected.”

‘Cold-blooded murder with our dollar’

Beyond an appeal for humanity, others made a more practical plea, arguing that the military campaign is not going to lead to any sustained peace. They condemned Hamas’ attack but said the fundamental problem predates Oct. 7 and has not been adequately considered by American officials.

Speakers criticized the lack of fundamental rights Palestinians have under Israeli occupation, the steady rise of illegal settlements in the West Bank, the long-running blockade of Gaza and detention of native people by Israeli authorities without due process. One speaker compared the plight of Palestinians to that of Black people in the Jim Crow-era American South.

Last year, a United Nations human rights expert issued a report on the disparities of rights Palestinians face and accused the Israeli government of overseeing an “apartheid” state, a description shared by many protesting Saturday. Israeli officials said the report was biased and disregarded security concerns, according to a report in the New York Times.

Speakers also drew a distinction between criticizing the actions of the Israeli government and antisemitism.

Hope Moser told the rally about how she was brought up to believe land in Israel was her “birthright” from her Jewish heritage. As she got older, she said she learned about the displacement and denial of fundamental freedoms inflicted upon Palestinians and felt “disgusted.” She then listed off names of people killed in the bombardment whose birth predated the current state of Israel.

“That is not the Judaism I know and love,” she told the rally, which was partially organized by Jewish Voices for Peace.

While cease-fire was the primary push of the rally, it also took aim at what speakers regarded as corrupting American financial support for Israel's occupation.

Last week, the U.S. House of Representatives passed a $14.5 billion military aid package for Israel, though what would have normally been a bipartisan vote to approve the measure largely ran along party lines because the legislation mandated offsetting the expense with spending cuts elsewhere.

Democratic leadership criticized the unusual cost-cutting mandate, according to the Associated Press. Like most Democrats, Blunt Rochester did not vote in favor of the legislation, which is expected to fail in the U.S. Senate.

“You want your leaders to give you a solution to the problem and you don't hear that. It is just like, ‘Hey, we will give you $14 billion more to buy more weapons to bomb more people,” Chaudhury said. “Is that the solution, really?”

He said that a lasting solution is one that respects and recognizes the rights of Palestinians alongside Israelis.

But those at the rally fear American support of the bombing campaign will only be followed by further expansion and entrenchment of Israeli occupation. The Associated Press has reported a "spike" in violence perpetrated by Israeli settlers against Palestinians in the West Bank since Hamas' attack and Israel's retaliation.

Shahid Sadik of Wilmington said the bombing campaign amounts to “killing native cultures” and that American foreign policy has not responded to the fundamental question: “Why Hamas exists.” A longtime supporter of Biden, he said the president has lost his vote.

Doha Eldreny traveled from New Jersey for the rally and said peace will only come when there is justice.

“If children see their mother and father under the ground, do you think they are going to be regular kids?” he said. “This has to stop now.”

According to reporting from the Associated Press, the White House has remained steadfastly behind Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's stated goal of ending Hamas and its control over Gaza, but divisions over what would happen after have appeared between Israeli and U.S. leadership in recent weeks.

‘No cease-fire, no votes’

Many said they won’t vote for Biden and more generally Democrats on principle.

Chaudhury said local public officials' statements never mention the word "occupation" and thus dehumanizes Palestinians.

Delaware’s state-level public officials quickly condemned Hamas’ attack on Israel but have remained largely silent as the death toll in Gaza has grown. Democratic leaders in the Delaware General Assembly have made no statement addressing that or calls for a cease-fire.

The Wilmington City Council may take up the issue soon as Councilwoman Shane Darby is sponsoring a resolution calling on Delaware's federal delegation to support a cease-fire.

Wilson-Anton, a Newark Democrat, expressed disappointment in Delaware’s congressional representatives who she feels have a “moral duty” to use their influence to pressure for a cease-fire. She said it's incumbent on public officials at all levels in Delaware to do the same.

“When they hear from enough people and recognize it is going to impact their polling and election, it matters to them and we should be using that method as much as we can,” she said in an interview.

For some, Biden and Democrats have already crossed a line.

"I feel rejected. I feel like I have no value in this community," said Faisal Khan, who lives in North Carolina and marched in Greenville Saturday.

He said he spent years protesting former President Donald Trump and working to support Democrats in high-profile races, but said he won't support Biden going forward.

As the Saturday’s march waned and participants set out a row of white roses and white bundles representing dead children onto the road in front of Biden’s home, some of the president’s neighbors gathered to watch the scene.

Khan approached one of those neighbors and asked him to relay a message to Biden.“Tell him he is on the wrong side of history."

Contact Xerxes Wilson at (302) 324-2787 or xwilson@delawareonline.com.

This article originally appeared on Delaware News Journal: Delaware officials not joining protests calling for Gaza cease-fire