More than 100 Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP) organizers and their allies shut down the University Bridge during rush hour on Thursday to call yet again for an immediate and permanent ceasefire in Gaza. This week the death toll surpassed 18,000 and the United States continues its ardent support of Israel’s genocide.
BREAKING: Jewish organizers @JVPSeattle and their allies are blocking both lanes of traffic on University Bridge, demanding immediate ceasefire and an end to Israel’s genocide against Palestinians. pic.twitter.com/NzkevBKDMp
— Hannah Krieg (@hannahkrieg) December 14, 2023
JVP members in Seattle, Portland, Los Angeles, Minneapolis, Chicago, Atlanta, Washington DC, and Philadelphia, coordinated eight bridge closures to mark the eighth and final night of Hanukkah. According to JVP’s press release, Hanukkah celebrates the miracle of when a day’s worth of oil kept the menorah lit for eight days and the Jewish revolt against the Syrian Greek ruling class in 167 BC. JVP said that Jews who fight for Palestinian liberation “take inspiration from this lesson in endurance and hope to persist in their calls for a ceasefire and a free Palestine.”
The pressure from Jewish, Arab, and other activists has so far led to mixed results.
This week, 53 countries in the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) voted to support a non-binding resolution that calls for a ceasefire in Gaza, 23 countries abstained, and 10, including the US, voted against a ceasefire. But President Joe Biden seems more critical of Israel, recently calling out Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for his “indiscriminate” bombings. Still, despite public support for an end to the violence, Biden has not called for a permanent ceasefire.
Closer to home, the Washington Congressional delegation also fails to stand strong against the genocide. Besides Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-WA), who signed onto Rep. Cori Bush’s resolution in October, no other congress member in Washington has called for an end to Israel’s bombardment.
JVP specifically targets the Chair of the Appropriations Committee, Sen. Patty Murray (D-WA), in their actions, printing her name on signs and chanting “Senator Murray, pick a side. Ceasefire or genocide.”
In November, Murray called for a temporary pause to allow for the release of hostages and the transportation of humanitarian aid. But JVP criticized her for not supporting a permanent ceasefire like her colleague Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL), the second-highest-ranking Democrat in the caucus, or as she did in 2021 when Israel killed 260 Palestinians in 11 days.
It does not appear Murray has moved much on the issue. In an email to The Stranger, Murray’s spokesperson, Naomi Savin, reiterated the senator’s support for “humanitarian pauses to allow hostages to return home and critical aid to reach civilians.”
While Savin did not express any interest from the senator in a permanent end to Israel’s bombardment, she wrote that “…Murray is deeply concerned about the humanitarian situation in Gaza and—as she has said many times—she is very worried for the safety of the civilians who are caught in the middle of this conflict and are cut off from food, water, medicine, and electricity. She has been very clear with the Biden administration and with Israeli government leaders that Israel needs to act in accordance with international law and do everything it can to protect innocent civilians, and she will continue to press the Biden administration on this issue.”
In her powerful position as Chair of the Appropriations Committee, Savin said Murray will “get supplemental funding—including humanitarian aid for Gaza—to President Biden’s desk.”
Many pro-Palestinian advocates do not find her disinterest in a permanent ceasefire surprising. According to Open Secrets, American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) ranks number three in Murray’s top campaign contributors. Likewise, AIPAC gave Seattle-area Rep. Adam Smith (D-WA), who has also failed to call for a ceasefire, more money than any other donor this year. Open Secrets found the defense industry and pro-Israel groups earned the top spots for Smith donors.
Smith did not respond to my request for comment.
Locally, Seattle elected officials showed their support for the ceasefire in the Washington Solidarity Statement for Peace and Justice in Israel/Palestine, which has garnered more than 1500 individual signatures and the endorsement of more than 150 community organizations. Elected official signatories include Seattle Port Commissioners Ryan Calkins, Toshiko Hasegawa, and Hamdi Mohamed, State Reps. Darya Farivar (D-Seattle) and Noel Frame (D-Seattle), State Sens. Bob Hasegawa (D-Seattle) and Rebecca Saldaña (D-Seattle), Seattle City Council Members Lisa Herbold, Tammy Morales, Teresa Mosqueda, and Dan Strauss.
The City Council passed a ceasefire resolution 6 to 0 in November after Council Member Kshama Sawant’s initial resolution failed earlier that month.
Of course, the council’s resolution will not stop the violence on its own, so JVP and other organizers in Seattle, the United States, and across the world will keep building power and pressure. As one organizer said Thursday night, “We’re in it for the long haul.”
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Everyone would love to have an immediate permanent cease fire. They just disagree on the terms.
Would that immediate ceasefire be accompanied by an immediate release of hostages?
you keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means.
@5,
Who keeps using what word?
I think people just like saying that line anymore. There seems to be a similar thing going on with a bunch of aging hipsters who love to declare their hatred for the Eagles, seemingly because it was such a funny scene in Big Lebowski.
Today, in the Stranger: “…. the Washington Solidarity Statement for Peace and Justice in Israel/Palestine, which has garnered more than 1500 individual signatures and the endorsement of more than 150 community organizations.”
Last month, in the Stranger: “… the Washington Solidarity Statement for Peace and Justice in Israel/Palestine, which currently boasts more than 2,500 individual signatories and over 150 organizational signatories.”
So, individual support has dropped 40% in just a month?!? Feel the peace!!
(https://www.thestranger.com/news/2023/11/22/79274413/seattle-city-council-passes-ceasefire-resolution)
That menorah is great street protest theater.
The irony of screaming about genocide while literally waving the flag of an organization who espouses genocide as one of the tenets is completely lost in these clueless souls. It really is kabuki theater.
Why do they think Patty Murray has any influence? Or that she cares?
I know that the intent of these protests it to draw attention, but instead they antagonize people who have nothing to do with what’s going on in Gaza, who may only have a very vague idea of what happened in the first place, and little knowledge of the history of the struggle. They pulled the same stunt with the westlake tree lighting and all it got them was a hostile reaction, which is what some of these protesters seem to thrive on.
What I think this calls for is more informational canvassing. Show up outside public events and instead of shutting them down, or being obnoxious, engage people on the issue in a non-confrontational way so that they might actually take informed action (calling their representative, talking to friends and co-workers, etc)
The menorah is a great prop, and very eye-catching. If that had been off to the side at Westlake Tree lighting, with people who were prepared to discuss instead of berating the attendees, they might have won some people over. Instead, they stormed the stage and filibustered, (which amounts to theft) and put a damper on the event. They had to set off the fireworks to get them to shut up.
This is not the Vietnam War era, where just about everyone had something at stakem and were at least baseline informed. It’s dumb to try to use those tactics on an issue like this. If they really want to do something they need to stop using tactics of the past as a crutch.
11: Once again, Catalina wins the thread.
Ya, because Tiffany Smiley would have been more sympathetic to these protesters. Give me a break.
Our Dear Raindrop: International spokesperson for all the Jewish people.
@16
what?
do they
Think they
can Shut Down
the Planet to protest
BiBi’s ongoing war crimes?
looks
like they
may be trying.
“Republicans”
are gonna hafta
Outlaw Protesting
if this keeps Escalating
& they’d LOVE
nothing
More.
Well then, Raindrop dear, you shouldn’t make sweeping generalizations about other people.
And any “queer” who is for Hamas is obviously an idiot.
@16 People should be able to protest but they should be detained, issued citations and released after operations have returned to normal when they block traffic and interfere in a public facility like the airport. The fact the cities have the police agencies allows this infantile behavior to continue is ridiculous, especially around the holidays when so many people are trying to get home.
Refugee dear, I don’t disagree with you on that point. Being arrested for a protest (as I was in college) shows commitment to the cause and raises awareness of the issue. Otherwise, it’s just tedious behavior.
But I still think that if you want to raise awareness to an issue that many Americans probably have just a foggy knowledge of, information is more important that street theatre.
@22 Catalina, I think you are 100% correct about a more effective way to get the message out and I’m sure there are a few in that group who would try that. I also think however there is a hard core group in Seattle that really doesn’t care so much about the cause as long as it’s anti establishment / anti capitalism. These are the same people who break windows, loot Nordstroms and wear all black to be cool. They could care less about debate or influencing others they just want to inflict the emptiness in their own souls on the rest of us and ruin others joy (like tree lighting ceremonies). You can not reason with them or even talk to them less they shout you down or assault you. We let these people keep doing these things without consequences so they keep doing them.
Refugee dear, I think that group that you describe is split between what I call the Angry Undergraduate crowd (of which I was one back in my Apartheid divestment days) who these days seem to yearn for anarchy, and just garden variety scoundrels and ruffians. Many years back, well before Covid, Mr. Vel-DuRay was in a pawn shop down on Rainier Ave looking for an accordion when a gang like that attacked the store, stole the cash register, and smashed all the displays with hammers to get the jewelry. They were wearing ski masks and black clothing, and didn’t hurt or menace anyone, but it was quite distressing.
@24 Whoever they are allowing them to continue playing revolutionary with impunity isn’t a winning strategy. I don’t really want to see them in jail but doing some community service or being fined (with the proceeds of such fines going toward a restitution fund for those impacted by their shennanigans) would be great.
Raindrop dear, did I say anything whatsoever about things being “worse in the old days”? I wrote of an incident that happened to Mr. Vel-DuRay a while back. Sometime after the Rainier Avenue St. Vincent de Paul store closed and the beginning of the current decade. No cars were involved in the incident.
Are you OK? Seriously, do you have a support community? You seem even more overwrought than usual.
Tensorna dear, when I was arrested, it was because we had occupied the Administration Building at The U of Iowa. We were all loaded into school buses and taken to the old University Elementary, where we were all processed and let go with misdemeanor charges and no fine. But it made its way across the state, to my first employer, the Council Bluffs Nonpareil where I was once a paper boy. That’s how my parents found out about it.
Papa Vel-DuRay – who was an attorney – was very proud of me, and amused by the whole thing. Mother Vel-DuRay thought it was splendid. Something to talk about with pride at the beauty parlor.
@29: That’s a great story, dear. While I confess I do not know why you addressed it to me, or what (if any) effect it had upon the end of Apartheid in faraway South Africa, you do seem very, very proud of it. So, good for you, dear!
My apologies dear tensoma, I meant to address Our Dear Refugee.
We may not have accomplished much individually, but U of Iowa and Iowa State did eventually divest themselves of their Apartheid-related investments, as did hundreds of other academic institutions where similar actions were held. I’m surprised you don’t remember, as celeberities eventually got involved, but you may be too young.
My point is that the arrests – which here in the thousands, and from all over the country, drew attention to the movement, which was ultimately successful, and contributed to the end of Apartheid in South Africa.
@31: Oh, I remember it well. At my school, a South African exchange student pointedly told the locals of how the good ol’ U.S. of A. wasn’t exactly a paragon of racial equality, but they were free to move to her country if they wanted to help her with reform efforts there. 🙂
The activists constructed a Shanty Town in the middle of campus. After awhile, the population of student activists living within it was mostly replaced by transients (I attended a large state school, so the town had a substantial, ever-shifting population of dropouts and drifters) and the administration finally chose a nice quiet Sunday morning during Spring Break to tear the place down. No one mentioned it after that.
Whatever one thinks of their politics or their tactics elsewhere, the pro-Palestinian protesters did perform an undeniable public service Saturday afternoon by blocking the vehicle entrance to Pike Place Market. It didn’t seem to dampen the festive holiday mood in the slightest.
Let’s not pretend that JVP represents any sort of stand for the mainstream Jewish community in Seattle. That’s like saying Senator Tim Scott represents most African Americans. In other weirdness, how little does one need to understand their own people’s history to be “pro-ceasefire” in the current conflict while referencing a Jewish holiday that is deeply nationalist and Zionist and is quite literally commemorating Jewish people defending their control of the land where Israel stands today? I mean, sure, folks can be for a two-state solution and opposed to Israeli military actions … but most of these folks hold political views that clearly are not in favor with that idea.
@35
Lmao that you think Hanukkah is “Nationalist” let alone “Zionist” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VfJQZyU_A4o
The two state solution was never going to happen and it would have been further displacement and segregation if it did. The one state reality exists. It must become a democracy and it must stop committing terrorism, and we must stop funding it until it complies with international law. ADL goes on about double standards but it is Israel that gets special treatment on the world stage
Palestinians vs Israelis? Who’s David and who’s Goliath? The hypocrisy is beyond all human comprehension.
@36: “The two state solution was never going to happen…”
It could have happened in 1948, and many times since. Each time, one side chose war.
“The one state reality exists. It must become a democracy…”
Arab Israelis serve in the Knesset.
“… it must stop committing terrorism, and we must stop funding it until it complies with international law.”
That describes Hamas pretty well.
One state might actually be the best path forward, but I leave that to inhabitants of the region. Hamas probably has to be destroyed first, though.