A group of Jewish and non Jewish activists descend upon Congressman Glenn Ivey’s home to advocate for Palestinian life and call for a permanent ceasefire in Gaza, Feb. 3 2024. Photo by Delonte Harrod

Cheverly, MD – On Feb. 3, a Saturday morning, the Israeli government attacked two small towns in Gaza: Deir al-Balah and Rafah, a small town on the edge of Egypt, where Palestinians fled due to the war. On that day, early reports said that 18 people, women, men, and children, were killed during that airstrike. On that morning around 10 a.m., for a prescheduled protest, approximately 50 Jewish and non-Jewish men women, and children – most of them dressed in Black from head-to-toe – gathered at Cheverly-Euclid Street Park. Their protest entailed marching nearly a mile to Congressman Glenn Ivey’s home, their District 4 representative, to publicly mourn the unnecessary killing of Palestinians in Gaza. Additionally, they wanted to pressure their congressman to join some Maryland Democrats and others in calling for a permanent ceasefire in the region.

Paul Adowd, a spokesperson for the group, called MD-4 For A Ceasefire, said they had been trying for months to put pressure on Ivey to “stand in defense of innocent civilians in Palestine, who are being bombed indiscriminately with our tax dollars and our political support.”

“We're here as his constituents to say that we do not support that,” said Adowd. “We want him to act in our name in the interest of human rights and a peaceful policy, calling on him to support a ceasefire. It's been more than 100 days of indiscriminate bombing in Palestine. We need him to stand up and raise his voice.”

Activists participated in the Jewish tradition of mourning. They tied black ribbons around their arms on Feb.3. Photo by Delonte Harrod

Not only were they dressed in Black garments from head to toe, but they purposely tied Black ribbons around the mid-area of their biceps. One organizer, who wanted to remain anonymous, told me that Jews have many ways to demonstrate grief. One way, the person said, is to tear their clothes. It is an outward sign that expresses the inward feelings of grief and anguish. Jews wearing a Black ribbon is also a sign of mourning.

With the symbols of mourning wrapped tightly around their biceps, the group gathered their signs that read “Free Palestine” and “Ceasefire In Gaza” and marched towards Congressman Ivey’s home. In a funeral procession style, they marched silently through the neighborhood – a sign of respect for the dead – while leaders in the front carried miniature coffins upon their shoulders. The coffins, they said, symbolized the death of children in Gaza. It is the reality of Palestinian life in Gaza.

Maya Shepphard, one of the organizers, said we wanted Glenn Ivey to see the horror that Palestinians are experiencing in Gaza.

Maya Shepphard is speaking to protestors before they start to march to Congressman Ivey’s house on Feb. 3. Photo by Delonte Harrod

“We are mourning,” said Sheppard, who is Jewish. “We are trying to process the level of this genocide that is happening. And we are saying no as Jewish Americans, and as Maryland District 4 residents.”

Shepphard said Ivey “has the power to do something.”

“He has the power actually to say, ‘no,’” she explained.

After Hamas attacked Israel on Oct. 7, killing 1200 people and taking hostages, Israeli forces decimated huge swaths of the land in the Gaza Strip through excessive bombing, rendering it, human rights experts say, uninhabitable for present and future Palestinians. Hamas has released some of its hostages. More specifically, Israel, which human rights organizations have designated an apartheid state, has bombed various universities and hospitals. Outside this war and during this war, Israel has detained thousands of Palestinians. They have released some of them For The Conversation, Dr. Chandni Desai, assistant professor in the Department of Critical Studies of Equity and Solidarity at the University of Toronto, wrote that Israel was committing scholasticide. The term refers to the destruction of educational systems.

According to the latest numbers, over 30,000 Palestinians have been killed, which includes children. The U.S. continues to financially support Israel’s war in Gaza, which has manufactured a humanitarian crisis.

Humanitarian relief organizations have advocated getting aid to Palestinians trapped in Gaza. Some aid has trickled into the war-torn area. However, for the most part, according to The Washington Post, some Jewish citizens are banning together to block aid. This is in addition to the Israeli government restricting aid into the region.

South Africa has taken Israel to the International Courts of Justice on the grounds of committing genocide, which is a direct violation of the Geneva Convention. The ICJ concluded that Israel was committing genocide, and recommended that it stop. However, this is the first step in a long battle of holding Israel accountable, according to Bill-Burke White, a law professor at Penn Carey Law of the University of Pennsylvania. Recently, the United Nations Special Reporter, Francesca Albenese, spoke before the UN saying that there are grounds for calling what Israel has done Gaza a genocide. The United Nations Security Council has called for a ceasefire during the Muslim holiday of Ramadan.

“Growing up, we were told that America is a place of human rights, but this war, and its participation in it, seems contrary to what we have been told,” said one advocate, who spoke on the condition of anonymity.

Questioning American Values

One community member, who also wanted to remain anonymous, said many local community members in the area were frustrated about the U.S. financially backing Israel. The community member said this was an opportunity to make their voices heard.

Shama Shaikh, a Muslim, said she had attended many protests that mostly included Muslims and Palestinian people, and that it was great to stand in solidarity with local Jewish people from Prince George’s County.

“Before this event, seeing the news and calling my representatives daily, I just felt gaslit for calling for a ceasefire,” said Shaikh, who carried one of the coffins to Ivey’s home. “It’s so nice that I have so many Jewish allies in District 4.”

(left) Ali Schneiderman holds a sign standing in front of Glenn Ivey’s home on Feb. 3. Photo by Delonte Harrod

Jewish people have a history of standing in solidarity with communities that have been marginalized. Groups of Jewish men and women have stood in solidarity with Black people during various iterations of liberation struggles in the U.S. During the 1960s, three Jewish men were killed in Mississippi for attempting to register Black people to vote.

The Institute For Social Policy And Understanding published data in February showing a majority of Muslims, Catholics, and Protestants support a permanent ceasefire in the region. Interestingly, Jews who are more than 50 years old “are almost twice as likely as younger members of the group (age 18-29) to oppose a ceasefire (41% vs. 22%).” Still, there are some older Jews who do support a permanent ceasefire: roughly 46 percent. However, 54 percent of younger Jews support a permanent ceasefire in Gaza.

Forged In Fire

One Jewish MD-4 A Ceasefire activist, who spoke to me on the condition of anonymity, said the group was formed out of a painful debate with others in their Jewish community. On a community list-serv, when they expressed their solidarity with Palestinians, another group of Jewish residents, the activists said, stood in opposition to their compassion for Palestinians.

The community activists found it disturbing that their fellow Jewish neighbors, who have a memory of the Holocaust, opposed advocating for Palestinian lives.

“I find it shocking that so many people who I assumed were raised like I am – on the milk of ‘Never Enough’ or “Never Again’ – would not include everyone in that,” the activist said. “You know, I just, I don't understand it. There's no bone in my body that understands it. And part of my really deep heartbreak – and you may hear it in my voice because I don't even know how to cope with how heartbreaking I find all of this – is that these people are so morally misaligned with who I am, and I thought we were. But the gift is that we did find a community of people, – like a really vibrant, amazing community of people, who are willing to fight for the right thing.”

An activists paraded the Palestinian flag in front the crowd that stood on the sidewalk in front Glenn Ivey’s home on Feb. 3. Photo by Delonte Harrod

D.C. and Maryland have had multiple protests from members of the Jewish community advocating for a permanent ceasefire. In early October, a group of Jewish advocates for a ceasefire occupied the Cannon House Office Building on Capitol Hill. In January 2024, 400,000 advocates, with fire in their bones, descended upon Washington, D.C. demanding the Biden administration pressure Israel and Hamas into a permanent ceasefire. Additionally, in the latter months of 2023, advocates stood at the gates of the White House advocating for a permanent ceasefire.

What has pushed the advocates to protest in front of his house, they tell me, is that he has refused to listen to them. Mary Hershberger, an advocate in the District 4 group, said they have had a direct conversation with Glenn Ivey about his position. He even visited a Mennonite Church, but wasn’t allowed to speak in the pulpit, according to Mary. They have also held demonstrations at his office in Upper Marlboro and Capitol Hill, where Capitol Hill police officers arrested some of them.

Juliana Barnet, a cultural activist, said they sang in the hallway until some officers approached them. She said the officers told them to leave. And the officers pushed some of them down and arrested some of them. Ali Schneiderman was one of the protesters arrested that day.

“I’ve never been arrested before,” said Schneiderman, who was arrested during this particular protest, and who marched to Ivey's home. “ It’s scary and sad, but…that’s how you make noise. Right?”

One reason, they believe, the congressman hasn’t listened to his District 4 constituents is that The American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), a pro-Israel political group, has given thousands of dollars to Ivey’s campaign. The advocates believe AIPAC’s money is influencing his decision not to join a national and international chorus of advocates calling for a permanent ceasefire.

Ivey hasn’t made any public statements regarding a permanent ceasefire in Gaza. However, Maryland Sen. Chris Van Hollen, has called for several temporary ceasefires so that aid can get to Gaza. Gov. Wes Moore has publically stated that the region needed a permanent ceasefire. U.S. Senate candidates David Trone and Prince George’s County, County Executive Angela Alsobrooks, whom Ivey endorsed for senator, have called for a ceasefire in the region.

“We have to release the hostages and cease fire,” Alsobrooks said, with some of the audience applauding. “We need a ceasefire. And we need the United States and every other nation across the world doing everything we can, to stop and prevent the indiscriminate killing of innocent civilians. And we ought to be doing everything we can to stop the humanitarian crisis that has developed in Gaza,” according to the Maryland Reporter.

In that same speech, replying to a protester in the audience advocating for a permanent ceasefire, Alsobrooks said the U.S. needs a new partner in the region who wants a two-state solution. She said Israel does not want a two-state solution, and therefore the U.S. should look for partners that do.

Bearing Witness

(left) Cameron Tousi, and Chloe Waterman (right) lead the activists in carry coffins to Congressman Glenn Ivey’s home, Feb. 3. Photo by Delonte Harrod

When the group finally reached Ivey's home, they quietly laid the child-sized coffins along the sidewalk in front of Ivey’s home. After that ceremony, their silence ended and they began to speak. They eulogized those who had been senselessly killed in the war. They spoke passionately about what it meant to be Jewish at this moment; standing in solidarity with Palestinians; going against the grain of some of their fellow Jews, who have sided with Israel. But as they sang and spoke while standing behind and sometimes on the side of the child-sized coffins, the death of the innocent children weighed heavy upon their hearts. And they wanted that heaviness to weigh on the heart of Ivey and other local politicians, whom they feel are not meeting the moment. So before leaving, adults and their children performed another Jewish ritual. They placed small pebbles over the coffins. Usually, these pebbles would be placed over a tombstone, but today the coffins are those tombstones. “It’s a way to remember and honor the people who’ve passed,” Schneiderman explained.

“It was very powerful,” said Summer Skirrett. “I think it gave a physical representation of the children that died in Gaza.”

Some rocks fell into the cracks on the sidewalk in front of Ivey’s home.

I asked Sheppard, what was next for the group.

Since that protest, Israel has continued its push into Rafah, resulting in more deaths, unhoused people, and poverty. Multiple attempts for a permanent ceasefire have failed. At the end of their protest, I asked Maya Sheppard about their next steps.

“We are pushing for a (permanent) ceasefire, and we’re focused on Ivey,” she explained. He’s our representative. So we’re not going away. We’re just going to keep trying to bring this message and keep joining with other constituents who want to push for this as well. And our numbers are growing and growing.”

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