Carrying the Palestinian flag and handwritten signs for peace, more than 100 Jewish protesters gathered outside state Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party headquarters in St. Paul on Friday to demand a ceasefire in Gaza and an end to what they described as the genocidal bombings of innocent Palestinian civilians by the Israeli government.
“I am a descendant of Jews who were murdered in the Holocaust,” said Iris Brilliant, 35, of Minneapolis, as the crowd around her broke into a peace song. “Genocide of Palestinians does not make me feel more safe.”
The protesters — organized by the Jewish advocacy coalition If Not Now and the progressive anti-Zionist organization Jewish Voice for Peace — called upon state DFL Chair Ken Martin to condemn the bombings that have killed some 4,000 Palestinians, more than 1,000 of them children, and work to curb U.S. military aid to the Israeli government.
On Oct. 13, Israel alerted the more than 1 million residents of northern Gaza that bombings would begin the next day. Giving a civilian population the size of Manhattan 24 hours to evacuate their homes is cruel, said Brandon Schorsch, a former program director with the Minnesota DFL, and Martin — a likely contender for a role in the national party — has failed to call out those actions.
Martin “says he knows these issues because he’s visited the West Bank before, and he has friends who are Jewish and family who are Jewish,” said Schorsch, 32, of Minneapolis, exclaiming into the microphone. “Well, so do we. … Ken, will you learn from us?”
The protest underscores a growing schism among U.S. Democrats, who have struggled to bridge a divide over Israeli-Palestinian relations especially notable in the younger and more progressive wings of their own party. While Democrats have long counted on the support of prominent Jews like the late U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein, the party’s increasingly ethnically and ideologically diverse base has criticized hard-right Israeli leaders like Benjamin Netanyahu for their treatment of the Palestinian people.
Innocents have died on all sides.
The Gaza airstrikes followed the Oct. 7 attacks by Hamas — the Palestinian group that controls the Gaza Strip — during an Israeli music festival, killing more than 1,200 Israelis, the deadliest day for Jews since the Holocaust. Another 200 hostages have been taken captive. The United States, Canada and European Union all consider Hamas a terrorist organization.
On Oct. 12, advocates with the Twin Cities Democratic Socialists of America said in a statement that “Congress is preparing to fund a genocide. Rather than seek de-escalation, the ruling class spends its time smearing those who recognize the humanity of Palestinians and the true cause of this conflict: Apartheid. We will not be cowed in the fight for peace and liberation.”
Martin, the DFL chair, reacted strongly to the Twin Cities DSA statement, saying on X (formerly Twitter), “Unbelievable, you guys continue to double down on the outrageous. The true cause of this is Hamas, an Iranian-backed terrorist organization which decided to deliberately target innocent men, women, and children and murder them in cold-blood. Facts. Check ’em then GTFO.”
Protesters Friday pointed out that the U.S. already gives Israel between $3 billion and $4 billion annually in military aid, and U.S. President Joe Biden has called for billions more. Brilliant said the Israeli government, with U.S. financial support, has been “weaponizing Jewish grief over what happened on Oct. 7 to justify a genocide against Palestinians.”
Asked to respond to the Friday protest, a DFL spokesman provided an excerpt from Martin’s Founders Day speech last Saturday in which he said a bloody conflict is what Hamas wants and that all innocent victims should be mourned.
“We can condemn these attacks by Hamas — a terrorist organization — unequivocally while holding true to the belief that the Palestinian people deserve a free state of their own in a two-state solution. That Palestinians have a right to self-determination. There is no path to a lasting peace that doesn’t include a safe, democratic Israel and a self-governing Palestine free from the kind of violence practiced by Hamas,” Martin said.
Behind Brilliant on Friday, speakers led the protest crowd in the mourner’s Kaddish, a Jewish prayer for the dead, as a woman hoisted a cardboard sign reading “Jews Against Genocide in Gaza.”
“Your people are my people,” they sang.
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