Oct. 16 (UPI) — More than 30 protesters were arrested outside the White House in Washington on Monday while calling for a cease-fire in the Israeli-Hamas conflict, the Service Service said.
The protest included hundreds of people, more than two dozen of whom were arrested when they blocked the right of way to the White House gates, a Secret Service spokesman confirmed to NBC News and WJLA-TV in Arlington, Va.
The protest was organized by several progressive Jewish activist groups including If Not Now and Jewish Voice for Peace. The participants demanded that the United States and President Joe Biden end the “genocide” of Palestinians in the Israeli-Hamas conflict by implementing a cease-fire in Gaza.
“We’re mobilizing thousands of American Jews to join us in demanding Biden and all of our elected officials implement a ceasefire NOW,” If Not Now said in an online call to action at the White House.
“We will not allow them or the Israeli government to carry out a genocide in our name. We will channel our grief towards securing a future where all Palestinians, Israelis, and Jews are safe.”
“Three big groups of Jews and allies have shut down the major exit of the White House on 17th Street,” the groups’ leaders said in a social media post. “We’re not leaving until Biden calls for a ceasefire and neither should they.”
NOW: Three big groups of Jews and allies have shut down the major exit of the White House on 17th st.
We’re not leaving until Biden calls for a ceasefire and neither should they. pic.twitter.com/yYfFFGuX7a— IfNotNow (@IfNotNowOrg) October 16, 2023
The groups said more than 50 of its members were arrested during the protest.
Israel’s large-scale military response to the deadly, multi-pronged assault staged by Hamas on Oct. 7 has prompted protests across the United States and globally, many of which have called for an end to the deaths of Palestinian civilians, including hundreds of women and children.
Hamas killed more than 1,300 Israelis and took more than 120 hostages in the attack. Israel has responded with incessant bombing of Gaza, killing more than 2,670 people and wounding 9,600 others.
Israel has demanded that 1.1 million Palestinians evacuate from the northern Gaza strip ahead of a widely expected ground assault amid fears of a catastrophic humanitarian crisis in the enclave.
On Friday, 57 mainly Jewish protesters demanding an end to Israel’s actions in Gaza were arrested outside the home of Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer in Brooklyn, N.Y., while blocking its entryway. Some carried signs reading, “Jews Say Stop the Genocide of Palestinians.”
It was part of a nationwide series of rallies on Friday organized by Jewish Voice for Peace, which claimed more than 2,000 people in New York, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Chicago, and Seattle protested outside the homes and offices of Democratic members of Congress calling for a cease-fire in Gaza.
