Protesters return to Moulton's office, echoing call for cease fire
SALEM — As the war between Israel and Palestine reaches the six-month mark, those who’ve called for cease-fires returned to Congressional leaders Thursday with more than a dozen standing in the rain to be heard by U.S. Rep. Seth Moulton.
Massachusetts Peace Action and Northshore For Palestine, two groups further supported by Jewish Voice For Peace Boston and several others, delivered statements to Moulton’s staff. They called for Moulton, D-Salem, to use his platform to call for an immediate and permanent cease-fire in Gaza.
The event paralleled similar rallies targeting representatives in Boston, Lowell, Plymouth, and several others.
“Our anger mobilizes, and our grief unites us,” said Tess Hosman, a member of Northshore For Palestine. “This is an ongoing fight for justice to ensure the return of Palestinians to their homeland, and not just to survive, but to thrive and prosper under self-determination.”
Rallies have been a common sight on Front Street during the last six months, with the groups converging on Moulton’s office in February (tinyurl.com/3xw9ew6j), January (tinyurl.com/w6w7a3fm), November (tinyurl.com/3caxm8px), and October in the aftermath of Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack on Israel (tinyurl.com/3zpm9afp), when Israel’s response was still young.
“I’m really frustrated with a lot of politicians right now, especially Seth Moulton,” Hosman said. “We hear you, but you don’t hear us because we’ve been out here. Where is he?”
Moulton has spoken recently on the war between Israel and Hamas. That includes a recent Op-Ed in The Salem News (tinyurl.com/36vf84uc) in which said the pain caused by the conflict “has produced deep disagreements about how Israel and the United States should respond.”
Moulton said disagreements are “natural in the face of complicated, long-standing problems, but there are some fundamental principles that should guide our approach to Israel and Gaza.”
He listed them as recognizing Israel has a right to exist and obligation to defend itself, that both Israelis and Palestinians deserve democratic freedoms and securities, and that none of the developments since last October “can justify the surge in hate we’ve seen,” particularly antisemitism.
But for Hosman, each person killed in Gaza represents “an individual with dreams and aspirations. You can’t claim ignorance or innocence, there’s no such thing as neutrality, and you can’t be impartial to justice. You can’t be indifferent to suffering as it’s happening around us.”
Jewish Voice For Peace member Bob Mason highlighted President Joe Biden’s call for a cease-fire.
“He hasn’t demanded one, but he has called for one,” Mason said. “That’s some progress that reflects the pressure from the Palestinian Solidarity movement, of which Jewish Voice For Peace is only one member.
“We take some heart in that, but our hearts are also broken for all the people who’ve died and been killed, and the destruction in Gaza, and the famine.”
Sunny Robinson, with Mass Peace Action, said “it’s clear that nothing short of stopping U.S. support to Israel will bring Israel to the recognition that they need to negotiate an end for the future.”
“There’s no future for Israel, and there’s no future for Palestine, because the brutality of the conflict will only continue and continue and continue,” Robinson said.
“The whole world knows this. The only people who don’t know this are the U.S. government and Israeli government.”
Protesters return to Moulton's office, echoing call for cease fire | News | salemnews.com
