Jewish Voice for Peace – Rhode Island disrupts Senators Reed and Whitehouse at Democratic Party "Unity Dinner"
"...We have to ask the question – who are these congressional members unifying with? Because it isn’t their constituents,” said protester and disruptor Nika Salazar.
Jewish Voice for Peace – Rhode Island and allies from the Palestine solidarity community in Rhode Island interrupted speeches by Rhode Island Senators Jack Reed and Sheldon Whitehouse at a “Democratic Unity” fundraiser held at the Roger Williams Park Casino on Monday. Federal Representatives Seth Magaziner and Gabe Amo, Providence Mayor Brett Smiley, City Councilors Jo-Ann Ryan, James Taylor, Oscar Vargas, Juan Pichardo, and Pedro Espinal were also in attendance. Outside the Casino, at least 75 demonstrators gathered for a rally entitled “Unite Against Genocide,” outnumbering fundraiser attendees.
The demonstrators called on Senators Reed and Whitehouse to support the Joint Resolutions of Disapproval introduced by Senators Bernie Sanders, Jeff Merkley, and Peter Welch to block arms sales to Israel, a historic vote happening for the first time in United States history in November, and to “end their support of the unfolding genocide in Gaza and Lebanon which has been more than 70% funded by tax-payer money from the United States, according to a report issued by Brown University’s own Watson Institute for International and Public Affairs.”
While demonstrators chanted outside, inside, seven people stepped up to interrupt speeches by Senators Reed and Whitehouse, unfurling banners and being escorted out by members of the Providence Police Department. No arrests were made. At least ten squad cars and nearly a dozen police officers were assigned to the Casino last night, even as people outside the event flocked to the annual Jack-O-Lantern Spectacular elsewhere in the park.
“If our congressional members wanted to demonstrate ‘unity’ with their constituents, they would do so by supporting the Joint Resolutions of Disapproval introduced by Senators Bernie Sanders, Jeff Merkley, and Peter Welch to block weapons sales to Israel,” said Stu Waldman, a retired Ward 2 resident who interrupted Senator Whitehouse. “It is incumbent on our Congressmen to push for an arms embargo on Israel and a permanent ceasefire in Palestine and Lebanon.”
“The Israeli military, with the full backing of the United States, has bombed hospitals and schools, burned Palestinians to death in tents, forced men and boys to walk blindfolded towards pits in death marches,” said Livvie Mann, a retired Ward 2 resident who interrupted Senator Whitehouse. “Currently, the Senate has the opportunity to pass six different Resolutions of Disapproval introduced by Senators Sanders, Merkley, and Welch. This is a historic opportunity for the United States to stand on the side of justice and support an arms embargo of the Israeli government – a government that the International Criminal Court and the International Court of Justice have ruled is plausibly committing genocide.”
“Not only is supporting the JRDs unequivocally morally right, but it is also popular among registered Democrats, and it has been for months,” said Nika Salazar, a Central Falls school teacher and Ward 9 resident who interrupted Senator Whitehouse’s speech. “And so we have to ask the question – who are these congressional members unifying with? Because it isn’t their constituents.”
“Over the past year, it has been abundantly clear that Americans, and especially Democratic voters and the people of Rhode Island, want to see the United States take action to stop the ongoing and escalating genocide in Gaza,” said Johanna Ray Vollhardt, professor of social psychology and Ward 2 resident. “For example, a CBS News Poll conducted in June 2024 shows that 61% of all Americans (and 77% of Democrats) supported an arms embargo to Israel.”
“With the Israeli government and military’s escalations in the past weeks - the bombings in Beirut, the complete siege of Jabalia and North Gaza, increases in government-sanctioned settler violence in the West Bank – we need our congressional members, especially our Senators, to take action,” said Jackie Goldman, a harm reduction worker and Ward 5 resident, was one of the organizers who led chants at the outside rally.
Here’s my video of the highlights:
JVP-Rhode Island is the local affiliate of Jewish Voice for Peace, the world’s largest progressive Jewish anti-Zionist organization. JVP is organizing a grassroots, multiracial, cross-class, intergenerational movement in the United States. Jews into solidarity with the Palestinian freedom struggle, guided by a vision of justice, equality, and dignity for all people.
ow, as I see it they may be well meaning, but disarming Israel won't bring peace, it will just invite more attacks from the death-to-Israel forces led by Iran and their jihadi allies which are not disarming. They have made no secret their vision for Palestine is an Islamic state with virtually no Jews (as is already true in the Arab world and the parts of Palestine under Arab control) and few rights for secular people, women, gays. Most Americans wont go along with that agenda.
We should all want to stop the war, the first step is to pressure both sides to accept the UN framework for a 6 week ceasefire, return of hostages and Palestinian prisoners, much more aid to Gaza. But for permanently peace, the only way is to try for reconciliation, a mutual understanding of each other's narratives, a rejection of the maximalist goals both sides have, and compromise, compromise by all. There is no other way.
And by the way, disrupting Democratic events only plays into Trump's hands, I don't see how that does the cause any good. But maybe Republicans are bankrolling this group as they are Jill Stein's Green Party campaign