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Jewish Voice for Peace

No Ordinary Solidarity: Inside Chicago’s Hunger Strike For Gaza


Ash Bohrer sat in a wheelchair outside of the Chicago Federal Plaza, where they had been arrested for refusing to leave Sen. Tammy Duckworth’s office hours earlier — and where six Jewish Voice for Peace-Chicago organizers had launched a hunger strike for Gaza 18 days prior. Reflecting on the highlights to that point, Bohrer, a JVP-Chicago organizer and Notre Dame peace studies professor, said it wasn’t the teach-ins, solidarity demonstrations or political wins that came to mind first, but a message they received from a mother in Gaza named Alaa.  “When someone in Chicago chooses to face hunger willingly that is not ordinary solidarity,” she wrote. “It is a profound act of pure humanity.”

Faith Leaders Are Standing Up To The Largest Pro-Israel Christian Lobby

At lunchtime on July 1, as the Senate prepared to vote on Trump’s deeply unpopular “Big Beautiful Bill,” the cafeteria line at the Rayburn House Office Building ground to a halt. Where lobbyists and staffers usually rushed through the midday crush, over 100 clergy and faith leaders had gathered in solemn resistance. They linked arms and broke into song with the message: “Congress doesn’t eat ‘til Gaza eats.” At the other end of Capitol Hill, the Dirksen Senate Office Building cafeteria filled with chants and prayerful silence. Within minutes, Capitol Police arrested over 65 people.

Chicago Jewish Activists Embark On Indefinite Hunger Strike Over Gaza

The risk of famine increases in Gaza as the Israeli government’s blockade of nearly all aid to Gaza approaches its third month. “I felt this almost sense of panic as every day went by without food let in,” Ash Bohrer, a Chicago-based Jewish activist in the Palestinian solidarity movement, told me as she outlined how high the stakes are as the genocide continues in Gaza. “When I first heard it, my initial thought was … if there is some way I can use my body,” Bohrer said, ​“I am ready and willing to do it, and I think about it as a personal, moral and religious obligation to do so.”

200+ Jewish-Led Protesters Arrested At New York Stock Exchange

As the Israeli assault of the Gaza Strip and Lebanon continued on Monday, over 200 Jewish-led protesters, including descendants of Holocaust survivors, were arrested at the New York Stock Exchange while demanding that the United States “stop arming Israel and profiting from genocide.” Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP)—which has led several anti-genocide protests across the country over the past year of war—said that hundreds of people joined the action in New York City. The advocacy group shared photos and videos on social media of participants in red T-shirts with messages including “Not in Our Name” and “Stop Arming Israel.”

We’ve Organized For Palestinian Liberation For Years

Left movements are engaged in some of the hardest work there is — politically, emotionally and spiritually — because it involves changing peoples’ perceptions of the world, fighting against a status quo that is accepted as a given. That is true for abolitionists, for queer and trans people fighting for their rights, for the Land Back movement, and for all those fighting against capitalism. It is also true of anti-Zionist Jews organizing for Palestinian freedom, as we have for over two decades. This work often requires challenging your own communities, engaging with and moving through painful feelings, and building a vision of a new world — tasks that can be very lonely for a long time.

During Hanukkah, Jewish-Led Protests Demand Gaza Cease-Fire

On the eighth night of Hanukkah, Jewish activists and allies took to the streets of eight U.S. cities on Thursday to demand an end to the bloodshed in Gaza, blocking traffic on bridges and highways in a show of opposition to the Biden administration's continued support for the Israeli military's atrocities.

Jewish Voice For Peace Shuts Down The Manhattan Bridge

Israel’s offensive on Gaza is on hold, but displays of solidarity with the Palestinian people continue. If this was not clear from the recent protests at the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade, it should be following the latest display of civil disobedience organized by Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP). On Sunday afternoon, November 26, more than 1,000 Jews and allies blocked the Manhattan Bridge from the Manhattan side, with many prepared to be arrested. The demonstration shut down traffic for more than three hours on one of the busiest travel days of the year. NYPD was seen recording the images of protesters, but did not have enough forces available to make arrests.
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