Iowa Peace Activists Protest Genocide in Gaza and Netanyahu's Speech before Congress

by Michael Gillespie

7.28.2024; reprinted with permission

About 50 Iowa peace and social justice activists gathered in front of the Federal Building in Des Moines at 3 in the afternoon on Wednesday, July 24, in protest of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's presentation in Washington, DC, before many members of the U.S. Congress earlier in the day.

"We're here because the war criminal Netanyahu is speaking before the U.S. Congress today.  That's an outrage," said Kathleen McQuillen of Catholic Peace Ministry (CPM), one of the event sponsors.  "That they would give him that honor when he's facing very serious war criminal charges, when his government is facing genocide charges, it's an outrage.  My question is, 'So, he's speaking for those committing genocide.  Who is speaking for the children?'  They didn't have anybody there to speak for the Palestinian children who have been killed, adults, or anyone else.  No one is speaking there for those who are hungry and starving because Israelis won't let the food in.  The United States is so complicit because they're funding it, so we're here to say stop the funding, arrest the war criminals, and then we look at who else needs to be arrested."

McQuillen said opposition to apartheid Israel's long occupation is growing because the genocide in Gaza has focused the world's attention on Israel's crimes as never before.

 

Kathleen McQuillen , Director, Catholic Peace Ministry (photo credit: Gillespie)

 

"We are so clearly growing.  The students have spoken out.  The faith community is increasingly speaking out.  International courts are speaking out, and now, as of Tuesday, seven or eight unions, major unions, have sent a letter to Biden telling him to stop funding Israel's genocide.  We are growing.  We are making a difference, and we have to keep at it.  We've talked to our representatives,  I don't know what it's going to take to move them, but we are going to keep doing it until they get moved because the opposition to the genocide is growing.  One of the media persons pointed out, 'Gee, everybody that's going by and honking is for you.'  I said, 'That's what's happening with this war.  It's so visible.'  We've been out here at other times and that didn't happen, but this is so visible."   

 Several of the activists focused on the children of Gaza, defenseless children, the most vulnerable members of a captive population living under siege for decades, subjected to a devastating ground and air assault by Israeli forces for 10 months,  A study published on July 5 by The Lancet, the widely respected British medical journal, estimated that more than 186,000 deaths could be attributed to the current Israeli assault on Gaza.  The most recent figures released by Palestinian health officials on July 25 officially confirmed 39,175 dead, a number that does not take into account an estimated 10,000 buried under the rubble of buildings destroyed by Israeli bombs, missiles, rockets, drones, artillery fire, tank fire, and demolition charges.  Nor does in include those whose bodies have been turned into a pink mist by explosive ordnance, and it may or may not include those who have died due to ancillary causes related to the Israeli assault on Gaza including starvation and illness, growing concerns at Israel's genocide and U.S. support for it continues unabated. 

 Unsurprisingly, the number of Palestinian children actually killed by Israel since October 7 is unknown, but the official figures reported well over three months ago on April 4 by Save the Children International were 13,800 children dead in Gaza and 115 children dead in the illegally-occupied West Bank where Palestinians are under attack by Israeli settlers and Israeli police and military forces.     

 "Netanyahu is speaking before Congress right now, and it's an affront to justice.  He's in good company with lots of other criminals there, especially in light of the International Criminal Court indictments.  He should have stayed home," said Brian Terrell, a Catholic Worker and a veteran peace activist.  Jailed in Israel in 1992 for participating in a peace walk, Terrell noted that all of the Palestinian prisoners in the jail where he was held were children held without charge.  "I think about those kids often.  Holding hostages is never justified, especially when they are children," said Terrell.

 Israel has long systematically detained and held Palestinian children as hostages in the Israeli military detention system where many have been abused and tortured according to the No Way to Treat a Child campaign organized by Defense of Children International-Palestine, American Friends Service Committee, and their partners.

 "We're Americans, we're not Palestinians, most of us, or Israelis.  It's not up to us to decide what they should do, but it is up to us to hold our government accountable for providing the weapons, the money, and the diplomatic cover for crimes," said Terrell.

 Israel's genocidal assault on the captive Palestinian civilian population of Gaza, and the United States government's role in it, has inspired anger and rage around the globe, emotions that were evident at the peaceful nonviolent protest in Des Moines.

  "Well, it's unbelievable!  They've rolled out the red carpet for Netanyahu, and I say it's a blood-stained red carpet.  He's slaughtered almost 40,000 people, 16,000 of them children," said Jan Corderman of the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom.  "I heard him in Congress today complaining about not getting enough of our money.  You know, the numbers are so scary: $26 billion more in aid on top of the $3.8 billion we've been giving every year.  It's time to stop.  Stop the genocide.  Stop bringing a war criminal to our Congress."

 About Netanyahu's support within the Christian far- and extreme-Right in America, Corderman said, "It's very sad when they talk about Jesus and the Second Coming, you know, if they can wipe out all the Palestinians he will come back.  They have no idea what Jesus would do if he came back here and they were slaughtering people.  Jesus would not tolerate that.  Jesus would be saying, 'no, no, no, no.'  He would be handing out the fish and handing out the bread." 

 "All this talk about the hostages, and you know Netanyahu couldn't care less about anybody but himself.  He's trying to stay out of the courts, stay out of prison," said Corderman.

 "I'm out here because I can't believe it's day 292 of genocide funded by the United States of America," said Maria Reveiz of Des Moines.  It's mind-boggling, it's disgusting.  Zionism is on its way out.  Zionism does not have a future in this world.  It's a tragedy that the people of Palestine are paying the biggest price."

 

                                                                Maria Reveiz (Photo credit: Gillespie)

 

"I just returned from Egypt after spending time with refugees from Gaza there including my family.  You know, the thing about the Palestinian refugees in Egypt should be talked about more because Palestinians are the only refugees in Egypt who are not allowed visas.  If you are from any other country in the world and you're a refugee and you go to Egypt, you can get a visa.  If you can't have a visa, you can't get an apartment, you can't work, you can't go to school, it's hard to get healthcare.  In every way, everything is way more difficult in this world for Palestinians.  That's why we say, existence is resistance," said Reveiz.

 "I'm furious," said Mary Caponi, a long time Des Moines peace and social justice activist.  "Our government, and really it's both parties, are supportive of genocide.  We're sending bombs and money and providing diplomatic support. when the whole world recognizes this for what it is.  And here we are, allowing Netanyahu to speak in our Congress?...”

 

                                                                     Mary Caponi (Photo credit: Gillespie)

 

"If you take a step back from mainstream media and just be a human for just a moment, I think that you'll see that it is a horror.  We should take no part in this genocide.  We should be interrupting it in every way we can.  I'm just disgusted with the administration, with the major party candidates.  There are three candidates that are totally opposed to genocide and I would support any one of them.  There's Jill Stein, Cornel West, and Claudia De la Cruz and Karina.  There are others, but we don't hear about them.  Because of mainstream media, they don't get any attention."

 Caponi said she sees many reasons for hope.  "Gaza has brought it to a boiling point.  The ICJ just came out with their ruling on Israeli apartheid, something that was in the pipe long before October 7.  All the Jewish Americans in the street, that is very encouraging.  That flies in the face of the false equivalence of anti-Zionism and anti-Semitism.  It's helpful and hopeful that Jewish Americans are speaking out.  Christians and Muslims and Jews together, seders in the street and keffiyehs, Jewish Voice for Peace at the Statue of Liberty, I love that!  That is beautiful!  That is what America should be," said Caponi with evident emotion.

 Fr. David Polich, a retired Roman Catholic Priest of the Des Moines diocese, is a member of the CPM steering committee.  "I firmly believe that our government is part of the genocide, paying for it, and I remember a lot of other times when our country helped kill a lot of people.  It's just a horrid, horrid thing in Palestine that needs to stop.  That Netanyahu is here speaking to the Congress and that other people like the president have been right behind him in all that is quite sad, quite sad."

"The support for Israel, historically, you can understand that, but the blindness now, that's unconscionable."

Mentioning the proxy war in Ukraine and other conflicts, Polich decried the violence, pain, and suffering.  "We need to say something.  We need to do something.  We need a better way, don't we?"

"It's good to see some young people out here," said Polich.

 

                                                Caleb Stewart, Catholic Peace Ministry intern (Photo credit: Gillespie)

 

"I'm a strong supporter of the International Criminal Court," said Caleb Stewart, a CPM intern.  I believe what the Times of Israel has reported, that in the next few weeks an arrest warrant is going to be brought against Netanyahu.  I think it's really important that we listen to these international institutions, the experts in their fields when it comes to human rights abuses and these mass casualties that we've seen in Gaza and Palestine.  Those are extremely important aspects of international law and I believe in upholding international law," said Stewart. 

 McQuillen said that while the growth of opposition to the wars is very encouraging, "We are mindful that every day, every day, more people are dying.  Until it's over, there is no celebration."

Michael Gillespie resides in central Iowa and has work which has appeared in Washington Report on Middle East Affairs, CounterPunch, Dissident Voice, Pray Without Ceasing, Iowa Peace Network's Dovetail, and various other on-line and print publications.