HARRISBURG, Pa. — More than a hundred people from different faiths and backgrounds rallied outside the governor’s mansion on Sunday.
They chanted messages such as “ceasefire now,” in protest of the Israel-Hamas war.
Hadeel Salameh with Harrisburg Palestine Coalition says the rally is meant to amplify efforts by the Palestinian Liberation Movement, part of the Palestine Liberation Organization.
“We are directly responsible to calling for an arms embargo, to calling for Pennsylvania to divest, and we are responsible to make sure our state is not using our taxes to continue to fund this genocide,” Salameh said.
In August, the Associated Press reported more than 40,000 Palestinians killed over the course of the war.
Hundreds of Palestinian flags were planted around the governor’s mansion, each representing five Palestinian children killed during the conflict.
Protestors claim more than 70% of the weapons used on Gaza were funded by the United States.
“Pennsylvania alone on a state level is supplying over $136 million in Pennsylvania tax dollars to this genocide,” Salameh said.
State leaders were also called out for adopting anti-BDS laws, which make it illegal for state contracted groups to boycott, disinvest and sanction Israel.
Brian Keisling, a member of the coalition and someone who practices Judaism, argues these laws are unconstitutional.
“The more I read, the more I studied, the more I learned that this is settler-colonialism, the more I learned that genocide is baked into the Zionist project and that, like all of us, I have a responsibility to what I can to help the people of Palestine,” Keisling said.
Zionism refers to a Jewish nationalist movement to create and support a Jewish national state on historic land located in Palestine.
An official with the Jewish Federation of Greater Harrisburg says the path to peace isn’t as simple as divesting.
“Those are pushing governments to divest is really holding Israel to a different standard and thus they are engaging in what could be construed as antisemitism and that is a concern for us,” said Zachary Benjamin.
He says it’s also important to consider the other lives at stake, like the nearly 100 remaining hostages in Hamas captivity.
“We as a Jewish community believe that any peace has to begin with the return of the hostages to their families and the return of the remains of those that have been murdered,” Benjamin said.