Hundreds march through the rain in Center City to keep pressure on ending the war in Gaza

Hundreds of pro-Palestinian demonstrators marched through sheets of rain in Center City on Saturday to repeat calls for a permanent cease-fire in the Israel-Hamas war and demand intervention from U.S. leaders.

The Philly Palestine Coalition, an activist network that has promoted more than 100 demonstrations in the Philadelphia region, billed Saturday’s event as its largest to date. While the weather no doubt dampened the turnout, protesters nonetheless snaked through the streets of Center City, banged drums, chanted at local businesses, and temporarily shut down traffic in the name of keeping attention on the humanitarian crisis in Gaza.

In light of International Women’s Day on Friday, some drew attention to the war’s toll on Palestinian mothers. The United Nations estimated that 50,000 women in Gaza were pregnant when the war broke out, and about 180 give birth each day in a health-care system that has been decimated by bombing. The global organization further estimated in January that Israel’s retaliatory campaign in Gaza for Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack on Israel had killed an average of two mothers an hour since the war broke out.

Nayla Labban, an obstetrician and gynecologist who belongs to a pro-Palestinian health-care group, blared such statistics into a megaphone outside Rittenhouse Square, as onlookers watched from the windows of upscale restaurants around the park.

“There are no words to describe the level of dehumanization, humiliation, and injustice,” Labban said.

President Joe Biden’s administration is attempting to negotiate a six-week cease-fire in exchange for the return of Israeli hostages kidnapped by Hamas on the day of the attack in October. American diplomats hoped to reach a deal before the Islamic holy month of Ramadan begins early next week, but the temporary truce remains beyond reach — as the president’s frustration visibly mounts against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

But it was frustration with Biden — as well as his Philadelphia Democratic allies — that rang through the streets of Philadelphia on Saturday.

A Jordanian immigrant, Zoheir, who declined to give a last name, said his mother was forced to flee Nablus during the 1948 Arab-Israeli war. Since immigrating to the U.S. in the early 1980s, he has grown increasingly dismayed with Washington for its failure to help negotiate a lasting peace deal.

“For 75 years, every president, they say the same thing and they keep doing nothing,” Zoheir said, waving a Palestinian flag. “So we will keep fighting — forever if we have to.”

Miriam Oppenheimer, 56, and her daughter Jai Abbott, 19, have been coming to protests together — both to keep the energy on local advocacy and to bond as mother and daughter. “It’s this and Jeopardy,” Oppenheimer said of the family activities.

The mother also attends the weekly “Fridays with Fetterman” demonstrations outside U.S. Sen. John Fetterman’s office in Old City. Oppenheimer said she feared the senator’s staunch backing of Israel throughout the war would cost Democrats in a presidential election year.

“He’s really coming up on the wrong side here, and he’s losing votes,” she said, pointing to Biden’s eroding support among some younger voters such as her daughter.

Meanwhile, Philadelphia’s pro-Israel community has ramped up its own advocacy in the streets this year.

Demonstrators rallied in Lower Merion Township last month to draw attention to the roughly 130 hostages still missing and air their ongoing grief over the 1,200 people killed in southern Israel on Oct. 7. Local organizers staged another demonstration last weekend in Rittenhouse Square to mark 150 days since the attack, and call for the hostages’ safe return.

Dialogue between the two factions remains fraught — even in the local stage. Some pro-Palestinian demonstrations have drawn harsh rebuke for their use of certain chants and, in one case, for targeting a small, local Israeli-owned businesses. During Saturday’s rally, the crowd stuck to prodding larger institutions.

After routing through the shop-lined streets of Center City, protesters headed north on Broad Street and briefly chanted outside the School District of Philadelphia headquarters, criticizing district leaders over what is being called censorship of a student project about Palestinian resistance in art. The crowd then shut down traffic around 15th and Spring Garden Streets, outside the corporate headquarters of Day & Zimmermann, a weapons manufacturer that contracts with the U.S. military. Protesters held up cardboard cutouts shaped like missiles, with messages alleging the multi-billion-dollar company “profits off genocide.”

Maya Shankar, 24, a law student who lives in North Philadelphia, said she attends the pro-Palestinian demonstrations regularly. While some of her peers have grow fatigued at the war drags on, she said Palestinians have asked the world not turn its back on the conflict.

“They ask us to come forward and shine light on this through protests — It’s the only way to make a difference at this point, besides sending physical aid,” Shankar said. “Don’t lose hope because of your own feelings.”