Thousands rally for Israel, denounce Hamas attacks in march through Center City

Erica Taxin did not approve of Israel’s decision to cut off water, electricity, and internet service to Gaza, and she has had issues with some of the Israeli government’s policies toward Palestinians.

However, 10 days after the Hamas attacks on Israel, Taxin, 56, was in Center City to join a pro-Israel demonstration because, in her words, she could not “support terrorists.”

Taxin was among a crowd that police estimated at 1,000, but organizers said was larger. They gathered at Independence Mall after marching from City Hall along Market Street in a decidedly October late-afternoon chill. The rally participants also included a group of students who had just returned from a class trip they will never forget, and a 96-year-old concerned about the fate of civilians in a war that already has claimed at least 4,000 lives.

Monday’s march and rally was the second in the last eight days organized by the Jewish Federation of Greater Philadelphia. It was another in a sequence of pro-Israeli and pro-Palestinian protests in the last 10 days ignited by the violence that began Oct. 7 with the Hamas attacks.

The Jewish Federation’s rally came amid a week and a half of protests, big and small, from all sides, including a pro-Palestinian demonstration that shut down Market Street last week and a student and faculty walkout at the University of Pennsylvania on Monday.

Monday’s Center City rally and march proceeded without incident or counterdemonstrations. A man by the bus terminal near 10th Street carried a sign that read “Free Palestine.” The demonstrators didn’t appear to notice.

At the mall, they sang Israel’s national anthem, “Hatikvah,” chanted “Bring them home,” and listened to speeches, the first by City Councilmember Kenyatta Johnson, who said that Jewish people and Black people have something in common in that they have confronted hatred. He drew cheers when he declared: “I do stand with Israel.”

» READ MORE: Philadelphia City Council is set to condemn the Hamas attack

In a note read by federation board chair Michael Markman, Sen. John Fetterman (D., Pa.), who apologized for being unable to attend, said: “I unequivocally stand with Israel right now.”

Mayor Jim Kenney planned to speak at the Monday rally, according to his public schedule shared Sunday, but by Monday afternoon, the event had been removed. A spokesperson said the mayor’s schedule “was disrupted” and provided no further details. Two years ago, Kenney had appeared at an International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People event in which he lauded Palestinian residents’ contributions to the city.

The war spawned by the surprise attacks has become the deadliest of five Gaza wars for both sides. The Gaza Health Ministry said more than 2,800 Palestinians have died and 9,700 have been wounded. More than 1,400 Israelis have been killed, and at least 199 others, including children, have been captured by Hamas and taken into Gaza, according to Israel.

Israel’s leadership has vowed to eliminate Hamas, launching a full-scale bombardment of the Gaza Strip, an area about the size of Philadelphia and home to over 2 million Palestinians. More than a million people have fled their homes in the Gaza Strip ahead of an expected Israeli invasion.

The fate of Palestinians elicited sympathy from some attendees.

“I’m sick for the people from Palestine,” said Taxin, who lives in Wayne.

Gerry Schneeberg, 96, said she was “concerned about all of these people in Gaza. … Civilians. … They haven’t been able to leave, some have tried. A lot of them are going to end up getting killed.” She said people close to her have not heard from loved ones: A friend in Jerusalem: silence. A sister in Tel Aviv: not a word.

Several students from the Jack M. Barrack Hebrew Academy in Bryn Mawr who attended the rally said they had been on a class trip in Israel when the violence broke out. They recalled being “shaken.” The students, who returned to Philadelphia last week, recalled their response while they waited in a bomb shelter: They danced and sang.

Janie Klein, 27, of Philadelphia, said she came to the rally to show solidarity with Israel. She concurred with Taxin in that ”the issue, it’s not like a pro-Palestinian, pro-Israeli situation. It’s about getting rid of the terrorist organization.”

Staff writer Anna Orso contributed to this article.