Massive rally for Israel brings message of solidarity to Washington
The crowd at the March For Israel on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., on Nov. 14. Photo by Matthew Litman for the Forward
By Arno Rosenfeld November 14, 2023
Jews from across the country packed the National Mall Tuesday — as many as 200,000 people in all, according to organizers — in a celebratory show of support for Israel. Large groups of children from Orthodox day schools wandered around in matching shirts, college students from across the country visited with friends, and families representing multiple generations waved homemade signs.
Maya Almog, 17, was selling “I Stand With Israel” wristbands for $5 to raise money to buy supplies for Israeli soldiers. She took the day off from her Florida school to make it to the event, and said the crowd had been very generous.
“A lot of people are giving more than $5 and not accepting the extra bracelets,” Almog said.
While rallygoers gave different reasons for joining the event, including raising awareness of Israel’s cause, organizers said its three goals were to support Israel, free the hostages taken by Hamas on Oct. 7, and fight antisemitism. Many who made the trip said they wanted to help represent the strength of the Jewish community.
“It’s just important to show up for our community, to show that we’re not afraid,” said Kim Lipetz, a homemaker from Philadelphia who came with her husband and two sons. She was carrying a sign reading: “Yous will not replace us,” a Philly inversion of the white supremacist slogan.
It was a remarkable show of force by American Jews. Organizers raised their initial estimate of 200,000 to nearly 300,000 following the rally based on a count from metal detectors at the entrances. Either number would make it the largest Jewish protest since those for Soviet Jewry in the 1980s. They had originally planned for a crowd of 60,000 and it is unclear whether the actual size was closer to that number or the organizers’ revised estimate. The crowd, which stretched for many blocks, represented the largest display of support for Israel in the U.S. since the Hamas attack, which killed an estimated 1,200 people, and included remarks from the top Democrats and Republicans in Congress.
“We stand with Israel!” Sen. Chuck Schumer, the Senate majority leader, said from the stage while holding raised hands with House Speaker Mike Johnson, the Louisiana Republican, and Rep. Hakeem Jeffries, the Democratic minority leader.
Israel’s response, including an air campaign and ground invasion of Gaza, has provoked pro-Palestinian demonstrations that have drawn hundreds of thousands of people in cities across the Arab world and beyond it, including New York, Washington and London.
While the crowd cheered on strong statements of support for Israel, the attitude at times turned somber, especially when family members of the hostages spoke. The program was interjected with musical performances, including a surprise appearance by Matisyahu, who performed “One Day,” his hit song appealing for peace.
“The world has no idea how the Jews come together,” Matisyahu, whose real name is Matthew Miller, told the crowd. “Let’s go!”
A clear pro-Israel stance
Though the two major Jewish umbrella groups organizing the rally — The Jewish Federations of North America and the Conference of Presidents of Major Jewish Organizations — had billed it as a big tent event that would welcome a wide spectrum of views — much of the four-hour event evoked strong support for Israel as it seeks to demolish Hamas in Gaza.
When Van Jones, a longtime Democratic operative and liberal cable news pundit, opened the rally with a call to end Hamas rocket fire and the Israeli bombardment of Gaza, he was met with silence.
Shortly after, the crowd broke out in a robust chant: “No cease-fire! No cease-fire!”
Some signs in the crowd reflected a harsh view of Palestinians, more than 10,000 of whom have been killed in Israel’s response to the Oct. 7 terrorist attack, according to Gaza officials: “Many Gaza ‘civilians’ are Hamas in training,” one sign stated.
While warming up the crowd, one speaker offered a proud vision of Jewish separatism in the face of rising hostility to Israel. “We don’t need anyone else,” he said. “We are the Jewish people.”
‘Everyone’s life is valuable’
That sentiment didn’t resonate with some members of the “peace bloc,” organized by a coalition of progressive Jewish organizations attending the rally.
Jim Schmitz, a retired labor organizer, came with his Washington, D.C., congregation to show his opposition to the Hamas attack, which he called a “modern pogrom.” But he also supported a two-state solution and worried about the idea that Jews should go it alone.
“I do disagree with some of the speeches,” he said. “It’s important for the American Jewish community to reach out and find common ground.”
Others said they didn’t know what to make of the ongoing conflict in Israel. Sabrina Rubenstein, a recent Tulane University graduate from Chevy Chase, Maryland, came to the rally with an Israeli friend.
“I definitely want to destroy Hamas, but if so many people are going to get hurt because of that we need to reconsider our approach,” she said. “Everyone’s life is valuable.”
The Christian contingent
Christian Zionists made a strong showing at the rally, including several dozen who traveled from Quentin Road Baptist Church in Chicago. Mark Julien, a staff pastor at the church, said he came because “my Christian faith tells me to bless Jerusalem and pray for the peace of Jerusalem.”
Julien said he didn’t know enough about Pastor John Hagee, the evangelical leader whose speaking slot drew the ire of some liberal Jewish leaders, to weigh in on the controversy, but that he believed Christians should support Israel in their war with Hamas.
“Everyone talks about innocent civilians dying,” he said. “No one said the U.S. killed civilians when it bombed Hiroshima, because we were defending freedom.”
When Hagee eventually spoke toward the end of the program, he emphasized a message that Israel was “not alone.”
“You, the leaders of Israel, and you alone, should determine how this war is going to be conducted and concluded,” he said to cheers from the crowd. “You decide. No one else.”
The counterprotesters
A heavy police presence kept any counterprotesters at bay, although a small group of Neutria Karta, the anti-Zionist Orthodox sect, argued with rally attendees from just outside the gates. One man wearing a bejeweled sweatshirt reading “Am Yisrael Chai” gave the middle finger to one of the counterprotesters and exchanged jeers.
Police eventually had to stand between the two groups.
There were other signs of dissent. The Detroit Jewish federation’s delegation reported that the drivers who were supposed to take 900 people from the airport to the National Mall “walked off” in protest. And the walls of the first-aid tent were reportedly sprayed with messages including “Free Gaza” and “Gaza will win.”
Outside the rally gates, one man displayed a sign with a large drawing of an Israeli flag. “From the river to the sea, that’s the flag you’re going to see,” it read. Albert A., who came to the rally from New Jersey and said his lawyer had told him not to provide his last name to press, said it was a response to the Palestinian rallying cry “from the river to the sea,” which some see as a call for Israel’s elimination.
“No Jew is going to leave that land,” he said. Asked whether there was a role for Palestinians in Israel, the West Bank or Gaza, he replied: “There are parts of the West Bank that it’s OK to fly a Palestinian flag — and by the way, it’s called Judea and Samaria.”
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