Simultaneously at Capitol Hill, Interfaith Action for Palestine leaders held a public rally with hundreds across faith and religious traditions from across the U.S. to demand the Biden Administration and Congress end U.S. arms for Israel.

Monday, July 29, 2024, National Harbor Maryland, VA – This morning around 11AM, interfaith group of clergy and people of faith launched a human blockade in front of a busload of participants in the Christians United for Israel (CUFI) 2024 summit at National Harbor on their way to Capitol Hill to advocate for more weapons and diplomatic cover for the State of Israel to carry on its brutal assault in Gaza.

The group blocked the road with banners reading “Let Gaza Live,” “Stop Arming Israel,” and “G-d Loves Gaza.” They sang songs including “Palestine Will Be Free” and led prayers in mourning of all the lives lost in Gaza and Israel since October 7, 2023, including the eleven Syrian Druze children killed last Saturday in Majdal Shams in the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights.

While blocking the bus, the group of faith activists appealed to the CUFI participants’ consciences to embrace dignity, freedom, justice, and equality for all. The action took place as part of a broader schedule of workshops, protests, and nonviolent civil disobedience by the Interfaith Action for Palestine, which led multiple demonstrations to expose Christian Zionism’s role in the genocide and pressure national leaders to stop arms to Israel, including: disruptions of CUFI’s summit at National Harbor with banners and a mass interfaith chorus, rallies and public rituals, and kayakers on the water of National Harbor outside the CUFI Summit holding the words “CUFI Kills” and raising the Palestinian fag.

Ella Heron, member of the steering committee with Jewish Voice for Peace Philadelphia, who participated in the human blockade said, “We are singing while blocking the buses as an embodied form of resistance to CUFI’s claim that they have the best interests of Jews and Christians in mind. I wanted to sing with my community of all faiths to make it clear that CUFI is perpetuating a genocide in Gaza, and the only safety is in solidarity with the community.”

Jonathan Brenneman, a Palestinian Christian and national leader with Christians for a Free Palestine, who participated in the human blockade said, “As people of faith, we are sickened that our elected leaders, lobbied by CUFI, are fulfilling the goals of a far-right, Christian nationalist organization — an organization whose chief spokesperson has a long history of making anti-Muslim and antisemitic statements. As compassionate people committed to human rights for all, we know that Palestinians are not children of a lesser G-d.” We refuse to turn a blind eye to our government’s unconditional arming of Israel and to the miseducation CUFI provides to its audience that prevents all people in Palestine/Israel from being able to live in peace, safety, and dignity.”

Rabbi Alissa Wise, lead organizer with Rabbis for Ceasefire, who participated in the human blockade, said, “I am participating in this action today because it is essential to loudly and visibly counter CUFI’s hate. Our message to elected officials is simple: refuse CUFI and align with what a majority of Americans support: a permanent ceasefire, the return of all hostages and political prisoners, the delivery of humanitarian aid to Gaza, and for the US to stop arming Israel.”

Reverend Liz Kearny, from the Presbyterian Church USA said, who participated in the human blockade, said, “I am sick and tired of Christian Zionists co-opting my faith tradition to fuel the genocide of the Palestinian people with my US tax dollars. I follow Jesus, who spent his life and death challenging empire’s ways of domination while building a world of peace where everyone can be safe and whole. I sit locked in this position today alongside these beloveds, blocking a bus of Christian Zionists going to lobby our lawmakers, to say with my body, ‘Let Gaza live, stop arming Israel, end the occupation, free Palestine.’”

Assata Hashi Ninak Aya, from Muslim Alliance for Sexual and Gender Diversity, a speaker at the Capitol Hill rally simultaneous to the human blockade, said, “As a Black and Indigenous Queer Muslim Woman, I stand at the intersections of everything CUFI seeks to destroy. As a mama of a young child, I am here to fight for a world where she can live free from white Christian Nationalism and other children around the world are not suffering from the dangerous effects of this ideology.

Eva Borgwardt, IfNotNow National Spokesperson, who spoke at the rally on Capitol Hill, said, “For decades, CUFI has pressured the United States government to continue funding Israel’s deepening occupation and apartheid at the expense of Palestinians and Israelis. We are mobilizing to disrupt CUFI’s white nationalist agenda and racist, antisemitic message, and to call for the US to stop funding this genocidal assault on Gaza.”

Already tens of thousands of people, the majority of them children, and women, have been killed, and the well-respected journal Lancet last month released a report saying that the true death toll is likely to be more than 186,000 given the number of people buried under the rubble, shortages of food, water, and shelter from the war and the destruction of most of Gaza’s infrastructure by Israel.

Convenors of the Interfaith Action for Palestine are: Christians for a Free Palestine, Muslim Alliance for Gender and Sexual Diversity, Rabbis for Ceasefire, Hindus for Human Rights, Jewish Voice for Peace, Jewish Voice for Peace-DC Metro, Jewish Voice for Peace Rabbinical Council, Mennonite Action, IfNotNow, Occupation Free DC, Fellowship of Reconciliation-USA, and Christians for Ceasefire.

The actions were supported by hundreds of sponsoring organizations from across the U.S. and beyond, with a full list at Interfaithactionforpalestine.com. There were over 500 participants in actions in Washington, D.C in total across the two days of July 28-30.