FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE — April 18, 2018

CONTACT: Naftali Ehrenkranz nye201@nyu.edu, 339-237-2969

IfNotNow Returns to Senator Chuck Schumer’s Office

Young Jews Protest His Continued Silence on Ongoing Violence in Gaza

NEW YORK, NY — Members of IfNotNow, a movement of young Jews opposed to American Jewish support of the Occupation, returned to Senator Chuck Schumer’s office this evening to pressure him to break his three week silence on the Israeli Defense Force’s killing of Palestinian protesters at the Gaza border. Since March 30th, Israeli forces, using live fire, have killed 35 protesters and injured thousands more. The Palestinians participating in the Gaza demonstration, called “The Great March of Return,” have shown no sign or intention of harming Israeli civilians or soldiers.

“We are here outside senator Schumer’s office to demand a condemnation from him regarding Israel’s aggressive violence on the Israeli border in Gaza against Palestinian protesters, the majority of whom were unarmed and peaceful and didn’t pose a physical threat to Israeli soldiers,” said Emily Miller, a member of IfNotNow.

This is not the first time IfNotNow showed up to Schumer’s doors. On April 9th, just nine days earlier, seven members of IfNotNow were arrested for blocking the entrance to Senator Schumer’s office to protest Schumer’s failure to condemn Israeli violence against Palestinian protesters in Gaza.

Tonight, thirty IfNotNow protesters returned to Schumer’s office armed with chalk and a megaphone. Leading the action, Gabriel Reichler spoke about Yasser Murtaja, a 30 year old photographer and journalist who was killed by Israeli soldiers at the Gaza border earlier this month. Demonstrators then lay down on the sidewalk and traced their outlines in chalk until the sidewalk was covered in over 30 chalk silhouettes, each one representing one of the Palestinian protesters killed over the past month. The group then sang and recited Kaddish, a Jewish prayer of mourning, for the deceased.

Joe Ornstein, one of the dozens protesting outside the Senator’s office, said, “As a liberal Democratic Senator and as someone who has championed himself as a champion of the resistance against Donald Trump’s racist, xenophobic agenda, it is very disheartening to us that Chuck Schumer continues to remain silent not only on the recent killings of unarmed Palestinian protesters, but on the larger continued persecution, humiliation, and violence that are regular parts of everyone’s life living under occupation.”

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IfNotNow is a Jewish movement to end our community’s support for the Occupation and gain freedom and dignity for all Israelis and Palestinians. IfNotNow has chapters in cities across the United States. For more information: www.ifnotnowmovement.org