Activists arrested while protesting John Fetterman’s position on Israel

Around 50 protesters converged on the Custom House in Old City at 9 a.m. Thursday to demand for a ceasefire in Gaza. Around a dozen of them volunteered to enter the building’s lobby, where they marched and chanted against U.S. Senator John Fetterman’s stance on the siege in Gaza.

Eventually the volunteers sat down in front of the doors, blocking the entrance. Police officers gave them five minutes to disperse. When they didn’t, several officers entered the lobby with zip ties and handcuffed the activists. Everyone cooperated except one man who lay down limply, forcing the officers to carry him. They were then all taken into the building.

The civil disobedience was organized by Fridays@Fetterman’s, an organization that has been meeting at Fetterman’s Philadelphia office weekly since December after Fetterman came out strongly in favor of Israel. Last month, Fetterman chastised the Biden administration for abstaining in a U.N. vote which called for a ceasefire, tweeting, “We must stand with Israel and stop pandering to the political fringe or Hamas apologists.”

Fetterman’s position on the Israel-Hamas conflict has frustrated Pennsylvanians like Tina Shelton, a local peace activist.

“Fetterman has been one of the staunchest pro-Israel supporters and we cannot look away,” she told WHYY News. “We must be the witnesses for the lives, the humanitarian aid that is not happening. We must stand, we must be the witnesses that Gaza needs.”

Shelton said constituents like her had to take the protests a step further because Fetterman ignored them. That’s why they planned Thursday’s civil disobedience with an intention to court arrest.

“We have peaceably assembled week after week,” she told WHYY News. “We petitioned our senator in writing. We’ve sought to meet with the senator, but he has refused.”

Fetterman catapulted to star status among progressives in 2022 during his Senate campaign, a testament to his working-class demeanor and association with Bernie Sanders. However, that changed rapidly after the Hamas attack in October and the resulting onslaught by the Israeli Defense Forces in Gaza, which has killed more than 30,000 people.

Shelton, who voted for Fetterman, has been left with a feeling of disappointment.

“A lot of the originators of the Fridays@Fetterman did,” she said. “Now they are left with a sense of shock and surprise that, after they voted for him and supported him in his campaign, that he would take this stance. He says that he is for peace, but he’s not coming through with that in his actions.”

The conflict in Gaza is having repercussions beyond Fetterman and has become a key challenge to Joe Biden’s reelection efforts. Many younger and progressive, as well as Muslim and Arab, voters in Pennsylvania and elsewhere are upset with the Biden administration’s stance on the siege.

In a response emailed to WHYY, Fetterman’s communications director, Carrie Adams, wrote “Protests are representative democracy in action and Senator Fetterman and his team are always ready to hear from Pennsylvanians.”