Friday, November 15, 2024
Contact: Tom Joyce,
…………..Ellen Grady,
On Friday afternoon, members of the Downtown Berrigan Collective, based in Ithaca, NY, and other upstate peace activists went to the Syracuse Federal Building to demand access to the offices of New York’s US Senators Schumer and Gillibrand to “exercise our right to petition the government for a redress of grievances“. They wished to “impress upon the Senators the urgency of cutting off offensive weapons for Israel’s genocide and ethnic cleansing of the Palestinian and Lebanese peoples.” They specifically were asking the Senators to support the 6 Senate Joint Resolutions of Disapproval that would block the sale of U.S. weaponry to Israel.
Earlier this fall Senators Bernie Sanders (VT), Peter Welch (VT), Jeff Merkley (OR), and Brian Schatz (HI) introduced 6 Senate Joint Resolutions of Disapproval to stop a $20 billion weapons shipment approved by the Biden administration. “There is a mountain of documentary evidence” that Israel uses US weapons to violate the law, Sanders said.
When the nine activists were denied access they staged a sit-in in the security checkpoint area of the lobby of the building. Part of the activist’s statement read “It is against US law to send a single weapon to any country grossly violating human rights. 61% of Americans say they want to cut off weapons to Israel. Our tax dollars must not be used for another illegal, immoral weapon giveaway to Israel!” The nine said they were there to implore the Senators to uphold the law.
After about an hour the Department of Homeland Security police removed the nine from the lobby, carrying them out of the building and depositing them on the sidewalk. Some of the nine decided to block the doorway of the building. Eventually, the DHS police arrested one of the group, Ellen Grady from Ithaca, and charged her with not following the order of the DHS and blocking a doorway. Grady was ticketed and released.
The group’s action is part of a nationwide effort to urge Senators from across the nation to support these historic 6 Senate Joint Resolutions of Disapproval which will very likely be voted on this coming week. Please call your Senators, 202-224-3121.
The nine activists are;
- Bill Carini – Newfield, NY
- Ed Kinane – Syracuse, NY
- Mark Scibilia-Carver-Trumansburg, NY
- Tom Joyce – Enfield, NY
- Mac – Syracuse, NY
- Selima Gurney – Ithaca, NY
- Ellen Grady – Ithaca, NY
- Dan Burgevin – Trumansburg, NY
- John Amidon – Albany, NY
