Des Moines protest calls for ceasefire, end to U.S. support for Israeli military

More than 100 people gathered Thursday at Des Moines’ Neal Smith Federal Building to protest Israel’s actions in Gaza.

The Catholic Peace Ministry and local chapter of the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom organized the event, calling for a ceasefire in the Israel-Hamas conflict and for Iowa’s congressional delegation to no longer support the funding of military support for Israel. Organizers chanted, “If we don’t get no justice, we don’t get no peace,” and sang protest songs with lyrics calling for an end to the conflict.

The organizers urged attendees to contact Sens. Joni Ernst and Chuck Grassley, as well as Rep. Zach Nunn and call for action on the conflict that began in October 2023, when Hamas attacked Israel. In the months since the conflict began, more than 34,900 people in Gaza — including more than 14,500 children — and 1,139 people in Israel have been killed, according to reporting by Al Jazeera.

Protests calling for President Joe Biden and Congress to take action on negotiating a ceasefire, in addition to ending military support for Israel and providing humanitarian aid to the Palestinians, have increased in recent weeks, most notably with a protest encampment at Columbia University in New York City.

Some student activists at other universities have followed suit. In Iowa City, the University of Iowa Action for Palestine set up an encampment on campus Monday that was dismantled by police.

Aya Salem, an activist from Des Moines, said that while Iowa has not seen the surge of pro-Palestine action that other states have, the recent protests show solidarity with the other protests taken across the country — as well as showing the need for Iowa’s federal legislators to take note.

“We stand with them,” Salem said of other protests. “And hopefully we can build a larger support system for all people who support justice and liberation and build together a larger movement. I think we are doing that here.”

Many elected Iowa officials — including the state’s U.S. senators and representatives, have spoken strongly in support of Israel, and criticized pro-Palestine activists. Nunn, the Republican representing Iowa’s 3rd congressional district, criticized Biden on Thursday for saying he will deny offensive weapons to Israel if the country moves forward with an attack in Rafah.

Nunn said on social media that the U.S. “cannot abandon our strongest ally in the Middle East.”

“This isn’t a partisan issue,” Nunn wrote. “Just last month, Congress passed bipartisan support for Israel. The President must stop caving to extremists and focus on maintaining national security.”