For about three hours, dozens of people filled the lobby of Kelly’s office on East Camelback Road, confronting Luis Heredia, Kelly's state director, about the humanitarian crisis in Gaza and demanding that Kelly call for a ceasefire. The protesters sang songs and chanted rhymes, including “not another nickel, not another dime, no more money for Israel's crimes.”
“We’re called by conscience that we cannot leave on our own will, unless (Kelly's) going to make that demand today,” Kai Newkirk, a Valley organizer and activist, said at the protest. “We feel that the lives that will be lost today have to be saved.”
Minutes later, Newkirk and nine others were arrested when they refused to leave the office.
Newkirk said he and the other protesters were charged with third-degree trespassing and released within two hours. He said his court date is set for Nov. 27 at Phoenix Municipal Court.
Luis Heredia (left), a staffer for Sen. Mark Kelly, told Kai Newkirk (center) and other protesters that police would soon arrive and arrest them during an event on Tuesday.
TJ L'Heureux
‘I have followed the crisis closely’
The protests came on the same day that more than 500 U.S. government officials signed a letter protesting President Joe Biden’s support for Israel’s bombing campaign of Gaza, which has killed more than 10,000 civilians in Gaza. About 4,000 of the dead are children. Amnesty International reported weeks ago that 47 entire families had been wiped out.Israel’s bombing of Gaza has been a response to the Oct. 7 terrorist attack by Hamas, which operates in Gaza, that killed about 1,400 people.
The U.S. has had a military and strategic alliance with Israel for decades, providing weapons and money. In turn, Israel has been a key strategic partner for U.S. interests in the Middle East, especially as it launched expensive, decades-long wars that left Afghanistan and Iraq destroyed and devastated.
On Oct. 12, Kelly promised continued support of Israel.
"I have followed the crisis closely, been briefed by defense officials and spoken to many leaders in Arizona’s Jewish community who, like all of us, are horrified by the violence and brutality against innocent civilians," Kelly said in a prepared statement.
State Rep. Athena Salman was among Democratic lawmakers calling for a ceasefire in the Israel-Hamas war during an event at the Arizona state Capitol on Nov. 8.
TJ L'Heureux
Kelly not among senators questioning civilian deaths in Gaza
On Tuesday, state Rep. Athena Salman, a Tempe Democrat, spoke at the start of the protest. She has led a group of at least 18 Arizona lawmakers calling for a ceasefire, which they said would save both Israeli and Palestinian lives.“We had to throw hundreds of thousands of Arizonans off their health care, off Medicaid, because our Congress refused to continue the expansion,” said Salman, one of six Palestinian-American state legislators in the country. “Yet our Congress can say, our president can say, that we have money to fund a war to bomb people who look like me?”
Kelly’s latest press release on the Israel-Hamas war came on Oct. 27, when he called for fuel deliveries to hospitals and water treatment centers in Gaza, which are struggling to stay operational.
“Sen. Kelly has a history of being more responsive and listening to the communities that helped to elect him,” Newkirk told Phoenix New Times of the decision to protest at his office. Newkirk added that he and other protesters were disappointed that Kelly did not join 26 Senate Democrats in expressing concern to Biden about the large number of civilian deaths in Israel’s military campaign in Gaza.
“We ask you to inform us about what specific mechanisms you are putting in place to ensure that Israeli military operations conducted inside Gaza are carried out in accordance with international humanitarian law and to ensure that any U.S.-provided equipment is used in a manner consistent with U.S. law,” the senators wrote.
