Hundreds of protesters with Jewish Voice for Peace who were calling for a cease-fire in Gaza shut down Speer Boulevard Sunday outside the Colorado Convention Center, which was hosting the Global Conference For Israel.
More than 200 members of the activist organization marched from the Tivoli Quad on Auraria Campus to the intersection of Speer Boulevard and Champa Street around 11:30 a.m. Sunday, calling for a permanent cease-fire in Gaza, humanitarian aid and an end to U.S. aid to Israel, according to a Sunday news release from Jewish Voice for Peace.
The rally came just after the end of the one-week cease-fire between Israel and Hamas, and nearly two months after the conflict first started, with Hamas militants attacking several areas in Israel, killing over 1,200 people and taking hundreds of hostages, according to Israeli officials.
As of Sunday, more than 15,500 people had been confirmed killed in Gaza since the start of the conflict, according to the Ministry of Health in Gaza. The ministry told AP reporters that 70% of those killed are women and children.
“As Jews, we wholeheartedly reject violence against the Palestinian people in the name of Jewish safety,” stated Allie Cannington, a member of Jewish Voice for Peace, in the news release.
The group parked a car in the intersection, and a small group of activists chained themselves to each other and to the parked vehicle with duct-taped tubes and metal wire, blocking traffic.
Police diverted traffic away from the intersection for more than an hour before 15 people were arrested by Denver officers, according to the Denver Police Department. All 15 had been released by Sunday evening, according to a news release from Jewish Voice for Peace.
A spokesperson for the police department wrote in an emailed statement that officers made three separate announcements over a public address system for the people to leave the roadway or face arrest. When they refused to move, officers started arresting individuals around 12:40 p.m.
Denver Fire Department personnel used power tools to safely separate the individuals from each other and the vehicle so they could be arrested, according to the police department’s statement.
Several protesters in the activist organization’s news release claimed this action unnecessarily endangered the demonstrators, and that the emergency responders should have used manual tools instead of electric saws.
A total of 15 people were arrested in connection with obstructing a street, failure to obey a police order and using prohibited equipment to obstruct the public’s and emergency crews’ ability to use the roadway, the police department said in its statement.
The Denver/Boulder chapter of Jewish Voice for Peace organized the protest alongside the Colorado Palestine Coalition, marking the fourth consecutive day of protests against the Jewish National Fund’s Global Conference For Israel.
Noah Perlmutter, a Jewish American member of the group and one of the 15 arrested, said he joined the protest to bring attention to the violence that Palestinians living in Gaza and the West Bank are subjected to every day.
“I hope our peaceful protest pushes our representatives to immediately address the dire humanitarian crisis happening right now in Gaza,” he said. “We need a lasting ceasefire and a pathway to peace.”
Jewish Voice For Peace has organized several Denver protests for Palestinian lives in recent months, including demonstrations at the Cherry Creek Shopping Center, and has put pressure on Colorado’s congressional representatives to publicly call for a cease-fire.
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