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Live updates: Massachusetts reacts to Israel-Hamas war
Many with Massachusetts ties are feeling the impacts of the war.
More than two months after Hamas launched an attack on Israel, thousands of lives have been lost. More than 1,100 people in Israel and at least 20,000 Palestinians have been killed, according to Israeli and Palestinian authorities.
After a ground invasion brought Israeli troops into northern Gaza, negotiators finally had a breakthrough and a temporary ceasefire began on Nov. 24. Some of the estimated 200 hostages taken by Hamas were released before fighting resumed Dec. 1. Israeli has since launched a ground offensive in parts of southern Gaza, and the country says it is still working to root out the top leaders of Hamas.
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The war has sent reverberations around the globe, affecting many in Massachusetts. Follow here for live updates.
Anti-Hamas billboard in Worcester vandalized to be anti-Israel (Dec. 26)
A billboard in Worcester that displayed an anti-Hamas message was defaced recently.
Initially, the billboard showed the words “Let’s be clear: Hamas is your problem too” above Route 290. It was vandalized, with the last three words replaced to make it read, “Let’s be clear: Hamas is freeing Palestine.” The words “Israel murdered 25,000 people” were also added.
The billboard was created by JewBelong, an organization that works to “find the joy, meaning and relevance that Judaism has to offer.”
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The group says its messaging, including pink and white billboards like the one in Worcester, is meant to “powerfully confront antisemitism as well as support Joyous Judaism.” JewBelong recently put up billboards with the same anti-Hamas message in Nashville.
The billboard vandalism was made public on social media by the Jewish Federation of Central Massachusetts. The group is in contact with local police and Worcester officials, according to a statement.
“The defacement of this billboard is deplorable. Suggesting that Hamas is anything other than an evil, violent terror organization is unacceptable, and this vandalism must be handled with swift-action and strong condemnation,” the statement said. “The pro-Hamas graffiti on this billboard is a grotesque distortion of reality.”
Gaza’s Health Ministry said this week that the death toll in Gaza is nearing 21,000. The Hamas-led terrorist attacks on Oct. 7 resulted in the deaths of 1,200. After more than two months of war, experts say the Israeli army’s campaign in Gaza is one of the most destructive military operations anywhere in the world in recent history.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu visited Gaza Monday after a major attack on the neighborhood of Al Maghazi, where many civilians are seeking shelter. Netanyahu vowed that his government would be “deepening the fighting in the coming days.”
Police investigating potential hate crime after menorah damaged in Framingham (Dec. 18)
Police are investigating a potential hate crime after a menorah was knocked over in Framingham’s Centre Common.
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The menorah was found scratched with two damaged light bulbs on Sunday morning. A sign supporting Israel was also stolen from in front of the menorah, Framingham police said.
Video surveillance shows a person knocking over the menorah around 6:51 p.m. on Saturday night, officials said. Police have not identified them.
Framingham Mayor Charlie Sisitsky and his wife released a statement, saying they were “saddened” by the incident.
“The lighting of the Hanukkah menorah on the Framingham Center Common has been a long standing tradition in our community and this is the first instance in my memory that it has ever been targeted,” their statement posted on Facebook said. “We won’t know if it was an act of vandalism or the result of a hate crime until the police conclude their investigation. We urge everyone to respect the sanctity of all religious symbols and hope that during this holiday season we make an extra effort to appreciate everyone’s religious beliefs.”
The menorah was lit on Dec. 7 to celebrate the first night of Hanukkah.
Wellesley president, some faculty at odds over antisemitism statement (Dec. 18)
Wellesley College president Paula Johnson said in a public letter that some criticisms of Israel and Zionism could “create a hostile environment for many of our students” after Johnson was called on by some faculty to state that such criticisms aren’t antisemitic.
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“I want to be clear that Wellesley will not make such a statement,” Johnson wrote in a letter dated Dec. 16. She went on to say that the faculty “letter ignores how opinions and statements of the kind expressed in the letter can threaten the existence of Israel and increase fears for Jewish students on our campus.”
The Boston Globe reports that 19 faculty signed the letter, which they published Saturday. Written to the administration of Wellesley, it said that criticism of Israel and Zionism “is a legitimate scholarly and political position and not an expression of antisemitism.”
The faculty letter was shared as a Google Doc online but was not publicly accessible as of Monday morning.
In Johnson’s statement, she said Wellesley “embraces free expression,” and that students and faculty who show support for Palestinians and are against the Israeli government can do so.
“However, the College’s obligation to create an inclusive campus community, where all feel safe and welcome, does not end when speech, demonstrations, or other forms of protest or activism are deemed legally permissible,” Johnson’s letter continued.
More than 500 block Boston traffic seeking ceasefire (Dec. 15)
Hundreds of activists blocked traffic in Boston Thursday evening, marking the eighth night of Hanukkah with a demonstration calling for a ceasefire in Gaza.
The group, organized by IfNotNow and Jewish Voice for Peace, first gathered at City Hall Plaza before marching to the intersection of Congress and State streets, near the Old State House. The activists said that they blocked traffic for two and a half hours.
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In statements, they called out local Democratic leadership for not doing enough to stop the humanitarian crisis unfolding in Gaza as Israel’s ground invasion continues.
“Just a few blocks from here, members of the Massachusetts Democratic Party are gathered for a fundraiser in a disgusting show of normalcy and indifference,” Emma Rose Borzekowski, a member of IfNotNow from Somerville, said in a statement. “We say no to business as usual while Israel continues its campaign of collective punishment, killing tens of thousands of Palestinians while forcibly displacing 1.93 million Palestinians into an area smaller than Heathrow airport.”
Last month, the same groups temporarily shut down the Boston University Bridge for a similar demonstration.
“We feel we have no choice but to disrupt business as usual, when millions of lives are at stake,” the activists said in an open letter explaining their actions.
Boston Police said on social media around 5:30 that traffic was being impacted by protesters in the area of Congress and Milk street. They said that all streets had reopened by 7 p.m.
The demonstrators held banners that read “Peace,” “Justice” and “Ceasefire” in English, Arabic and Hebrew. Another read “Warren and Markey: Ceasefire Now.” They said they lit a menorah while praying and singing.
In total, 15 lanes of traffic at one of Boston’s largest intersections were blocked, the protesters said. In their open letter, they apologized to commuters.
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“We have tried going directly to the politicians who have the power to intervene … We don’t know what else to do,” they wrote.
The demonstrators, many of them Jewish, wrote that they are “still mourning” the 1,200 Israelis murdered by Hamas on Oct. 7.
“Many of us lost friends and loved ones; some of us are Israeli-Americans ourselves. We call for a ceasefire not because we are cold to any of the horrors happening there, but because we feel it all so deeply,” they wrote. “More death will not bring back the people we lost. It does the opposite; it provokes more violence against Israelis and Palestinians alike, while endangering Muslims and Jews around the world. We are told that the destruction of Gaza is being done in the name of Jewish safety, but that is a lie. No one is safe in a world of blood and rubble.”
U.S. Rep. Moulton says Israel is creating ‘more terrorists’ as civilian death toll rises (Dec. 14)
U.S. Rep. Seth Moulton, a Massachusetts Democrat, said on WBUR Thursday that he didn’t think Israel was leading a successful strategy in eliminating Hamas as the death toll of Gaza civilians grows to more than 18,000.
But when pressed to answer whether or not the U.S. should continue financially supporting Israel, Moulton wouldn’t outright say that threatening Israel financially should be done in order to force their hand in ceasing civilian attacks. He instead explicitly stated that Israel’s right-wing prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu should “step down.”
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“I don’t think we should put restrictions on aid to Israel that we don’t put on aid to other countries, like Egypt for example,” Moulton said. “But at the same time because Israel is such an important ally in the United States, we’ve got to find a way for them to listen. I’ve been more outspoken than the president about my calls for Netanyahu to step down… I firmly believe that this policy, this strategy they have that I fear will end up in their losing war is not going to change until Netanyahu is gone. That’s an example of the kind of additional pressure we could put on Israel to try to get this right.”
Moulton also compared Israel’s current war campaign, which he described as a losing one several times during the interview, to the U.S. involvement in the Iraq War, a conflict that Moulton had served in as a Marine. The congressman has also written two op-ed pieces in CNN and Time about how Israel must learn from America’s mistakes.
“(Israel is) not learning the lessons of counterinsurgency campaigns, the lessons we had to painfully learn ourselves in Iraq and Afghanistan,” Moulton said. “You can’t kill innocent civilians in the process of taking out terrorists because you just recruit more terrorists to the cause.”
Reactions to Harvard’s decision to keep Claudine Gay (Dec. 13)
Harvard Corporation’s decision to support President Claudine Gay following a contentious congressional hearing has spurred mixed reaction from the university community and nationally.
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Some of the harshest criticism of the decision has come from the lawmaker who led the hearing, U.S. Rep. Elise Stefanik. The New York Republican and Harvard alum told The Boston Globe that the Harvard board’s decision was “unacceptable.”
“Harvard is known as the most prestigious higher education institution around the world and they will never be able to reclaim that position because of just the moral bankruptcy on display and the doubling down on the moral bankruptcy,” Stefanik said.
The Dec. 5 hearing came nearly two years after Stefanik’s alma mater removed her from the Kennedy School’s Institute of Politics senior advisory committee over false claims of voter fraud in the 2020 presidential election.
Accuracy in Media’s trucks and billboards were also back outside of campus on Wednesday, this time calling for Gay’s resignation, reports The Boston Herald.
But on a tense campus, many professors continued to stand against Gay’s removal, after hundreds of faculty signed petitions and some spoke to news outlets following the board’s decision.
“The attacks on President Gay have been precipitated by people who want to conflate anti-Zionism and antisemitism to deflect attention from Israel’s genocidal war on the Palestinian people,” said Amir Mohareb, an assistant professor at Harvard Medical School.
Harvard law professor emeritus Laurence H. Tribe, who was critical of Gay’s answers during the congressional hearing, also signed a petition that supported keeping Gay as president.
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“I do think that building bridges is preferable to exploding them,” Tribe told The New York Times.
Hundreds set to walk 25 miles in Western Mass. to advocate for ceasefire in Gaza (Dec. 12)
Hundreds of people are set to walk 25 miles from Northampton to Springfield on Saturday to urge elected leaders to call for a ceasefire in the Israel-Hamas conflict. The 25-mile walk from north to south is symbolic of the trek many Palestinians are facing to escape the bombing in the Gaza Strip.
Molly Aronson, core organizer for the march with Jewish Voice for Peace Western Mass., said the group is joining with area groups advocating for a ceasefire, including the Western Mass Coalition for Palestine and Demilitarize Western Mass.
The March for Palestine is set to begin at Rep. Jim McGovern’s office in Northampton at 6 a.m., then move through Easthampton, Holyoake, and West Springfield, then into Springfield to end outside of the Sen. Ed Markey and Sen. Elizabeth Warren’s offices on Main Street.
“Our target is really on pushing them to demand a ceasefire, given the rising death toll in Gaza, given Warren’s suggestions that the US try to minimize civilian impact,” Aronson, who is Jewish, said. “We know that the best way to minimize civilian deaths in Gaza is for a full permanent ceasefire.”
The approximately 12-hour walk on Dec. 16 is open to all, including those who want to walk just a portion of the march or drive a support car alongside the marchers. Aronson said they are expecting around 400 people and that participants will all be walking on sidewalks.
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“We’re hoping that this adds some fuel to that push towards our elected officials to take meaningful action and do their jobs to save lives and have them remember as well that they have Palestinian constituents because that seems to be forgotten,” Aronson said.
Some councilors caught off guard by presentation to pro-Palestinian student activists (Dec. 11)
Multiple members of the Boston City Council are voicing their displeasure after two students were recognized through a council resolution for organizing pro-Palestine demonstrations. The students, Kameela Blackmon and Aliyah Mohamed of New Mission High School in Hyde Park, were recognized and invited to speak by Councilor Tania Fernandes Anderson during a meeting last Wednesday.
At the center of the controversy is the phrase “from the river to the sea, Palestine will be free,” which Mohamed used during her remarks to the City Council. The saying, which has been repeated at many recent pro-Palestine rallies, references the Jordan River to the east of Israel and the Mediterranean Sea.
It is viewed by some as a call for the destruction of Israel. The Anti-Defamation League defines it as an “antisemitic charge denying the Jewish right to self-determination, including through the removal of Jews from their ancestral homeland.”
To others, like Rep. Rashida Tlaib of Michigan, the phrase is “an aspirational call for freedom, human rights, and peaceful coexistence, not death, destruction, or hate,” the congresswoman said. Tlaib, the only Palestinian-American in Congress, was officially censured by her colleagues last month. Her office used the phrase in a video posted to social media, prompting intense backlash.
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Council President Ed Flynn said he was caught off guard by Fernandes Anderson’s resolution, as it did not contain any language about the Israel-Hamas war and simply said the students would be recognized for “activism, organizing, and leadership.” Presentations like this, at the beginning of City Council meetings, are not intended to be about controversial topics, Flynn said in a statement.
“I was surprised and dismayed when the two students began their speeches, which included language that deeply hurt the Jewish community,” he said. “If I had known the context and details of the resolution and the presentation, I would not have signed the resolution, nor allowed the presentation to take place. I strongly object and condemn the message that was blatantly antisemitic.”
Councilors Frank Baker, Sharon Durkan, and Michael Flaherty all walked out of the Council chamber in an effort to avoid being photographed with the students, The Boston Herald reported. Councilor Erin Murphy said she purposefully stood apart from the group at the podium.
Fernandes Anderson, who made history as the first Muslim elected to Boston City Council, said at the meeting that she wanted to recognize the students as “amazing young ladies” who “have organized and been activists” by putting forth “tremendous” work.
In comments to the Herald, Murphy mentioned feeling “blindsided,” and Baker described the resolution as a “surprise” attack.
In a statement posted to social media, ADL New England accused Fernandes Anderson of hiding “behind children.”
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“If [Fernandes Anderson] believes antisemitic slogans should be mouthed from the rostrum of the City Council she should speak them herself, and all Councilors should take issue with… such deceptive tactics,” the ADL said.
Antisemitic graffiti found in multiple UMass Boston buildings (Dec. 11)
Bathrooms in multiple buildings at University of Massachusetts, Boston were defaced with “hateful and vile” antisemitic graffiti, officials announced.
In a letter to the school community last week, school leadership said the graffiti was found the night of Monday, Dec. 4.
The letter, signed by the University Chancellor Marcelo Suárez-Orozco and Provost and Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs Joseph Berger, called the act a hate crime.
“We must reject antisemitism in all of its forms and remain vigilant in modeling antiracist norms and behavior, a pillar of UMass Boston’s ethos, by cherishing the values we hold dear – our relentless pursuit of knowledge, and our rigorous quest for truth and justice,” the letter said.
The school opted to not elaborate on details about the graffiti, including its contents and which buildings and bathrooms were involved. They said an ongoing criminal investigation was launched by the UMass police department.
Anyone with information about the crime can call the university police at 617-287-5555.
Pro-Israel group may field candidate to take on Pressley (Dec. 11)
Rep. Ayanna Pressley and a group of her left-wing allies in Congress are reportedly the targets of an influential pro-Israel group determined to unseat them. The American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) is planning a huge spending spree to back challengers of the group, known informally as “the Squad.”
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AIPAC is actively looking for a candidate to mount a primary challenge against Pressley, who represents much of Boston and parts of surrounding communities. The group is also looking for a challenger willing to take on Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York, and has already backed candidates running against Rep. Cori Bush of Missouri, Rep. Jamaal Bowman of New York, Rep. Summer Lee of Pennsylvania, and Rep. Ilhan Omar of Minnesota, Slate reported.
Pressley and her allies have been vocally critical of Israel’s response to the Oct. 7 Hamas terror attacks, calling for a permanent cease-fire.
“Congresswoman Pressley was elected with a strong mandate to save lives and center the dignity, humanity, and safety of all people. In moments of acute global conflict, her focus is always on saving civilian lives. That is why she unequivocally condemned Hamas’ horrific attack on October 7th and has consistently called for a ceasefire, advocated for the release of hostages, for the delivery of aid, the evacuation of US citizens, met with impacted families, and mourned the deaths of the over 17,000 Palestinian and 1,200 Israeli civilians. She remains squarely focused on continuing her impactful work for the Massachusetts 7th district and championing life-saving policies that have the strong support of the people,” a spokesperson for Pressley said in a statement to Boston.com.
AIPAC is “in the process of evaluating races involving detractors of Israel,” a spokesperson told The Daily Beast, adding that the group’s “sole criteria in evaluating candidates is their position on the U.S.-Israel alliance.”
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AIPAC is expected to spend at least $100 million in Democratic primaries, Slate reported, and other affiliated super PACs are set to spend heavily alongside the group.
“All of our research and intel to date indicates voters have serious concerns about anti-Israel candidates like Ayanna … who refused to vote to condemn the Hamas Oct. 7 terrorism on the House floor,” a spokesperson for United Democracy Project, which is affiliated with AIPAC, told Politico recently.
The views of Pressley and this group of lawmakers are in line with those of many voters. Recent polling from Data for Progress found that 61% of likely voters support the U.S. calling for a permanent ceasefire and a de-escalation of violence in Gaza. This includes 76% of Democrats. Nearly half of the voters surveyed said that America’s top priority should be “leveraging diplomatic relationships with Israel and Arab partners in the region to de-escalate violence and ensure the safe release of hostages.”
Last week, the U.S. vetoed a United Nations resolution demanding an immediate humanitarian cease-fire in Gaza. Thirteen members of the UN Security Council voted in favor of the resolution, with only the U.S. opposing it. The United Kingdom abstained.
AIPAC is a powerful player in Washington, and is funded significantly by wealthy conservatives, according to The Daily Beast.
“They take money from Republican donors, they pour it into Democratic primaries, they exclusively — virtually exclusively — target Democratic incumbents,” Ocasio-Cortez told The Daily Beast recently. “What I have concerns about is the rupture that this could represent in the Democratic Party and the hostility that it could involve if our party does not stand together against some of the most disruptive tactics that we’ve seen.”
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Pressley remains popular in her district, and is already using the AIPAC threat to seek donations to her reelection campaign, Politico reported.
“Pressley is in no way vulnerable in anything I see,” Democratic strategist Scott Ferson told Politico. Pressley has been reelected twice “because she’s very good and dynamic and all the things you’d be looking for in a member of Congress, but she also reflects her district.”
Previous live updates can be found here.
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