Pro-Palestine Activists Urge New Hampshire Voters To Write In ‘Cease-Fire’

MANCHESTER, N.H. ― A bunch of progressive activists have launched a last-minute effort to protest President Joe Biden’s lockstep help of Israel’s bombardment of Gaza, encouraging voters to write down in “cease-fire” on their New Hampshire presidential major ballots.

The effort provides essentially the most divisive challenge in Democratic politics to an already complicated stew in Tuesday’s Democratic major in New Hampshire, which is able to award no conference delegates, however has taken on symbolic significance. Biden just isn’t formally on the poll, however his solely remotely severe challenger, Rep. Dean Phillips (D-Minn.), has staked his marketing campaign’s viability on getting greater than 20% within the Granite State.

More than something, nevertheless, the final word power of the “cease-fire” marketing campaign might present an early take a look at probably the most vital questions in Democratic politics: How a lot are voters prepared to prioritize ending the battle, and the way vast the wedge between Biden and left-wing voters who backed him 4 years in the past has change into.

Arab Americans and progressive voters, specifically, fault Biden for his refusal to leverage U.S. army assist to Israel to halt a battle that they see as prison. The Israeli aerial bombardment and floor operation have killed greater than 25,000 Palestinians, most of them girls and kids; displaced 85% of the Gaza Strip’s inhabitants; and generated catastrophic shortages of meals, water and medical care.

“There is that one spot at the bottom [of the ballot] that will hopefully send a statement to President Biden, to the Democratic Party, to our Democratic elected officials that we really are fed up. The killing must stop,” mentioned Bill Maddocks, a longtime activist with New Hampshire Peace Action from Amherst, New Hampshire. “The doors must open for negotiations and for rebuilding, and for an end to the horrible IDF attacks on the people of Gaza and the West Bank.”

In New Hampshire, a gaggle of progressive activists have launched a last-minute effort to get voters sympathetic to the plight of Palestinians to write down within the phrase “cease-fire” within the presidential major. The thought is that when the variety of ballots is tallied, politicians will see what number of voters have used the first to specific their opposition to continued U.S. help for Israel’s battle. To that finish, whereas the organizers say it’s OK to make use of the Republican major to write down in “cease-fire,” they’re encouraging folks to take action within the Democratic major the place they consider the prospects for accumulating a important mass of votes is biggest.

In a couple of brief weeks, proponents of writing in “cease-fire” within the New Hampshire primaries have organized a gaggle, Vote Ceasefire New Hampshire, to advertise their efforts. The group has a functioning web site, and organizers have chipped in their very own cash to print 1,500 yard indicators and distribute them.

The thought for a “cease-fire” write-in marketing campaign originated with Andru Volinsky, a progressive lawyer and former member of the highly effective Executive Council of New Hampshire, who mounted an unsuccessful bid for the Democratic gubernatorial nomination in 2020.

Volinsky wrote a letter to the editor of the Concord Monitor on Dec. 13, 2023, asserting his plans to write down in “cease-fire.”

“I would like President Biden to do well in the general election,” he wrote. “My concern is with Israel’s annihilation of Palestinians in Gaza and this administration’s support of that misguided and monstrous effort.”

“The U.S. is not doing all it can to end the killing of innocent civilians and the complete destruction of hospitals and other infrastructure,” Volinsky continued. “The level of destruction makes me wonder if this is about chasing terrorists or making Gaza unlivable.”

The letter piqued the curiosity of Volinsky’s fellow peace activists within the Granite State, who joined him in placing the organizing effort collectively.

“I first watched in horror as the October 7 attack occurred and hostages were taken, but quickly saw that the Israeli response was designed, intended to annihilate the people of Gaza,” Volinsky, an East Concord resident, informed HuffPost. “And I did not think that the Biden administration, which I think does well on a number of fronts, was doing enough to pressure Netanyahu and his government to refrain from destroying Gaza.”

The initiative takes place within the context of probably the most uncommon Democratic primaries in New Hampshire’s historical past.

At Biden’s path, the Democratic National Committee changed New Hampshire with South Carolina as the primary major election within the social gathering’s presidential nominating course of. When New Hampshire’s state authorities refused to alter the state regulation requiring its presidential primaries to be first within the nation, the DNC stripped the state of its conference delegates, and Biden refused to look on the poll in Tuesday’s Democratic major.

But recognizing that Biden would nonetheless want illustration within the state’s elections, a gaggle of New Hampshire Democrats have organized a well-funded marketing campaign to get registered Democrats and independents to write down in his identify on the poll. Phillips is essentially the most credible Democrat difficult Biden in New Hampshire, the place he hopes a robust efficiency will invigorate the remainder of his marketing campaign.

Phillips’ probabilities of victory over Biden are dim. And the probability of “cease-fire” getting as many votes as Phillips seems to be even dimmer.

Still, advocates for a cease-fire in Gaza see a gap within the chaotic Democratic major.

“The New Hampshire presidential primary gives New Hampshire voters some level of responsibility and some level of agency to make their concerns known through their vote,” Volinsky mentioned.

The elevated consideration on write-in votes may additionally work to those activists’ benefit.

“Because there’s this large write-in Biden campaign in New Hampshire, the theory is that they’re going to be paying attention to the write-in portion of the ballot in a way that they don’t always,” mentioned Molly Brennan, a stage actor, and Actors Equity union organizer who grew up in New Hampshire and lately returned to the state.

The Democratic Majority for Israel, a pro-Israel tremendous PAC, is, against this, urging its allies in New Hampshire to write down in Biden as a present of help for the president’s pro-Israel insurance policies. The group lately touted a Boston Globe ballot displaying that 48% of probably New Hampshire voters sympathize with Israel, in comparison with 16% who sympathize with the Palestinians.

There was some concern initially that the New Hampshire secretary of state’s workplace may not tally the entire write-in votes with the phrase “cease-fire,” since it’s not the identify of a person particular person.

Anna Sventek, a spokesperson for the New Hampshire secretary of state’s workplace, informed the nonprofit outlet InDepth New Hampshire, that the entire “cease-fire” write-in votes could be counted, however that they’d be categorized as “Scatter,” a technical time period for miscellaneous votes.

HuffPost reached out to Sventek for readability on the matter. When requested by e-mail whether or not there could be an actual tally of the “cease-fire” write-in votes, Sventek replied, “Exactly.”

“As it’s an organized campaign, we will tally the results in a separate column,” she added.

A key purpose why New Hampshire’s pro-Palestine activists really feel the necessity to get artistic is that they are saying that their Democratic elected officers have disregarded extra typical types of suggestions. Brennan, for instance, mentioned that she repeatedly makes her views on the U.S.-backed Israeli battle identified in telephone calls to the state’s Democratic members of the U.S. House and Senate, however has not acquired any responses.

“We’ve seen all of these campaigns come up. And it’s been largely ignored,” she mentioned of public demonstrations for a cease-fire. “This is another way to tell our public servants that we support a cease-fire. We do not support the way that the United States is involved in Gaza.”

U.S. Rep. Chris Pappas (D-N.H.) informed HuffPost on Monday that whereas he’s not calling for a cease-fire, he welcomes the extra enthusiasm about collaborating within the state’s Democratic primaries. (Although there are not any onerous statistics, the overwhelming majority of the cease-fire activists plan to write down in “cease-fire” within the Democratic, fairly than Republican major.)

“We want people to turn out, and whatever they do on Tuesday, we’ll be able to read the tea leaves Tuesday night,” he mentioned. “But certainly this is a state where everyone’s welcome. We’ve got diverse points of view.”

For its half, Vote Ceasefire New Hampshire has discovered methods to sidestep the extra polarizing questions gripping the pro-Palestine motion. New Hampshirites lively within the write-in effort differ of their concepts about the perfect methods to ship justice for Palestinians ― from disagreements concerning the applicability of the time period “genocide” to what Israel is doing, to divergent views on whether or not a two-state answer or a one-state answer is extra applicable, in accordance with Maddocks.

The activists even disagree about whether or not Biden’s help for the Israeli invasion disqualifies him for reelection. Maddocks and Volinsky plan to vote for Biden regardless of his dealing with of the battle, however Brennan, who emphasised that she was talking in her private capability, doesn’t.

“At this point, my friends in this country who have lost family members in Gaza ― how am I going to look at them and vote for this man who fully supported that loss of life?” requested Brennan, who voted for Biden in 2020.

“Me, and others like myself were told four years ago, ‘Well, he’s not the best, but he’s the lesser evil, ya gotta do it,’ which is the same campaign they’re using now,” she added. “At this point, I’m not observing a lesser evil.”