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Over 20 parents, children and community organizers stood outside Rep. Anna Eshoo’s office in downtown Palo Alto Thursday, Jan. 4, to deliver letters written by young constituents asking the congresswoman to support a cease-fire in the Gaza Strip.
At 2:30 p.m., the group buzzed the congresswoman’s door requesting an audience with Eshoo, D-Menlo Park, who was not in the office, according to a staff member. Instead, Staff Assistant Ariana Ziolkowski met with the group on the sidewalk. She listened to several of the children — some as young as 6 years old — read aloud their letters and collected the set of over 50 messages to send to Eshoo.
The letters call for a cease-fire in Gaza, where Israel has killed more than 20,000 Palestinians since Hamas militants killed roughly 1,200 Israelis and took about 247 people hostage on Oct. 7, 2023.
“Your decisions hurt everyone around you and some people are losing loved ones. In 2024 call a ceasefire,” a 13 year old whose letter was delivered to Eshoo wrote.
In a Dec. 18 statement on the war in Gaza, Eshoo said she called on Israel to show restraint and that she urged President Joe Biden to provide humanitarian aid to Palestinians. She has not called for a cease-fire.
“While I have consistently pressed the IDF (Israel Defense Forces) to take precautions to protect civilians, I have not called on Israel to end its military operations because I believe Hamas must be removed from power in Gaza,” Eshoo stated.
Eshoo said she remains committed to advancing a diplomatic resolution to the “cycle of violence.” An Eshoo staffer said that the children’s letters, like all messages from constituents, will be sent to Eshoo, who will decide how to respond.
An 11-year-old Palestinian boy living in Los Gatos who has family in Gaza wrote about the “devastating time” that both Israelis and Palestinians are experiencing in his letter.
“I demand a ceasefire. I don’t know why people don’t want one,” he wrote. “There will only be more deaths, including my family members. If there is a ceasefire, both sides can stop fighting and resolve.”
Lina M. Seikh, an immigrant rights attorney for the Council on American-Islamic Relations, a Muslim rights advocacy group, brought her two daughters to the event.
“I can’t sleep at night. I just can’t bear… to look away from the news, even though it’s so painful,” she said. “I know that many of the people here in this community feel the exact same way, and we will not stand for this genocide. We’re gonna keep showing up until something is done.”
Event organizer Nadine Mansour said that she hopes Eshoo will be receptive to the children’s concerns.
In addition to calling her office daily, Mansour said that she and a group of other adults showed up to Eshoo’s office a month ago to deliver their own letters and were not allowed to enter due to COVID-19 protocol.
An Eshoo staffer said they spoke to the group of adults outside the office at the time due to safety concerns and its small size. But Mansour said that nobody came to speak to them at the previous event and that instead of delivering the letters, they taped them to the door.
“We’re grateful that they were able to come out today and physically receive our letters,” Mansour said. “I hope that this is really the beginning in which we can continue to engage with our representative on such an important matter.”