Pro-Palestine protesters removed from Boston City Hall after disrupting Warren, Pressley event

Police officers removed a small group of pro-Palestinian protesters from Boston City Hall Monday, after they interrupted a press conference to demand that U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren call for an immediate cease-fire in Israel and Gaza, where the deadly fallout from the Hamas terrorist attack continues.

The calls for a “cease-fire now” began after proponent U.S. Rep. Ayanna Pressley, who has signed onto a House resolution calling for such action, stepped up to the podium to deliver remarks at an unrelated morning press conference, and as Warren, who had already spoken, was leaving the City Hall Mezzanine.

“Senator Warren, we ask for a cease-fire in Gaza,” one of the protesters said, a demand that was followed by chants of “cease-fire now.”

Amid the chants, a woman shouted, “We are killing children,” followed by another activist directly addressing Warren again, after the senator had already left the area.

“Thanks, Congresswoman Pressley,” the protester said. “We ask Senator Warren to do the same. Cease-fire now.”

The City Hall demonstration adds to the pressure Warren is already facing from hundreds of former staffers from her 2020 presidential campaign, who demanded in an October letter that she publicly call for a cease-fire and introduce a cease-fire resolution in the Senate.

Prior to that, protesters chanting for a cease-fire were arrested as they tried to enter the senator’s office in Boston. That particular action occurred days after progressive House representatives introduced a cease-fire resolution, which was backed by Pressley.

Warren left without addressing the protesters, but Pressley sought to strike a balance between trying to restore order and avoid making any critical remarks about the disturbance.

“This is your government,” Pressley said. “This is the people’s house. Thank you for your activism. We are here today to talk about an issue of great consequence to our shared constituents.”

When the chants of “cease-fire now,” matching a hashtag Pressley has used on the site formerly known as Twitter, continued, municipal and Boston police officers began to remove the protesters from City Hall.

No arrests were made, a Boston Police spokesman said.

While Pressley has been vocal about her calls for a cease-fire and distaste for what she describes on X as Palestinian civilians who are “being indiscriminately killed by the Israeli government,” Warren has not taken an official stance.

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Last Friday, however, Warren called for what President Biden has recently been pushing for in the region: a “humanitarian pause.”

“Israel is obligated under the laws of war to protect civilians,” Warren wrote on X. “It is not possible to end Hamas’s terrorism by just dropping more bombs. Israel needs to stop bombing Gaza. We need an immediate humanitarian pause to save lives, get relief in, and free the hostages.”

Roughly 5 hours after the City Hall demonstration, Warren took a different tone on the site.

“Terrorist attacks against Israel have been followed by a dangerous spike in anti-Jewish incidents,” Warren wrote Monday evening. “Threats against students, vitriol online, and acts of hate against Jews around the world — antisemitism in all its forms — is wrong.”

Israel declared war on Hamas following an Oct. 7 terrorist attack that killed more than 1,400 Israelis, most of whom were civilians. An estimated 240 hostages are still captive in Gaza, Israeli officials said.

The Palestinian death toll has surpassed 10,000, a number that includes more than 4,100 children, the Health Ministry of the Hamas-run Gaza Strip said Monday. The ministry does not distinguish between fighters and civilians, the Associated Press reported.

Mayor Michelle Wu and Attorney General Andrea Campbell were also on hand for Monday’s press conference, where they joined Warren and Pressley in touting a federal student loan forgiveness program for public service employees.

Protestors calling for a cease-fire in Gaza interrupt as Congresswoman Ayanna Pressley speaks at a press conference yesterday. (Amanda Sabga/Boston Herald)

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