COLUMBUS, Ohio – Masked pro-Palestinian demonstrators escalated their harassment of a Jewish congressman on the eve of Monday’s anniversary of the Oct. 7 attack, pitching an encampment outside Ohio Democratic Rep. Greg Landsman ’s Cincinnati residence.
Landsman said Monday that the protesters arrived outside his home early Sunday. By evening, they set up tents, cots and sleeping bags in the road and spent the night harassing him and his family members, forcing them to secure a police escort in order to enter and exit safely, the congressman said.
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“On the eve of the one-year anniversary of the October 7th terror attacks, when Jews were brutally murdered and kidnapped, these people came to the home of a Jewish family at night, dressed in all black and fully masked," Landsman said in a statement. He said that he and his daughter would be forced to navigate the encampment in order to attend an Oct. 7 service later Monday.
The group Midwest Direct Action 4 Pali! shared a video of the demonstration on Instagram. The video showed masked participants in black marching down the street in front of Landsman's home. Their faces were obscured as they carried white bundles that resembled shrouded bodies and brandished banners representing the numbers in the death toll. The group remained on site Monday, Landman's office said.
“On the eve of the one year mark since the beginning of the genocide in Palestine, local activists in Cincinnati have gathered outside Congressman Greg Landsman’s house to denounce his votes to conceal the death toll and continue funding mass murder in Gaza,” the group said in its post. “We mark in solemn vigil that we will not rest until the genocide is over and Palestine is free.”
Mike Madanat, a spokesman for the group, told The Associated Press that it's unclear how long they would remain at Landsman's home and that they have no intention of leaving anytime soon. Madanat noted that these types of decisions are something they work out “day to day.” He said the activists involved are members of various groups but are all “Cincinnati taxpayers” who have joined this action due to the Democrat being “silent to our calls, post cards and attendance in town halls.”
Madanat said the activists realize they are in a residential community and are doing everything they can to respect Landsman's neighbors and the area, including by speaking daily with local police and residents to ensure their actions remain legal.
“This is not and never been something to do with religion,” Madanat said. “It is strictly about the death toll," the congressman's "support of that, the violence and the displacement.”
It's not the first time Landsman and his district have been targeted since the conflict began. Just a month into the conflict, protestors placed a poster outside a building near Landsman's district office with his photo and the phrase “This Ken supports genocide,” alongside other inflammatory language.
In July, Landsman toured the Covedale Cemetery Complex in Cincinnati, where 176 Jewish gravestones had been toppled.
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Associated Press writer Bruce Shipkowski contributed reporting from Toms River, New Jersey.