On May 10th, the 5 were arrested by city police at the Dover office of U.S. Rep. Chris Pappas last month and charged with criminal trespass after refusing to leave his office while calling for a ceasefire in Gaza. There trial took place on October 29th.
Janet Zeller said in a statement before Judge Sawako Gardner at Tuesday's trial. Section 620i of the U.S. Foreign Assistance Act and the Conventional Arms Transfer Policy, as well as International Humanitarian Laws, prohibit the U.S. from providing weapons, as security assistance or for sale, to any government that restricts the delivery of U.S. humanitarian aid”. As a citizen, I cannot stand by and do nothing, while our government officials continue to break these laws. Our congressional representatives are to be acting on our behalf. Therefore, we must take the responsibility of ensuring our representatives hear and understand our recognition of the laws that are being broken and seek their support to end those violations.”
Rev. David Grishaw-Jones shared “The urgency of our action is heightened by the access to members of Congress secured by special interest donations, so called “dark money.” While concerned New Hampshire citizens—from Jewish, Muslim, Christian and secular communities—are ignored, political action committees (PACS) connected to the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (or AIPAC) use financial gifts and not-so-subtle political threats to influence members in vulnerable districts like ours. In our particular case, Congressman Pappas has received significant campaign support from AIPAC-related groups, $500,000 over his four campaigns for Congress. And this, it stands to reason, influences his steadfast commitment to billions of lethal aid for Israel’s bombardment of Gaza this past year. We are dismissed as irrelevant. AIPAC gets access and influence. Human rights are marginalized and even dismissed. And war rages on”
Janet Simmon shared “I have no words to express my deep sorrow over what the US has wreaked on the Palestinian people. We must stop the horrific destruction and slaughter.”
Em Fredrichs spoke about the desperate need for medical care in Gaza. She said “½ of infants under age 2 were starving as of last February–halfway through the siege. Imagine what that number is now. In February the number of children killed in Gaza since October 8 was equal to all of the schoolchildren in all of Strafford County.
Amy Antonnucci, documented all of the peace groups contacts to Congressman Pappas ,all of which were not successful for us to be fully heard by Representative Pappas. Therefore, the 5 considered it to be necessary to do something the Congressman would notice. That’s the reason the peaceful sit-in was held on May 1oth in his Dover Office.
"I cannot condone my taxpayer dollars paying for weapons that kill tens of thousands of innocent civilians. Every death in Israel, Gaza, the West Bank and now Lebanon too, is a tragedy," said Zeller.
Antonucci said she along with other members of the group were compelled to stage the protest: "I and many others in the group, wake up every day and check our email to see if the people we know are still alive." said Antonnucci.