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Protesters who blocked entrances to the White House on Monday say thousands of lives are at stake

WASHINGTON (DC News Now) — The emotion of the moment overcame Ilana Lerman. The imminent invasion of Gaza by Israeli forces seeking to destroy Hamas has given her pause due to the potential amount of deaths on both sides.

The Israeli-born woman who now lives in Philadelphia was among hundreds of protesters on Monday blocking every entrance of the White House to oppose the Israel build-up on the border of Gaza in preparation for an invasion to hunt down members of Hamas.

And they want President Joe Biden to urge Israel into a ceasefire.

Lerman and others said they are in strong opposition to invading Gaza, given that innocent women and children who are not part of the militant Hamas group – which is named a terrorist organization by the U.S. State Department – would perish with a war.

While many Jewish Americans and groups have been pressuring the government and elected officials to back a war against Hamas, other more progressive American Jewish have been calling their homeland’s build-up at the Gaza border a wrong and unjust war.

“We are not leaving until there’s a ceasefire,” Lerman said at one of the entrances to the White House. “Like, none of us are willing to have the genocide of Palestinian people done in our name. We will not stand for another genocide that happens in our name. And my grandfather survived the Holocaust. And I know if he were alive right now he would be so angry.”

Israel’s government called on more than one million people living in the Gaza Strip to evacuate in anticipation of a military ground push into that region.

Israelis have been reeling since a surprise attack on Oct. 7 that has left well over 1,000 citizens dead. Many from Israel were also kidnapped. The country’s response with airstrikes has also killed 1,500 Palestinians, according to recent reports.

Many Jewish Americans have been calling for unconditional support of Israel in its expected invasion. A large rally was held last Friday in Freedom Plaza in D.C. with elected officials from the DMV, pushing that Israel has a right to defend itself from Hamas attacks.

But not all Jewish Americans see it that way. Michael Omer-Man, who lives in Tacoma Park and took part in the protests, said that there is grave concern among some American Jewish who don’t want this incursion.

“It’s inspiring to see all the entrances blocked in an act of civil disobedience that says ‘not in our name,’” he said. “What I do think is that there’s going to be a moment when the number of civilian casualties pile up to the point where the world, including the White House, is going to have to start pushing for restraint and ceasefire.”

Rabbi Lex Rofeberg, who drove in from Rhode Island for the protest, said it is his religious duty to protect the innocent from calamity and death.

“People are dying,” Rofeberg said. “Those people are Israeli, they’re Palestinian, they’re Jewish, they’re Muslim, they’re Christian. And I can’t stand here and be silent as that’s going on and as it’s being done in my name, as a Jew and especially as somebody who is charged with Jewish leadership. I’m here because I see it as my job to be here. I don’t know where else I could be.”