Pennsylvania Mennonites join international demand for Israel-Palestine ceasefire

• Katie Knol
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  Katie Knol is WITF's summer newsroom intern for 2024. She was in the same role for summer 2023.
  
  She graduated from Penn State University in 2024, earning bachelor's degrees in journalism and political science. She has also worked at WPSU, the News Lab at Penn State, The Daily Collegian and CommRadio.

More than a hundred Mennonites gathered outside the Lancaster office of U.S. Representative Lloyd Smucker Tuesday to pray, sing hymns and demand their lawmakers support a ceasefire between Israel and Palestine. 

Pennsylvania has the largest Mennonite population in the United States and Canada.

The gathering was part of Mennonite Action’s Day of Action, in which church members were asked to peacefully demand a resolution to the conflict. They called elected officials, circulated petitions and took part in peaceful demonstrations. 

Mennonite Action’s website clarifies it does not support Hamas, but it wants the United States and Canadian governments to “stop writing a blank check to Israel, as the Israeli Defense Forces continue bombarding Palestinian civilians.” 

Jonathan Smucker is Lloyd Smucker’s cousin, a co-founder of Mennonite Action and an organizer of Tuesday’s event in Lancaster. He said the holiday season is making the issue especially important to them. 

“Going into the holiday season, going into Christmas, which is such a center point of our Christian calendar, we are troubled and we are heartbroken and we are distraught and we wanted to show as Mennonites that we are feeling that,” Jonathan Smucker said. 

But for him, this isn’t just a Mennonite issue. He said they’re just the latest to join the international movement calling for a ceasefire, and they want politicians to feel the pressure. 

“But everyday the list grows of people who are adding their names, calling for a ceasefire, and we need that public pressure to continue to mount,” he said. “We need to really heighten the crisis for these politicians who are out of step with public opinion on this.” 

He said Mennonite Action isn’t done. They are planning more days of action, including a national gathering in Washington, D.C., in January. 

“We cannot have more dead — civilians and children. This carnage is unconscionable and unacceptable,” Jonathan Smucker said. 

WITF’s sister newsroom LNP Lancaster Online reported Lloyd Smucker was not in his office during the protest, and has not issued a statement, though he reiterated his support for Israel defending itself after the Hamas attacks in October.