Sixty-one Mennonites from the mid-Atlantic region were arrested Sept. 9 outside Virginia Sen. Mark Warner’s congressional office in Washington, D.C., for their peaceful refusal to stop singing.

They gathered to invite Warner and his staff to commit to end the Israeli military siege of Gaza. Their singing served as a moral witness to “disrupt the collective conscience of members of Congress” over U.S. support of the carnage in Palestine.

The action was organized by members of Mennonite Action hailing from Pennsylvania, Maryland, Virginia and the District of Columbia. Warner’s office was selected because some view him as persuadable on the issue and a majority of the group was from Virginia, including students from Eastern Mennonite University in Harrisonburg.

“Hymn-singing is a deeply rooted practice for Mennonites,” said Cynthia Lapp, one of the event’s organizers and pastor of Hyattsville Mennonite Church in Maryland. “To do so in such a political civic space is a reminder that our faith is not constrained to our pews but also calls us to engage in public acts of peaceful witness.”

Timothy Seidel, an associate professor of peacebuilding, development and global studies at EMU, decried Israel’s current attack on Gaza City and restrictions on aid as “criminal behavior” abetted by U.S. backing.

“International law clearly prohibits the intentional targeting of civilians,” Seidel said. “Such actions are abhorrent, and people of faith and conscience have no choice but to oppose them in all nonviolent ways we can.”

According to The Guardian, a classified Israeli military intelligence database indicates five out of six Palestinians killed by Israeli forces in Gaza have been civilians.

Co-organizer Jonny Rashid added, “The intentional actions to deny food to starving people in Gaza are contributing to genocide against the people of Palestine.”

Rashid, pastor of West Philadelphia Mennonite Fellowship, said Mennonites in the United States join people of faith around the world in condemning what constitutes “ethnic cleansing” being perpetuated by Israel and funded by U.S. tax dollars.

Additional smaller groups of Mennonites visited the offices of Pennsylvania and Maryland members of Congress, including Senators Angela Alsobrooks and Chris Van Hollen, to sing a song of gratitude for their willingness to take legislative action to hold Israel accountable.

“The willful killing of so many innocents in Gaza is a violation of conscience and an affront to everything we proclaim about our faith,” said Tim Godshall, who attends Shalom Mennonite Congregation in Harrisonburg and was arrested. “It should disturb the conscience of members of Congress as well, since the destruction of Gaza would not be happening without U.S. support.”

More than 1,373 Palestinians have been killed since late May while seeking food in Gaza, which the United Nations has officially declared an area of “[hu]man-made famine,” in the context of a Palestinian death toll of more than 62,000, with an additional 156,230 wounded.

“The most vulnerable, primarily children, are already dying of starvation,” said Pastor Ashley Hoard of North Baltimore Mennonite Church. “We know that thousands more lives will be lost in this horrific manner if the blockade is not lifted immediately.”

Mennonite Action has organized several public actions since December 2023, including a January 2024 hymn sing/nonviolent action in the Canon Building Rotunda in Washington that resulted in 125 arrests of Mennonites from across the U.S. In July 2024, hundreds of Mennonites made a 135-mile march from Harrisonburg to Washington, where 50 marchers were arrested while singing in the Senate Hart Building.

“We mourn with the families and friends of hostages and those who lost loved ones when Hamas attacked on Oct. 7th,” said H.A. Penner of Akron, Pa. “We also mourn with the Gazans who have lost so much. We have come to D.C. today because we feel a moral responsibility to speak out because our tax dollars and our elected officials are enabling the continued assault on Gaza.”