{"id":31291,"date":"2024-01-25T11:40:40","date_gmt":"2024-01-25T19:40:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/?p=31291"},"modified":"2024-01-25T11:40:41","modified_gmt":"2024-01-25T19:40:41","slug":"1500-people-vote-for-gaza-ceasefire-in-new-hampshire","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/2024\/01\/25\/1500-people-vote-for-gaza-ceasefire-in-new-hampshire\/","title":{"rendered":"1,500 People Vote For Gaza ‘Ceasefire’ In New Hampshire"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Organizers of the effort to protest the Israeli invasion of Gaza called the result a \u201csuccess.\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Daniel<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

By Daniel Marans<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jan 25, 2024, 02:00 PM EST (huffpost.com)<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Protesters
Protesters calling for a cease-fire in the Israel-Hamas war block traffic in Washington on Dec. 14, 2023.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Just under 1,500 New Hampshire voters used Tuesday\u2019s Democratic presidential primary to call for a stop to Israel\u2019s invasion of Gaza by writing in the word \u201cceasefire\u201d as if it were a candidate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In total, exactly 1,497 New Hampshirites wrote in \u201cceasefire,\u201d according to the office of New Hampshire\u2019s secretary of state. The figure represents 1.2% of the total votes cast in the Granite State\u2019s Democratic primary, and 1.7% of the total write-in votes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The organizers of Vote Ceasefire<\/a> \u2014 the name of the grassroots initiative to get Democratic primary voters to write in \u201cceasefire\u201d \u2014 nonetheless declared the outcome \u201ca success,\u201d given the under-resourced and last-minute nature of the campaign.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhether it be our marches, calls to elected leaders, or protests, President [Joe] Biden has not paid attention to the voices of tens of thousands of Americans who want a ceasefire,\u201d Bill Maddocks, a Vote Ceasefire organizer and an activist with the group New Hampshire Peace Action, said in a statement Thursday. \u201cSo we used something we know he must pay attention to\u2014our votes.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Vote Ceasefire came together<\/a> in a few weeks\u2019 time after progressive attorney Andru Volinsky, a former member of the state\u2019s Executive Council, wrote a letter to the Concord Monitor<\/a> in December announcing his plans to write in \u201ccease fire\u201d as a protest against Biden\u2019s unconditional support for Israel\u2019s war.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Volinsky made clear that although he supports the president\u2019s reelection, he wants Biden to pressure Israel to end its hostilities in Gaza. Like many other critics of the war, Volinsky has said that he was appalled by the Palestinian group Hamas\u2019 deadly Oct. 7 attack on Israel, but he sees Israel\u2019s response to that attack as excessive. The Israeli invasion has killed more than 25,000 Palestinians<\/a>, the majority of whom were women and children, according to Gaza\u2019s Health Ministry.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cMy concern is with Israel\u2019s annihilation of Palestinians in Gaza and this administration\u2019s support of that misguided and monstrous effort,\u201d Volinsky wrote in his mid-December letter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Vote Ceasefire relied on the personal funds of top organizers to pay for yard signs encouraging the write-in vote.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The campaign took place in the context of a highly unusual<\/a> Democratic primary in New Hampshire. In keeping with the Democratic National Committee\u2019s decision to punish the Granite State for defying a change in the presidential primary schedule that would end New Hampshire\u2019s first-in-the-nation primary status, Biden chose not to compete there and was not on the ballot.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Since the contest proceeded in spite of Biden\u2019s boycott, local Democrats \u2014 and some high-dollar donors \u2014 teamed up to encourage New Hampshire voters to write in his name.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Biden received 64% of the total votes cast on the Democratic side. U.S. Rep. Dean Phillips (D-Minn.), a primary challenger whose name appeared on the ballot, received 20%, and self-help author Marianne Williamson received 4% of the vote.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Organizers of the effort to protest the Israeli invasion of Gaza called the result a \u201csuccess.\u201d By Daniel Marans Jan 25, 2024, 02:00 PM EST (huffpost.com) Just under 1,500 New Hampshire voters used Tuesday\u2019s Democratic presidential primary to call for a stop to Israel\u2019s invasion of Gaza by writing in the… Continue reading → <\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[1761],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31291"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=31291"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31291\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":31292,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31291\/revisions\/31292"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=31291"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=31291"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=31291"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}