Author Ayelet Waldman, 6 other activists, rabbis arrested trying to take food into Gaza

Members of the protest action say they didn’t expect to succeed, but wanted to highlight the needs of Palestinians

Ayelet Waldman, center, during a protest at the Erez Crossing on the Israel-Gaza border, April 26, 2024. (Tomer Neuberg/Flash90)
Ayelet Waldman, center, during a protest at the Erez Crossing on the Israel-Gaza border, April 26, 2024. (Tomer Neuberg/Flash90)

JTA— Israeli police on Friday arrested seven rabbis and activists, including Ayelet Waldman, a Jewish American author, as they tried to cross into the Gaza Strip with a symbolic delivery of food.

Waldman, who is Israeli-born, was taking part in a protest action organized by Rabbis for Human Rights, and one of five Americans. Two were released before Shabbat, organizers said, but Waldman was still in custody at the police station in Ashkelon, a city near the Gaza border.

Her husband Michael Chabon, also a noted novelist, expressed concern about her status on Instagram.

“She was there in the company of a group of American rabbis, #rabbis4ceasefire, to show the world, the people of Gaza, and their fellow Jews in Israel and around the world what Judaism teaches: justice, lovingkindness, peace, mercy, liberation,” he said.

In a video Chabon posted, Waldman is seen bearing a bag of rice as she walks toward the Erez Crossing, on the northern Gaza-Israel border. A policeman blocks her way and she persists in trying to skirt him.

The other Americans arrested include Rabbi Alissa Wise, a founder of Rabbis for Ceasefire; Rabbi Alana Alpert, a Detroit-area congregational rabbi; Ilana Sumka, a longtime activist and rabbinical student; and Kobi Snitz, a mathematician.

Members of Rabbis for Human Rights and human rights activists carrying humanitarian aid for Gaza, during a protest calling to end the war in Gaza, near the Erez Border crossing, on April 26, 2024. (Tomer Neuberg/Flash90)

The State Department, Israel Police and the Israeli embassy in Washington did not return requests for comment. Miriam Messinger, a spokeswoman for Rabbis for Ceasefire, said that the organizers contacted the United States embassy about the arrests.

Rabbi Andy Kahn, a Brooklyn-based rabbi who joined the protest, told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency that the protesters did not expect to be able to deliver aid to Gaza Palestinians, whom international health officials consider to be on the verge of a famine, more than six months into the war launched October 7 by Hamas’s October 7 attack on Israel, in which terrorists murdered some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and took 253 hostages.

Instead, he said, they wanted to make a point timed for Passover about the plight of Palestinians who have been displaced by the war. Many of the protesters were seen waving matzah as they marched.

Police officers surround US and Israeli rabbis and rabbinical students from the group ‘Rabbis for Ceasefire’ joined by peace activists, during their march toward the Erez crossing on the border with northern Gaza Strip on April 26, 2024. (Jack Guez/AFP)

“Passover is a holiday of liberation and is a holiday which focuses on food and how it is related to liberation,” he said in an interview. “Bringing food aid was a part of our Passover observance, in calling attention to need in Gaza, to the need for a ceasefire, and exchange and release of hostages and a permanent end to this conflict.”

The New York Times reported that they were stopped while trying to drive a pickup truck across the border, through the destroyed Erez crossing. They were not expecting to succeed given Israeli restrictions on allowing people to cross into the war zone without coordination with the military.

Instead, the group now plans to donate the food to Palestinians in the West Bank, the report said.

Israeli police officers arrest a member of the group ‘Rabbis for Ceasefire’ during their march toward the Erez crossing on the border with northern Gaza Strip on April 26, 2024. (Jack Guez/AFP)

Waldman and Chabon are known for their works written and produced separately and jointly. Waldman is known for her 2007 novel, “Love and Other Impossible Pursuits,” and for her Mommy-Track mystery series. She and Chabon are developing a TV series based on his novel, “The Yiddish Policemen’s Union.”

They have also been active for years in the advocacy for Israeli accommodation with Palestinians and with protests critical of Israeli actions.

Times of Israel staff contributed to this report

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