Anti-Israeli protesters have set up an encampment outside the home of Rep. Greg Landsman (D-Ohio), who has decried their activity as harassment.
Landsman, who is Jewish, shared a photo online of a group of demonstrators outside his home. The protests are taking place a year after the Oct. 7, 2023, attacks by Hamas on Israel.
“A group of masked anti-Israel protesters assembled outside my home early Sunday morning and remained through the evening, forcing police to escort my family in and out of our house for safety,” Landsman posted on social platform X.
The protesters refused to leave the area and set up tents, cots and sleeping bags and were “harassing my family outside of our home,” he said.
In a press release, Landsman said he and his daughter planned to attend a service on Monday to “bear witness to the atrocious terror attacks of October 7th.”
“Meanwhile, these people will be outside of my house, in an attempt to intimidate my Jewish family every time we try to leave our home,” Landsman said. “They’ve done this to my staff and me for nearly a year, and now they’re doing it to my family and neighbors. I don’t think they have any boundaries at this point. Our family hopes they leave soon and protest in a more appropriate and less intrusive manner.”
Landsman concluded by expressing his thanks to the Cincinnati Police Department for keeping him and his family safe.
The demonstrators are part of a group known as Midwest Direct Action 4 Pali!
According to a video shared on Instagram, protesters are masked, wearing black and marching down Landsman’s street. They set up banners about Palestinians in Gaza, where Israel has launched a war to go after Hamas, which controls the area. More than 40,000 have been killing in that fighting, according to the Gaza Health Ministry.
“We’ve set up camp outside Greg Landsman’s home to send a clear message: his complicity in genocide will not be forgotten and we will not forget our martyrs,” the group’s post said.
A spokesperson for the group told The Associated Press that the group had no intention of leaving soon and that “this is not and never been something to do with religion.”
Landsman’s office said the demonstrators were still outside his house Monday.
It’s not the first time he has been a target of protests related to the conflict. Some posters were placed outside a building in his district with inflammatory language last year, The Associated Press reported.