PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — Local activists rallied in Center City on Saturday to protest U.S. military involvement in the growing conflict between Iran and Israel. The demonstration came after President Donald Trump said he is weighing whether to use military force in the region.
Protesters gathered at 5th and Market streets before marching to City Hall, chanting and carrying signs that urged leaders to “Say No to War in Iran.”
The rally was organized by several groups, including Peace, Justice, Sustainability Now. Speakers and demonstrators alike called for diplomacy and congressional oversight, not unilateral military action.
“It’s not up to the president to start a war or to be involved in a war,” said David Gibson, co-director of the group. “It’s up to the American people through our elected representatives,” he said.
He said organizers are encouraging people to call their senators and ask them to support two newly introduced bills that would prohibit federal funding for any military action in Iran.
“That's what the American people want,” he said. “Most recent polls out show over 60% across the board, and Republicans, Democrats, and Independents are all opposed to the US going to war, and they're in favor of a diplomatic solution.”
Gibson said the people in the Middle East are unnecessarily suffering, and government funds will be wasted.
“They’re talking about billions for new nuclear weapons,” he said. “The Trump administration wants a $1 trillion budget, and if the U.S. goes to war with Iran, there will be a supplemental bill that will make it even higher. That’s unprecedented.”
Parham Parsa, who was born and raised in Iran, shared an emotional account of his family’s experience.
“They're scared,” he said. “They're leaving everything, and it's just heartbreaking for us from the outside because we see our home, we see somewhere we grew up in, we lived in all of our lives getting destroyed, and our families are scared for their lives and we don't know if we're going to have a country to go back to.”
Parsa, who moved to the U.S. in his teens, said people should educate themselves about the experiences of Middle Eastern people.
“We know that our democracy is not going to come with Western and Israeli bombs, so people should take action and people should hear the voice of the people in Iran, not just how Iranians are portrayed in the media,” he said. “I think there's a big distinction that we should learn about as a Western society.”
State Sen. Nikil Saval also addressed the crowd, condemning what he described as a cycle of war.
“We refuse to accept the exploitation of other people in other lands for corporate profits, and we refuse to allow greedy politicians to trick us into thinking that war is a tool to solve problems rather than a payment in blood for theirs,” he said.