Ken Kutcha stood in front of the fences surrounding a small crowd and held up a sign reading: “No War on Iran,” in large block letters.
On March 7, dozens of people gathered outside the White House to denounce The United States and Israel’s war on Iran, holding signs and reciting anti-war chants. Kutcha was one of the earliest participants to arrive at the scheduled protest, waving his sign as the group grew larger.
The “Stop the War on Iran” protest was organized via Instagram by the Party for Socialism and Liberation. Protestors’ signs read “No new U.S. war in the Middle East.”
“I feel like I need to resist in every way that I can,” Kutcha said. “We’ve had two recent wars in …West Asia, that were failed, they’ve basically bankrupted us. We’ve fallen for this same thing, and it needs to stop.”
Across the street, directly opposing the group of protestors, music echoed as a separate crowd of demonstrators marched past. Counter-protestors raised 1960s Iranian flags and celebrated the killing of Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei.
Organized by the National Solidarity Group of Iran, demonstrators smiled and clapped along to the blasting EDM music as they waved large edited posters of President Trump, Benjamin Netanyahu and Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, labelling them as the world’s greatest leaders.
“We are here to appreciate President Trump for helping Iranians to liberate Iran from the dictators,” Reza Farnood, an attendee at the NSG demonstration, said.
Farnood was dressed in traditional khaki Kurdish clothing — a kawa, a fitted collarless jacket — and sporting an exercise headband in Iranian flag colors.
“You are not Iranians, you are not representing us,” Farnood said. “[The] United States never was [at] war with Iran and never is. We don’t believe that. We believe [the] United States is helping Iran.”
The war between the U.S., Israel and Iran escalated on Feb. 28. President Donald Trump has credited the need to eliminate Iran’s nuclear weapons as one of the causes. The administration has also cited defending the U.S. from a potential retaliatory threat over Israel’s attack as another reason to expand the attacks in the Middle East.
Israel joined the U.S. in the attack, reportedly aiming to remove outside threats, and has assisted the U.S. in its target of Iran’s nuclear program and oil sites.
Trump also said the terms of a proposed ceasefire are not good enough yet, and posted, “There will be no deal with Iran except unconditional surrender.”
Members of Neturei Karta, an orthodox Jewish Anti-Zionist organization, joined the PSL’s anti-war protest in solidarity.
“Our people are being misused. Our religion is being misused to justify crimes, which are forbidden in this very same religion,” Rabbi Dovid Feldman said. “Our work is about education … we don’t want to change Jewish culture, we want to restore [it].”
In six days, the conflict has cost the United States $11.3 billion, and the Trump Administration has not given a definitive timeframe for resolution.
This article was edited by Gabrielle McNamee, Payton Anderson and Walker Whalen. Copy editing done by Avery Grossman, Mattie Lupo and Ava Stuzin. Fact checking done by Luca Palma Poth.
