‘Time to stand up’: Mother’s Day march rallies for peace, children caught in international conflict

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Hundreds gathered at Philadelphia’s Love Park on Mother’s Day to advocate for human rights nationally and abroad, specifically the detention of immigrants and the ongoing Israel-Hamas War.

People of differing faiths, backgrounds come together for a peaceful protest

More than 30 local advocacy groups organized the protest Sunday, demanding “protections and rights for all children, everywhere.”

Keziah Ridgeway, a Muslim mother of four, noted the diversity of the people, many of whom were also mothers, who gathered near the Love sculpture and empathized with those who have lost children throughout the various global conflicts happening simultaneously.

“I couldn’t imagine waking up one day and having my home bombed and looking over and my child is gone or multiple children [are] gone,” Ridgeway said. “That’s what mothers in Sudan, in Congo, in Palestine and even here with people who came here for a better life, wake up one day, their husbands are gone or their mothers are gone and sent back to another country.”

The Associated Press reports that the Trump administration is looking into suspending habeas corpus, the constitutional right for people to legally challenge their detention by the government. White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller said the administration is looking for ways to expand its legal power to deport migrants who are in the United States illegally.

Helena Pylväinen, one of the organizers of Sunday’s protest, said President Donald Trump’s actions are trying to “make it scarier and scarier to be visible, to be loud,” and “to stand up to justice.”

“What that means is that this is the most important time to stand up and be visible and speak out for people’s rights,” Pylväinen said.

Trump’s impact is being felt locally

Philadelphia’s immigrant community has been on a heightened state of alert since the first reported ICE operation at a car wash in North Philadelphia in January, where seven people were detained by the Trump administration. And last month, it was announced that the largest Cinco de Mayo celebration on the East Coast, Carnaval de Puebla, was canceled this year over fears of potential ICE operations.

Frances Kreimer serves as a board member for Juntos, a South Philly-based Latine immigrant organization that advocates for human rights. While attending the protest with her mother, who’s also a rabbi, she said there are people “risking their freedom every day” participating in protests like the one held Sunday.

“We know as Jews what it means when people are stripped of their dignity because of who they are, and we see that happening in Palestine and we see that happening here with our undocumented community in Philadelphia,” Kreimer said. “We know that we’re all less safe and less human when that happens.

Protesters keep rallying against the Israel-Hamas war, more than a year and a half after combat began

Last week, the Israeli government approved a plan to seize more land in Gaza and move Palestinians to a designated zone with food and supplies provided by U.S. security contractors. The plan would shutter hundreds of soup kitchens and aid centers across a territory already dealing with starvation and malnutrition, according to NPR.

“No food, no aid, no medical supplies have been allowed to enter Gaza. In fact, the only thing that’s been allowed to enter is bombs,” Pylväinen said. “This is a thing that shouldn’t exist on planet Earth. It’s a man-made famine.”

On Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas-led militants attacked southern Israel, killing roughly 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and taking 251 hostage. Fifty-nine hostages are still inside Gaza, around a third of them believed to be alive, according to the Associated Press. Edan Alexander, the last living American hostage in Gaza, is expected to be released within the next 48 hours, Hamas officials announced Sunday.

More than 52,800 Palestinians, mostly women and children, have been killed since the conflict began, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry.

Rabbi Mordechai Liebling said he wants people to stop conflating criticism of Israel as antisemitism, saying “Israel has the right to be criticized as any other state in the world.”

“It’s sad and unfortunate that people are confusing criticism of Israel with antisemitism because that only helps people who are actually promoting antisemitism,” Liebling said.

Local universities have also felt the impacts, with international students having their visas revoked at both Temple and UPenn, with the former also losing roughly $3 million in federal research funding. Multiple international students across the country have been detained for their participation in pro-Palestine demonstrations.