Pro-Palestine Activists Urge New Hampshire Voters To Write In 'Cease-Fire'

MANCHESTER, N.H. ― A group of progressive activists have launched a last-minute effort to protest President Joe Biden’s lockstep support of Israel’s bombardment of Gaza, encouraging voters to write in “cease-fire” on their New Hampshire presidential primary ballots.

The effort adds the most divisive issue in Democratic politics to an already confusing stew in Tuesday’s Democratic primary in New Hampshire, which will award no convention delegates, but has taken on symbolic importance . Biden is not officially on the ballot, but his only remotely serious challenger, Rep. Dean Phillips (D-Minn.), has staked his campaign’s viability on getting more than 20% in the Granite State.

More than anything, however, the ultimate strength of the “cease-fire” campaign could provide an early look at one of the most important questions in Democratic politics: How much are voters willing to prioritize ending the conflict, and how wide the wedge between Biden and left-wing voters who backed him four years ago has become.

Arab Americans and progressive voters, in particular, fault Biden for his refusal to leverage U.S. military aid to Israel to halt a war that they see as criminal. The Israeli aerial bombardment and ground operation have killed more than 25,000 Palestinians , most of them women and children ; displaced 85% of the Gaza Strip’s population; and generated catastrophic shortages of food, water and medical care.

“There is that one spot at the bottom [of the ballot] that will hopefully send a statement to President Biden, to the Democratic Party, to our Democratic elected officials that we really are fed up. The killing must stop,” said Bill Maddocks, a longtime activist with New Hampshire Peace Action from Amherst, New