Protesters delivered a letter to Congressman Salud Carbajal’s Santa Barbara office Monday objecting to his support of Israel in the war following the Oct. 7, 2023 Hamas attacks.

The Hamas attacks in Israel killed 1,200 people and took 250 others hostage, and resulted in a year of war and devastation in Gaza that has claimed the lives of more than 41,000 Palestinians, according to news reports.

About 25 people met Monday morning at Carbajal’s office at 125 E De La Guerra St. to share chants, read poetry, and demand Carbajal stop voting to send weapons to Israel. The group also told him to support restoring the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees. 

“As constituents invested in our local and global communities, we urge you to advocate and vote for an arms embargo on Israel to enforce an immediate and permanent ceasefire in Gaza,” the letter says.

“Supporting arms deliveries while calling for a ceasefire and humanitarian aid is a contradiction that defies logic and decency. We urge you to take a more proactive approach, prioritizing human rights and international law,” the letter reads. 

The letter to Carbajal was signed by more than 400 constitutes in his district demanding the end of U.S. involvement in the war between Israel and Hamas in Palestine. The letter opposed Carbajal’s stance that Israel has a right to defend itself. 

“This is not self-defense; this is genocide – and you are complicit, having voted  to arm Israel’s mass murder of civilians, suspend UNRWA deliveries of food, water and medicine and silence dissent in the U.S. with conflation of anti-Zionism with anti-Semitism,” the letter read. 

Marcy Winograd with the anti-war group CODEPINK said they held the gathering on Oct. 7 because they wanted to call for the release of all hostages. 

“We call for the release of all hostages, and that means those held in Gaza, that means those thousands and thousands held and tortured in Israeli prisons in occupied territories,” Winograd said.

Barbara Parmet with Jewish Voices for Peace read a poem about the dream of a free Palestine and spoke about the grief experienced in the last year. 

“As Jews, we believe that every person is a whole world and every life lost is an entire universe destroyed,” Parmet said.

“It is because of this unshakable belief that we have mourned every single life lost over the past year, Palestinian, Lebanese and Israeli and fought at every turn against the efforts of the Israeli and U.S. governments to turn Jewish grief into a justification of justice.” 

Protesters called for money to go to aid, housing, and jobs in the United States instead of overseas. 

“We’re sending billions to bomb Lebanon and Syria and Gaza,” said Grace Benard with the Santa Ynez Valley Liberation Association. “We are not giving aid to the people who experience tragedy in North Carolina, Tennessee. The hurricanes that they have experienced, and while our government is sending billions to go bomb people, the devastation of our own country is being ignored.”

After gathering on the street, the group went into the office and read the letter to Carbajal’s district director Erica Reyes. 

Reyes told the protestors that the office appreciated the group’s advocacy and that Carbajal is currently working in the district but will be returning to Washington, D.C., in November to work on the budget.

Protestors told Reyes that they were upset by Carbajal’s previous responses to their efforts and would like to have a meeting to discuss their concerns. After 17 minutes the group went back downstairs to hold up signs and take pictures. 

On Monday morning, Carbajal posted about the anniversary of the Oct. 7 attacks on social media.  

“Israel has seen the most brazen attacks on its citizens in a generation and must retain the ability to defend itself against those whose pledged goal is their extermination,” Carbajal posted. “Innocent Palestinians and peace-loving people across the region must also be able to live without fear that this war will eventually find its way into their own home.”

He went on to write that ending terrorist attacks by Hamas, Hezbollah, and other Iranian proxies and “uprooting those responsible for October 7th” remain key to reestablishing peace and finding a pathway to a two-state solution.

Other events have been held in Santa Barbara this week to mark the anniversary.

On Sunday, nearly a hundred people gathered at Alameda Park in Santa
Barbara to commemorate the lives lost in Israel and pray for those still held hostage.

People decorated and flew kites in memory of the Kutz family of Kibbutz Kfar Aza, a partner kibbutz of Congregation B’nai B’rith in Santa Barbara.

Aviv Kurtz, his wife Livant Kurtz, and their children Rotem, Yonatan and Iftach, were murdered in their home on Oct. 7.

The event lasted two hours and included prayers, songs, and stories of civilians and soldiers who risked their lives to help others.