By Ellen Grady, re-posted from social media (3/1/2025)

On Wednesday, I went to trial at the Syracuse Federal Building on two violation charges stemming from an action November 15, 2024 calling for the US to stop funding genocide in Gaza. After a six-and-a-half-hour trial with a couple of short breaks, the judge found me guilty. I will be sentenced on Wednesday, March 12th. Below is my opening statement. The story at the end of my statement was the most important thing I wanted on the Federal record.

(This statement was modified slightly when presented at trial.)

Good morning, Judge Dancks. I am grateful to be here today with you. I am grateful that I have the right to be heard in a court of law, and that you have dedicated your life to that service. I’d also like to thank all the people serving in court today for your work in ensuring the right to a fair, public trial, a key tenant of democracy. And I am grateful to everyone who has come to bear witness today.

I want to acknowledge that we are on un-ceded Onondaga territory. And that the Haudenosaunee Confederacy founded in 1142 by the Great Peace Maker is often described as the oldest participatory democracy and that their Constitution is believed to be a model for the US Constitution.

I would also like to thank my parents and my elders for their example of trying to faithfully live the Gospel call to Love one another as God loves us.

I stand here before you today charged with two violations of the Code of Federal Regulations.

As the government laid out, an element of the Obstructing charge they have to prove beyond a reasonable doubt is that I exhibited “disorderly conduct” and that I “unreasonably” obstructed the front doors of the federal building.

For the Failure to Comply charge, part of the government’s burden is to prove that I failed to comply with the lawful direction of a federal officer and that I acted unlawfully.

The government contends that the context of my actions – including my motivations for exercising my First Amendment rights – don’t matter and has asked this Court to prohibit me from even speaking about the US-funded genocide in Gaza.

The government is wrong to ask this because to understand if conduct is reasonable and if actions are lawful, context is everything.

Throughout this trial, the evidence will show that my actions on November 15, 2024, were a reasonable and lawful exercise of my First Amendment rights. That day, I was attempting to meet with my Senators to raise the alarm that our government is violating the Leahy Laws by funding Israel’s genocide in Gaza with US taxpayer money.

The Leahy Laws strictly prohibit the US government from funding

foreign militaries where there is credible evidence of gross violations of human rights.

To date, the US-funded genocide in Gaza has taken the lives of over 70,000 Palestinians, 20,000 of them precious children, and injured over 112,000 people. 14,000 people are missing in Gaza, many of whom are still buried under the rubble.

The evidence will show that that day, I was one of nine concerned citizens who entered the lobby of the Federal building with a reasonable request to meet with staff from Senators Schumer and Gillabrand’s offices.

The evidence will show that we citizens were there because of the urgent national call to reach our Senators to implore them to uphold the law and support the Joint Resolutions of Disapproval bill put forth by Senators Sanders, Welch, and Schatz that would be voted on that coming week. The bill called for a halt to the $20 billion weapons shipment to Israel approved by the Biden administration.

The evidence will show that all nine of us were denied access to our Senators’ offices.

The evidence will show that, after we were initially denied our right to petition our government for a redress of grievances, we made the reasonable decision to stay in the lobby with the hope that we would be able to meet with our Senators’ staff after all.

In the words of Senator Elizabeth Warren, “The failure by the Biden administration to follow the law and to suspend arms shipments is a grave mistake that undermines American credibility worldwide. If this administration will not act, congress must step up to enforce US law and hold the Netanyahu government accountable through a Joint Resolution of Disapproval”.

What is a reasonable action in the face of Genocide, when the polls were showing that 61% of the American people wanted to cut off the flow of weapons to Israel? The evidence will show, all of us have written letters, signed petitions, we called and marched and held teach-ins all falling on the deaf ears of the Biden administration.

What is a reasonable action when it is well documented that the US Agency for International Development told the State Department in a late April of 2024 report that Israel was subjecting US humanitarian aid destined for Gaza to “arbitrary denial, restriction and impediments.” And that officials in the State Department’s own refugee bureau also found in April 2024 that “facts on the ground indicate US humanitarian assistance is being restricted”. Which are violations of the Leahy Laws, and yet in May 2024 Secretary of State Anthony Blinken delivered a State Department report to Congress with a different conclusion. He said, “We do not currently assess that the Israeli government is prohibiting or otherwise restricting the transport or delivery of U.S. humanitarian assistance.”

Prior to his report, USAID had sent Secretary Blinken a detailed 17-page memo on Israel’s conduct. The memo described instances of Israeli interference with aid efforts, including killing aid workers, razing agricultural structures, bombing ambulances and hospitals, sitting on supply depots and routinely turning away trucks full of food and medicine.

What do you do when your government is funding a genocide with our tax dollars, lying to Congress, and NOT following the law? In this very real context:

It was reasonable to go to the Federal Building,

It was reasonable to stay in the lobby until we got some word from our elected officials or their representatives.

It was reasonable for us, as citizens and taxpayers, to ask our representatives to be accountable, knowing that the United States has footed 70% of Israel’s Genocide in Gaza. Meanwhile, we face myriad crises here at home –

And yes, it was reasonable and lawful to try to communicate what 61% of our fellow Americans are calling for, that is, STOP ARMING ISRAEL, STOP ARMING GENOCIDE.

Before I end I want to share this short story that touches my heart to the core. This is the story of a little girl named Hind Rajab, just 5 years old, like my granddaughter. Soon to be 6 years old, Hind was murdered by the Israeli Defense Forces along with her uncle, her aunt, and her 4 dear cousins, including her 16-year-old cousin Layan. The IDF shot 335 bullets into their car as the family tried to flee to a safer place.

We know their story because their cries for help were recorded by the Red Crescent dispatcher who spoke with the girls after their car had been fired upon by the IDF.

Layan: Listen no one in the car is moving. They’re asleep. Only Hind and I are alive. I am injured, I am shot all over. Hind is shot. Hind is bleeding, I am bleeding.

Layan : They are shooting at us. The tank is next to me.

RED CRESCENT DISPATCHER: Are you hiding?

LAYAN: Yes, in the car. We’re next to the tank.

DISPATCHER: Are you inside the car?

At that moment LAYAN is heard screaming as more gunfire rings out.

DISPATCHER: Hello? Hello?

That was 15-year-old Layan’s last words, killed along with the rest of her family. The only one who remained alive was Hind. The Red Crescent was able to reach Hind on the phone again.

Dispatcher: Hello

Hind: They are dead

Dispatcher: Are they dead

Hind: Yes

Dispatcher: Hide, Hide, Where are you exactly in the car?…Hide under the seat so you can’t be seen at all.

Hind: OK. Come take me. You will come and take me?… I’m so scared. Please come. Please come and take me…

Dispatcher: My love, believe me, God willing, the coordination will happen.

After seeking approval from the Israeli military, which came 3 hours later with a map and clearance from the Israelis, two emergency workers with the Palestine Red Crescent, Yusuf Zeino and Ahmed al-Madhoun, went to try to rescue Hind.

All the while the dispatchers stayed on the phone with Hind. At times she was screaming for help.

Nisreen Qawas, the Director of Mental Health for the Palestinian Red Crescent Services came on the phone with Hind to try to keep her hopes up: Hanoud ( a nickname for Hind), honey, just take a breath and close your eyes for a little. Let your eyes rest a little and we will be there.

Hind: Nisreen, when are you coming to take me?

(Nisreen being interviewed after shared, “I was trying to take her direction out of the car, out of the victims around her, out of her murdered family, out of the smell of the blood. Can you imagine a 6 year old is afraid, is hungry, thirsty, smells blood around her all the time. Dark is coming on soon and only the phone is her hope. Our voices, my collegues voices were her only hope.)

Eventually the Red Crescent dipatcher is able to patch Hind’s mother, Wissam, into the call.

Wissam I love you and daddy loves you. We all love you, sweetheart. Stay safe… Hind are you injured?

Hind: Yes. I am shot in my arm, my back and my foot. My foot and arm and back are bleeding.

Dispatcher: The ambulance is coming to you. In a minute the car will reach you. It’s just moving slowly.

Meanwhile, Yusuf and Ahmed, the Ambulance drivers on their way to Hind, were in radio contact with the Red Crecent. It was getting dark.

Driver: “I can’t see a thing here”

Dispatcher: Do you have your siren and flashing lights on?

Driver: “Just the lights, not the siren.” “Oh, there it is.”

Then a loud explosion is heard. The radio connection is lost. But the explosion is also heard through the phone with Hind.

Wissam: Hello, Hello Hanoud! Hanoud, are you ok?

Hind: Yes

Wissam: Thank God, Thank God. She’s OK.

At that time Nisreen asks Hind if she could hear the bomb.

Hind: Yes, yes I heard it.

The phone call continued but Hind’s voice started to grow fainter. The Red Crescent was asking her why she wasn’t speaking. Hind told them that she wasn’t speaking “because my mouth is bleeding”.

Nisreen: “Wipe your mouth and tell me if you are still bleeding”.

Hind: “I don’t want to get my shirt dirty so I won’t trouble my mom.”

Wissam: “It’s okay, wipe your mouth and I will wash it my sweetheart.”

Hind agreed and wiped with her sleeve and her voice disappeared. It was at exactly 7PM. Her voice disappeared completely.

Twelve days later, after the Israeli Defense Forces left the area and family was able to finally reach the scene, what they found was absolute carnage. The two bodies of the paramedics were charred and the ambulance decimated, crushed with a 122 mm US shell found within the remains (the same weaponry that the Joint Resolutions of Disapproval bill would have prevented being sold to Israel). 50 yards away the bullet-riddled black KIA had 335 bullets holes and the bodies of Hind, Layann, Layann’s father, mother and 3 siblings decaying