About 100 protesters packed the sidewalk outside House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries' Downtown Brooklyn district office Tuesday, demanding he use his leadership perch to help shut down the U.S. military campaign against Iran. The rally at the Shirley A. Chisholm State Office Building was one piece of a coordinated day of action that organizers say reached congressional offices in 37 districts nationwide, with demonstrators pressing lawmakers to treat three House votes against the war as more than symbolic gestures.
The Brooklyn demonstration was timed to a nationwide mobilization coordinated by a coalition that included NIAC, Action Corps, Common Defense and World BEYOND War, according to the Action Corps Media Advisory, which said the actions spanned more than 30 U.S. cities and were endorsed by over 90 national and local organizations ahead of the midterm elections. As Brooklyn Paper reported, the Day of Action for Peace with Iran was also organized by groups including Bring Our Troops Home, the Libertarian Institute, Peace Action and the Presbyterian Church (USA) Office of Public Witness. Jeffries' representatives pointed the outlet to his previous public statements opposing the war.
A Marine Veteran's Warning From Iraq
Among the speakers was Joshua Kaitan Lucas, a U.S. Marine veteran who enlisted two months after the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq began in 2003. Lucas said the Iraq invasion was launched under false pretenses and benefited war profiteers while causing widespread suffering, drawing a direct line between that earlier war and the current conflict, according to Brooklyn Paper's account of the rally.
The outlet's report also detailed the coalition's demands beyond simply ending hostilities: investigations into alleged war crimes, including the full release of Defense Department investigations into a bombing of a civilian wedding in Kuhestak on September 1 and the February 28 bombing of Minab elementary school, which reportedly killed 120 children along with teachers and staff. Activists also called for a peace agreement that includes lifting sanctions on Iran, the same reporting noted.
Letters, Petitions and a Years-Long Pressure Campaign
The rally built on sustained local organizing that predates this week's action. NY8 Neighbors for a Gaza Ceasefire delivered 750 signed letters to Jeffries' office calling for an end to his support for military assistance to Israel, Brooklyn Paper reported. Local organizing has also taken place at the Hanson Place office. The building itself, a 13-story state facility at 55 Hanson Place, was renamed in 2009 for the first Black congresswoman through legislation Jeffries sponsored, according to his own office.
Etan Mabourakh, executive director of Brooklyn for Peace and a NIAC senior adviser for organizing, told the outlet that Congress should go beyond symbolic votes and statements declaring the war illegal. He also voiced opposition to a prolonged war that could devastate Iranian civilians and destabilize the country, the paper reported.
The Human and Financial Toll Cited by Speakers
The Human and Financial Toll Cited by Speakers Gold Star mother Anne Ambia, whose son enlisted shortly after the September 11 attacks and who belongs to Military Families Speak Out, said she wants the war to end and troops brought home, according to the same account. Molly Nolan of Brooklyn for Peace called the war immoral, describing it as a conflict of choice and aggression causing civilian and environmental harm, and noted that the Pentagon has a trillion-dollar budget this year while seeking $1.5 trillion next year, per Brooklyn Paper's reporting.
The Defense Department has reported 21 U.S. service members killed and 865 wounded, the outlet noted, while estimates of civilian deaths in the broader 2026 U.S.-Israel conflict range between 3,375 and more than 7,600. Separately, official Defense Casualty Analysis System records reviewed by Hoodline through September listed 418 service members wounded in action, prompting Senators Tammy Duckworth and Pat Ryan to introduce legislation barring the Pentagon from recategorizing post-ceasefire combat deaths after records showed between 18 and 22 fatalities.
Jeffries' Balancing Act and the Power of the Purse
Rally attendee Alan Band said the war was unnecessary, should never have started, and urged Jeffries to help end it as soon as possible to protect the U.S. economy, telling the outlet he supports peace in the Middle East, lower gas prices and preventing further killings of innocent people. Those economic concerns have data behind them: the Congressional Budget Office estimated the war cost roughly $38 billion during its first five months, Moody's Analytics chief economist Mark Zandi has estimated it added nearly $2,000 to the average American household's costs, and gas prices have risen about 44 percent since the war began, according to Brooklyn Paper. The Trump administration has requested at least $67 billion more to finance the fighting.
Jeffries has named ending the war a priority for the first 100 days of a Democratic-controlled Congress and has called the war illegal and unconstitutional for lacking congressional authorization under Article I, Brooklyn Paper reported. The House has voted three times to end the war, with the third vote, on September 15, passing 220-204 as seven Republicans crossed party lines. In recent remarks, Jeffries linked the military campaign to rising energy costs and did not rule out using Congress's spending authority to force an end to the fighting.
The War Powers Resolution of 1973, enacted over President Nixon's veto to curb unilateral executive military action, requires the president to notify Congress within 48 hours of deploying forces into hostilities. With diesel prices rising amid Strait of Hormuz shipping disruptions, organizers are urging lawmakers to block war funding in government funding legislation expected after the midterms.
