NORTHAMPTON — Activists who have been pressing Rep. Jim McGovern to call for a halt to U.S. military aid to Israel are now demanding that he return all campaign contributions from donors who they say profit from the assault on Gaza.

Members of the Leahy Fast for Palestine Committee and supporters occupied McGovern’s Pleasant Street office March 12-15. Gathering outside the office again Friday morning, they detailed more than $25,000 in contributions they say the congressman has accepted from lobbying firms and investors in the machinery of war.

Later Friday, a large contingent of Jewish, Muslim and allied community members had planned to gather outside McGovern’s office to urge him to stand against military aid to the Israeli government.

But Jewish Voice for Peace member Molly Aronson said the group was postponing the action because McGovern had taken “a really bold step” Friday in voting against the $1.2 trillion omnibus spending bill to fund several government agencies.

McGovern and 21 other House Democrats objected to the bill’s provision that removed funding for the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), the key U.N. agency that provides food, water and shelter to Palestinians in Gaza.

The Biden administration said it would temporarily stop funding for UNRWA over allegations that some of its employees partook in Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack on Israel, and Republicans pushed to keep the funding cut off, The Hill reported.

The spending bill received enough votes to pass the House, however, and was headed to the Senate for a possible vote late Friday. Rep. Richard Neal, D-Springfield, and the rest of the Massachusetts delegation voted for the bill.

Leahy Fast members said they appreciated McGovern’s vote.

“However, we do not support filling people’s bellies only to provide weapons to kill them,” the group stated. They reiterated their call for an end to U.S. military shipments to Israel “to stop the killing and maiming of Palestinians, directly and through destruction of their hospitals, water supply, sanitation facilities and enforced starvation.”

The Health Ministry in Gaza raised the territory’s death toll Thursday to nearly 32,000 Palestinians from the 5½-month assault, the Associated Press reported. The ministry doesn’t differentiate between civilians and combatants in its count but says women and children make up two-thirds of the dead.

More than a million Palestinians have sought refuge in Rafah from Israeli ground and air strikes further north. So little food has been allowed into Gaza that up to 60% of children under 5 are now malnourished, according to the World Health Organization.

Money demands

Outside McGovern’s office Friday morning, Leahy Fast member Nick Mottern cited Bradley Tusk, an investor in BRINC, a Seattle company that is selling surveillance drones to the Israel Defense Forces, as McGovern’s top campaign contributor at $13,200.

The group also singled out donations from a lobbying firm and the JStreetPAC, which Mottern described as an apologist for the Israeli government since the war began.

“Congressman McGovern’s policy decisions and campaign contributions must align,” the peace advocates stated. “We want him to remove any influence that would limit his response to the profound suffering of the Palestinian people.”

Mottern said the activists wrote the congressman a letter with their demands on Monday. In a response from a campaign spokesperson Friday, McGovern said he disagreed with their analysis.

“My record on this issue speaks for itself — and very strongly,” he stated.

Leahy Fast member the Rev. Peter Kakos said the group has had three sessions with McGovern, and acknowledged that “he listened to us intently.”

McGovern, who was one of the first members of Congress to call for a cease-fire in Gaza, said on the Fabulous 413 radio show this week that he believes his position is very similar to that of the protesters — that the bombing of Gaza needs to stop, that humanitarian aid must be allowed in, and that hostages need to be released.

McGovern has spoken out in Congress on stopping military aid to Israel under the provisions of the Foreign Assistance Act and Arms Export Control Act, which bar weapons sales to any country “that restricts, directly or indirectly, the transport of U.S. humanitarian assistance.”

The protesters, however cite the Leahy law, which prohibits the U.S. government from supplying military aid to foreign armies engaged in gross violations of human rights.

“We’re calling on Congress to support all U.S. laws, not just some of them,” Mottern said.