STOPPING IN FOR A VISIT AT ‘KIBBUTZ BLINKEN’
▶ Women-led tent protest brings Gaza war to Secretary of State’s doorstep, write Ellie Sennett and Ahmed Issawy
The Washington suburb of McLean, Virginia, is home to some of the US’s most elite decision makers, including senators, Supreme Court justices, CIA officials – and Secretary of State Antony Blinken.
Over the course of two weeks, women-led, pro-Palestine protesters have turned the area around the gilded block of multimillion-dollar homes where Mr Blinken lives into a fake-bloodstained, concrete-barricaded campsite.
The residents of the camp – known as “Kibbutz Blinken” – confront him day and night over his support for Israel, as the war in Gaza rages on.
“I wanted to know, Blinken, if we brought the settlement to you, are you completely OK with it?” says Hazami Barmada, the Palestinian-Syrian American who organised the protests.
“American politicians and people in positions of power here are completely absolved of any consequences of their actions. They create these policies that create havoc … and they just leave their offices, go back to their lives and it’s business as usual. So, we wanted to bring this up close and personal, to his home.”
This “settlement” is sophisticated: there are designated responsibilities, signs reminding campers of city-mandated quiet hours, a kitchen tent and portable toilets.
Every morning, at 7am, the women do their “wake-up call”, shouting at the house.
Huda Suliman is in the kitchen tent on coffee duty, heating it up over the portable stove top and unwrapping donated breakfast sandwiches.
Nadine Seiler is reminding others not to cross over the street line to disrupt the morning commuter traffic.
“They are looking for any reason to shut us down,” she says.
These women know – and follow – the law well. The relationship with police is friendly – when the patrol arrives later, they offer them doughnuts.
But there are moments of hostility from drivers, who sometimes pass just centimetres away from the protesters.
An older man in a convertible screams: “Hamas are scum.” A middle-aged woman shouts “you need to get out of here”, as she speeds by.
But the vast majority of people are supportive. Not five minutes go by without passing cars honking their horns and drivers throwing peace signs. One man yells out a thank you, while another slows down to say “Assalam Alaikum” – peace be with you, in Arabic.
Some of Mr Blinken’s neighbours have expressed frustration with blocked driveways. But most have been accommodating, even offering support, protester Atefeh Rokhvand says, including one who baked them an apple pie.
Times of cold and rainy weather, Ms Barmada says, reinforce why they are there. “On the same evening our tents flooded, I opened my social media and saw that tents in Gaza were flooding and they had nowhere to go,” she explains. “They had no blankets, no food, no supplies.”
In response to the camp, the Secretary of State and his wife, Evan Ryan, who works in the White House, have built up security around their home.
During The National’s visit, they blocked off their road, a major commuter avenue, so concrete barriers could be installed. Kibbutz Blinken says this boosted morale. “This makes us safe, it adds space for signage and proves that they are bothered,” Ms Barmada says.
That was also when Bawadi, a local Palestinian restaurant, arrived with meals.
Many members of the owner’s family were killed by Israeli bombs in Gaza.
What the protest has meant for Mr Blinken’s two young children, aged three and five, has been controversial.
Protesters say that the family had asked them to stop screaming when the children were in cars driving by.
“They literally said to us, ‘can we agree that a three and a five-year-old are not collateral damage’,” Ms Barmada says.
“We are here because three and five-year-olds [in Gaza] are collateral damage. “That is the definition of hypocrisy.”
Motherhood is an inescapable theme in this war and informs Ms Barmada’s acts of solidarity.
She has a 15-month-old son and for her, the turning point was Israel’s onslaught on Gaza, in response to the October 7 attacks by Hamas-led militants on Israeli settlements.
Israel’s strikes have involved “the dehumanisation of Palestinians”, said Ms Barmada. “For a long time, the Palestinian identity even for me was something that – I wouldn’t say I’m ashamed of it, I’m very proud to be Palestinian – but I contained my identity and was very particular about where I would choose to be proudly Palestinian,” she explains.
With the start of the Israel-Gaza war “something in me broke”, says Ms Barmada.
It takes on a particular meaning for the camp’s visibly Muslim women. “For us, growing up in America, we kind of were like, we’re going to be nice. We’re going to be super smiley … and it’s like, look where that got us,” says Ms Rokhvand.
“If you want to call me a terrorist for wanting peace and a ceasefire, wanting to stop bombing, that says more about you than it does about me.”
Kibbutz Blinken residents say friendships will stay intact long after the tents come down. But, they say, there’s a long way togo before that happens.
Passing cars honk their horns and offer peace signs. One man yells ‘thank you,’ while another says ‘Assalam Alaikum’