The decades-old encampment has sat on federal land since 1981
Peace out!
A GOP lawmaker is demanding the Department of the Interior take action against the White House Peace Vigil, an encampment encased in tarps that’s been pitched across from the White House since 1981 and is believed to be the longest-running continuous protest in U.S. history. It was originally set up to raise awareness about nuclear proliferation but has adopted a litany of far-left causes over the years.
“Let me be clear: nothing in the Constitution guarantees the right to erect permanent structures and occupy public land day after day, year after year, in a manner that creates public safety hazards, degrades the appearance of one of our most iconic parks, and burdens both the District and the National Park Service,” Rep. Jeff Van Drew (R., N.J.) wrote in a Monday letter to Interior Secretary Doug Burgum. “This isn’t ‘free speech.’ This is a failure of enforcement.”
“Americans have every right to protest their government. But they do not have the right to hijack a national park and turn it into a 24/7 eyesore,” Van Drew added.
The Peace Vigil, which sits just off of Lafayette Square, a few hundred feet from the White House, is almost certainly viewable from the president’s dining room on the second floor of the Residence. The encampment falls under the jurisdiction of the Interior Department as it sits on federal parkland.
In his letter, Van Drew urged Burgum to “immediately initiate a full compliance review” of the peace vigil, which he said violates Interior Department regulations, and take “swift enforcement action” against it.
“No group should be above the law, and the continued allowance of this permanent occupation sends the wrong message to law-abiding Americans,” Van Drew wrote. “This isn’t about stopping protest. It’s about upholding the rule of law, preserving one of America’s most iconic public spaces, and ending a double standard that’s made a mockery of both.”
Activist William Thomas established the peace vigil on June 3, 1981, and the encampment has avoided removals by being continuously occupied. When Thomas died in 2009, the site was principally maintained by Concepción Picciotto, with the assistance of other volunteers. When Picciotto died in 2016, primary stewardship of the site passed to Philipos Melaku-Bello, who now serves as the vigil’s most regular occupant. In a sparse LinkedIn page, Melaku-Bello describes himself as a “Professor of Anarchistic & Revolutionary Studies at Occupy University, DC Campus.”
Though it began focused on nuclear weapons, the vigil’s mission metastasized over the years to include a bevy of far-left and progressive causes. Today, the encampment features signage supporting Black Lives Matter, transgenderism, and false claims that Israel was committing genocide in Gaza. There is also an ample helping of signs and placards accusing President Donald Trump of fascism.
Though the encampment claims to be a peace vigil, one prominently displayed poster blares that “when injustice becomes law resistance becomes duty.” The invocation was featured just above another flyer highlighting the International Criminal Court warrant against Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
When the Washington Free Beacon asked Melaku-Bello whether he supported Hamas’s “resistance” against Israel, the activist refused to answer and called this reporter “a cracker.”
Interior Department spokeswoman Alyse Sharpe declined to comment on the specifics of Van Drew’s letter, saying only that “the Department of the Interior takes all correspondence from Congress seriously and carefully reviews each matter.”
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