Trump’s threats against Iran spark emergency protests in Easthampton

EASTHAMPTON — When Arab American and Easthampton resident Merriam Ansara heard President Donald Trump’s threats on Tuesday that “a whole civilization will die tonight” amid the ongoing war with Iran, she resorted to the same response she’s relied on for the past two years.

“We have been coming out here every Tuesday since April of 2024,” said Ansara, who joined an emergency protest in Easthampton on Wednesday in response to Trump’s comments the night before. “We decided, given that President Trump had sworn, literally sworn, to annihilate 90 million people [approximate population of Iran] and some of the most important history of the world, we decided we had to protest.”

Before Trump’s message to Iran on Tuesday, he made prior threats on social media saying he would be “blasting Iran into oblivion,” including the nation’s bridges and power plants.

The combination of the president’s messages led to “emergency protests” throughout the nation, including Easthampton, where Ansara stood in front of Nashawannuck Pond with a couple dozen residents holding signs decrying the United States and Israel’s involvement in the war with Iran. The six-week-old war began on Feb. 28.

From Holyoke and Boston to Chicago and San Francisco, the protests were sparked by the national group Peace Action. Ansara is a member of the state’s local chapter, Massachusetts Peace Action.

The Tuesday protests in Easthampton over the last two years have been led by Easthampton Solidarity for Palestine. But after hearing about the national protests and seeing Trump’s recent messaging, the group felt the need to stand out on both Tuesday and Wednesday along with Massachusetts Peace Action and Indivisible Easthampton.

“It’s important for this work to happen locally,” said Julie Slavet, a member of Indivisible Easthampton. “What’s most important is that it’s grassroots, that it comes from the bottom up and it’s actually people exercising their free speech.”

Trump ultimately backed down from his threats of oblivion and instead agreed to a two-week ceasefire for nations involved in the war, a deal that also included reopening the Strait of Hormuz.

It’s another twist in U.S.-Israel-Iran saga that has led to uncertainty for people like Ansara.

“I will be surprised if it holds,” Ansara said about the ceasefire. “I think that Trump cannot be trusted, I think he needs to be removed under Section 4 of the 25th Amendment.”

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said Wednesday during a media briefing that the strait was open, but hours later, Iran announced that the strait was closing again in response to Israel strikes in Lebanon, the Associated Press reported.

Traveling from Northampton to protest, Ira Helfand, a member of the steering group of the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons, says the war has triggered concerns for nuclear weapon use.

“The strait closed again this afternoon,” Helfand said on Wednesday. “We don’t know what Trump is going to do. It is clear that he is completely unhinged and making decisions impulsively, without any clear plan for what he’s doing.”

Helfand said he thinks Iran is building nuclear weapons, but he did not think there was an immediate threat that constituted the U.S. getting involved in the war. He recalled missile strikes between the U.S., Israel and Iran last June.

“There was no immediate threat. There was no need to start this war, which was a war of choice,” Helfand said. “We had an agreement with Iran negotiated by President Obama, which Trump tore up and we should go back to that agreement. One of the most disturbing things about this is that both now and also last June, our attack on Iran came while we were negotiating.”

Ansara, whose father was Lebanese, said her roots in the Middle East have made this war and the war in Gaza close to her heart. She said she hopes peace can be found.

“I’m Lebanese, but more to the point, I have a peace and justice background,” Ansara said. “And in that, I feel very American.”

Material from AP News was used in this article.