Rep. Jeff Van Drew (R-N.J.) is demanding that the Department of the Interior take immediate enforcement action against the White House “Peace Vigil,” calling the decades-old protest site a legal and safety failure. The protest encampment, established in 1981, sits on federal parkland just outside Lafayette Square, directly across from the White House.
In a letter sent Monday to Interior Secretary Doug Burgum, Van Drew called the vigil an illegal permanent structure that degrades public space and burdens city services. “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,” he wrote. “This isn’t ‘free speech.’ This is a failure of enforcement.”
The site remains under the control of Philipos Melaku-Bello, who identifies as a “Professor of Anarchistic & Revolutionary Studies at Occupy University, DC Campus.” Melaku-Bello took over from previous caretakers after the original founder, William Thomas, died in 2009, and Concepción Picciotto in 2016.
Initially erected as a protest against nuclear proliferation, the vigil has since morphed into a platform for a range of far-left causes, including Black Lives Matter, transgender advocacy, and anti-Israel rhetoric. One sign displayed at the site accuses President Donald Trump of fascism, while another proclaims, “when injustice becomes law resistance becomes duty.”
The “peach vigil” is littered with signs propagating false information about the conflict in Gaza and anti-Israel slogans. When asked if he supported the Hamas terror group’s “resistance” against Israel, which resulted in the massacre of 1,200 Israelis during Hamas’s October 7 terror attack, Melaku-Bello refused to respond to the question from a Washington Free Beacon reporter and called him “a cracker.”
Van Drew criticized the National Park Service and the District of Columbia for allowing the encampment to continue. “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,” he wrote.
In his letter, Van Drew urged the Interior Department to “immediately initiate a full compliance review” and take “swift enforcement action.” He concluded, “No group should be above the law, and the continued allowance of this permanent occupation sends the wrong message to law-abiding Americans.”
