By Marshall Weiss, The Dayton Jewish Observer

With busloads of protesters from dozens of cities — including New York, Chicago, and Cleveland — and anti-Zionist students from at least nine large universities converging on Dayton this Sunday, Jewish Federation of Greater Dayton Security Director John Davis has a message for the community: Stay away from Downtown Dayton and NATO protests for your own safety.

The protest march, billed as The People’s Assembly for Peace and Justice: Stop NATO – No to Endless War, is scheduled to begin at noon, Sunday, May 25 at Deeds Point MetroPark, across the Mad River from Downtown Dayton. It will culminate with a 3 p.m. assembly at St. John’s United Church on Third Street.

NATO’s Parliamentary Assembly Spring Session, which opened in Dayton last night, runs through Monday, May 26. According to the Dayton Daily News, the spring assembly has brought together approximately 300 diplomats from 32 NATO countries along with their families and staff, as well as diplomats from other countries.

NATO selected Dayton as the site of its spring assembly to commemorate the 30th anniversary of the Dayton Peace Accords. NATO hasn’t held a parliamentary assembly in the United States since 2003.

“They call it an anti-NATO protest, but this is 100% anti-Israel,” Davis — who coordinates security for the Dayton area’s Jewish organizations — says of Sunday’s planned march. “It all ties back to anti-Israel, pro-Hamas.”

Israel is a major non-NATO ally. In 1994, Israel joined the NATO Mediterranean Dialogue, which enhances regional security, military cooperation, joint exercises, and strengthens Israel’s ties with NATO countries.

Davis’ security assessment is based on the protests that got out of control at NATO’s assembly in Montreal, Nov. 22-25, 2024. Pro-Palestinian protesters shattered windows, lit cars on fire, and threw explosives at law enforcement.

“There was a day and a half in Montreal where law enforcement was trying to regain control,” Davis says. “A lot of people were harmed; a lot of property was harmed.”

Now, two days after an anti-Israel protester murdered two Israeli embassy employees at gunpoint in front of the Jewish Capital Museum in Washington, D.C., Davis says the level of danger overall to the Jewish community and those perceived as Jewish has increased, though he knows of no credible threats to Dayton’s Jewish community.

“We are incredibly heartbroken by the senseless murders of Israeli Embassy staffers Yaron Lischinsky and Sarah Milgrim, who were gunned down last night outside the Capital Jewish Museum in Washington, D.C. as they exited an event hosted by the American Jewish Committee,” Jewish Federation of Greater Dayton CEO Cathy Gardner said in a statement May 22.

“The man who killed them was heard shouting ‘Free, free Palestine’ and ‘I did it for Gaza.’ There is no question this act of violence was committed out of hate for Israel and the Jewish people. Our highest priority is to continue to keep our Dayton Jewish community safe.”

The state of Ohio has provided $4.3 million to fund safety and security measures for NATO’s spring assembly, according to The Dayton Daily News. And law enforcement from across the region have augmented security for the fenced-off NATO village in Downtown Dayton.

Davis says the Dayton Police Department has done a good job putting a team together that includes all facets of the community to handle NATO security challenges. “I’ve been involved as the security director of the Jewish Federation in what the plans are. I’ve given them information; they’ve given me information.”

Even so, Davis says it’s not clear if law enforcement beyond the NATO village will be enough to prevent another Montreal. Staying away from Downtown Dayton and the protest, he says, will help law enforcement and the overall security of the community.

“Law enforcement has a large contingent of high-value international delegates that they have to protect,” Davis says. “And outside that protection circle, if you choose to go there, you are at your own peril if something were to happen. I don’t know if you’re going to be able to depend on law enforcement to respond in the fashion you’d like.”

He knows of protest groups in 12 cities organizing bus trips to the People’s Assembly for Peace and Justice protest Sunday in Dayton.

“We’re also up to nine good-sized universities with Students for Justice in Palestine protesters that are going to be here. And they’re traditionally pretty obstructive in their protests. The Palestine Diaspora Movement is also participating. If you’ve ever seen their flyers, it’s all about guns and fighting. There are very real concerns for what might happen based upon the numbers in the groups that are coming.”