here at home Muslims are mobilizing against longtime Congressman Bill Pascrell urging him to support a ceasefire Pascal represents Paterson home to one of the largest palestinian-american communities in the country and a senior political correspondent David Cruz reports the same constituency that helped Pascal remain in office now wants him out it could seem politically counterintuitive to not support calls for a ceasefire in a conflict where tens of thousands of people are dying and atrocious acts of violence are being committed but in Paterson the city with the nation's largest Palestinian community and the state's largest Muslim communities live the Congressman Bill pascrell refuses to sign on to the idea echoing the consensus among New Jersey Congressional Delegation that the fight is with Hamas not Palestine I can't control the politics but they have every right to protect themselves and defend themselves Cas for that was pascrell at a recent fundraiser getting Applause for his unflinching support of Israel part of his district also has a large Jewish population but as this cell phone video shows pascrell also got an earful from activists in attendance please October attacks have changed the political dynamic between pascrell and the Palestinian Arab and Muslim communities here us atari's late grandfather Abraham was a stalworth of the Palestine Community and a longtime supporter and fundraiser for pascrell she says she can't see herself or her community supporting pascrell today the least we could do at this point is withhold votes we cannot in good conscious vote for somebody who in 80 days has not in any way taken any action to stop the killings pascrell has signed on to letters calling for increased humanitarian Aid and supported the so-called humanitarian pause but that has not stopped am mounting discontent with the Ninth District Congressman Wasim Kanan is with Muslims for Palestine but says he's speaking here as a member of the community at large I mean for us it's as simple as asking that he be there for us in the most dire situation in our largest highest most urgent Time of Need and he's left us hanging um giving us talking points that are outdated that are inherently uh racist but in this situation uh when he faces his upcoming uh Challenger um we will not be in his corner and it's been a long time since anyone has heard that sentiment coming from this community in this District a new phenomenon for an elected official looking to run for reelection election next year if your scene is moving too far in the Israeli Direction then you are not keeping palestini the Palestinian side happy and if your scen is moving the Palestinian side your scena is not keeping the Israeli side happy that's something that uh you know listen let's face it members of Congress have staked out a career by keeping everybody happy and that is less and less possible since October 6th and some like Paterson mayor Andre Sayegh, who's been a ceasefire Advocate since the conf began have noticed seya who's Syrian and Lebanese speaks the language of these disaffected literally he's all but said he's looking to run for Congress but pascrell has survived challenges before often with the Arab Palestinian and Muslim communities behind him but this is a district that includes Bergen County towns with large Jewish populations too putting the congressmen directly between the proverbial Rock and Hard Place I'm David Cruz NJ Spotlight News