(Washington) Thousands of demonstrators gathered Wednesday around the US Congress in Washington to protest against Benjamin Netanyahu’s speech, some raising Palestinian flags in place of the American Star-Spangled Banner, which was burned.
Inside, six people were arrested in the House chamber where the Israeli prime minister was speaking because they “disrupted” the speech, Capitol Police wrote on X.
Outside, behind a large security perimeter, thousands of demonstrators chanted “Free Palestine” to protest the visit of the Israeli leader, against whom the prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC) has requested an arrest warrant for war crimes and crimes against humanity.
PHOTO SETH HERALD, REUTERS
Protesters held signs bearing the likeness of Benjamin Netanyahu and Joe Biden near the Capitol.
Before the speech, minor clashes broke out between protesters and police, who used pepper spray to push back the crowd as it approached the Capitol, an AFP reporter said. “Some of the crowd started to get violent,” police said.
Around 3 p.m. ET, as Netanyahu’s speech ended inside, some protesters removed an American flag from a pole on the plaza outside Washington, D.C., near the Capitol, and placed a Palestinian flag in its place, an AFP reporter saw.
Other American flags were removed and at least one was burned, as was an effigy of the Israeli prime minister, AFP also observed.
Inside, Benjamin Netanyahu declared that a “victory” for Israel would also be a victory for the United States, urging his main ally to release new military aid. And facing him, in the chamber, Democratic congresswoman Rashida Tlaib wore a keffiyeh and carried a small sign that read, in black and white, “guilty of genocide.”
“Criminal”
Earlier, the crowd moved calmly toward the huge white building that dominates the American capital.
“We are here to show our opposition to the reception of the criminal Netanyahu in our capital by the same political leaders who send him weapons to kill children in Gaza,” Karameh Kuemmerle, of the association Doctors Against Genocide, explained to AFP.
PHOTO MATTHEW HATCHER, AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
Police used pepper spray on the crowd to push them back as they approached the Capitol.
“We are horrified by the destruction of the health system in Gaza,” he said, as the Palestinian territory has been besieged and relentlessly bombarded by the Israeli army since Hamas’ unprecedented attack on Israeli soil on October 7.
“The hypocrisy of politicians has completely crossed the line,” Mo, a 58-year-old protester who declined to give his full name, told AFP. He called US support for Israel “the number one issue” in the November US presidential election.
Protesters show Benjamin Netanyahu on a wanted poster while others demand on their placards: “Arrest this war criminal.”
The Israeli prime minister is scheduled to hold talks with US President Joe Biden on Thursday. He is also scheduled to meet his vice president and now Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris and Republican candidate Donald Trump.
On October 7, Hamas commandos infiltrated from Gaza into southern Israel carried out an attack that resulted in the deaths of 1,197 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP count based on official Israeli data.
In response, Israel launched an air and then ground campaign against the impoverished and overcrowded territory, which has caused a humanitarian catastrophe and left 39,145 people dead so far, mostly civilians, according to data from the health ministry of the Hamas-run Gaza government.