More than 50 pro-Palestinian demonstrators were arrested Monday morning after scattering what appeared to be bloodstained dollar bills in the lobby of a Senate office building and demanding a cease-fire in the Gaza Strip, authorities said.
“Cease-fire now! Cease-fire now!” shouted protesters wearing black T-shirts that declared “Stop Weapons Now,” as they held up a banner that read, “Aid to Israel = Bombing Palestinians.”
A lone protester scaled an immense sculpture in the atrium of the Hart Senate Office Building and sat cross-legged above the fray, before Capitol Police officers and DC firefighters brought a ladder in and ordered him down, according to photos shared by NBC News.
A Capitol Police spokesperson said 49 people were arrested and charged with unlawfully crowding, obstructing or incommoding.
The person who claimed the statue and another woman were charged with resisting arrest, bringing the total apprehended to 51.
The demonstration featured bags of cash painted red to resemble bloodstains, which were later dumped across the atrium floor.
“Anti-Israel protestors making a mess of the Senate. I’m sure they’ll change hearts and minds by making hardworking Senate custodial workers spend their entire day cleaning up the mess they created,” Sen. Thom Tillis (R-NC) said on X.
“Thank you to Capitol Police and the Senate facility staff for upholding professionalism in the midst of such clownery.”
Jewish Voice for Peace demonstrators also chained themselves to the White House fence on Monday, as workers at the executive mansion prepared to host an evening Hanukkah party.
The protests followed several demonstrations that have occurred in other buildings on the Capitol complex and in major US cities — even as a new poll shows a majority of Americans believe Israel is taking appropriate military actions to defend itself against Hamas terrorists.
However, Democrats support the Jewish state’s military effort far less than their Republican counterparts, with 48% expressing equal sympathy for Israelis and Palestinians and 24% expressing sympathy for Palestinians alone. Just 17% of Democrats sympathize more with Israel, according to the Wall Street Journal survey.
Republicans and Democrats in the upper chamber are deliberating President Biden’s request for a $106 billion supplemental national security package, which would provide military assistance to Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan, in addition to further security funding for US border enforcement.
Senate Democrats, led by Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY), have been united in their support for the aid package, with only Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) voting against advancing the measure last week.
“I voted NO on the foreign aid supplemental bill today for one reason. I do not believe that we should give the right-wing extremist Netanyahu government an additional $10.1 billion dollars with no strings attached to continue their inhumane war against the Palestinian people,” Sanders said in a statement.
“Israel has the absolute right to defend itself against the Hamas terrorists who attacked them on October 7. They do not have the legal or moral right to kill thousands of innocent Palestinian men, women, and children.”
The vote was largely symbolic as Republicans are opposing the bill until immigration policy changes can be added to its text, with many expressing doubt that such a measure could pass before a holiday recess.
Hamas terrorists slaughtered more than 1,200 people, mostly civilians, during its Oct. 7 invasion of the Jewish state — including at least 33 American citizens. Jihadists also took approximately 240 hostages back to Gaza, including around 10 Americans — two of whom were released during a week-long pause in the fighting last month.
A senior Israel Defense Forces official confirmed last week that roughly 5,000 Hamas terrorists and 10,000 Palestinian civilians have since been killed in the war.