WASHINGTON — Thousands of anti-Israel protesters gathered on Wednesday about half a mile from the Capitol ahead of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s address to a joint session of Congress.
Minutes before the address began, the Capitol Police tweeted that a crowd of protesters demonstrating outside the building became violent, leading officers to deploy pepper spray in order to push the rioters back behind the police line.
The demonstrators chanted for an intifada (or popular uprising) and declared that “resistance is justified when people are occupied.” One of the protesters held up a sign calling on “Satanyahu” to “return to Europe.”
A stage decked with banners included one declaring the Israeli leader a “Wanted War Criminal” in reference to an arrest warrant sought by International Criminal Court prosecutors.
Actress Susan Sarandon took to the stage and condemned the death toll in Gaza: “No one is free until everyone is free,” she said.
Nearby, demonstrators placed nearly 30 human-size cardboard coffins wrapped in Palestinian flags in memory of those killed in the war in Gaza. Traffic was barred from several roads near the Capitol.
“I want all aid [to] be suspended to Israel due to its actions in Gaza,” said Bradley Cullinan, who said he traveled to the area from Columbus, Ohio, 400 miles (640 kilometers) away.
Protesters gathered on Wednesday were calling for a ceasefire while also criticizing Netanyahu’s appearance in the United States.
“Seek peace and pursue it,” read one sign, quoting a Bible verse, while others were designed as criminal “wanted” signs, with photos of Netanyahu in place of a mugshot. “Arrest that war criminal,” read another. Several erected a large effigy of US President Joe Biden with blood dripping from its mouth and devil horns.
“We are horrified by the destruction of the health system in Gaza,” Karameh Kuemmerle, of the organization Doctors Against Genocide, who traveled to the protest from Boston, told AFP. “And we are here to show our opposition to having the criminal Netanyahu come to our capital and being greeted by the politicians who sent him weapons to kill children in Gaza.”
Members of the fringe ultra-Orthodox Neturei Karta group carried Palestinian flags and signs reading “Free Palestine” and “Anti-Zionism is not antisemitism,” while a group of younger protesters danced to Arabic music and carried large banners reading “Stop Arming Israel” and “Stop War Crimes in Gaza.”
Dozens of Democratic lawmakers said they’d skip Netanyahu’s speech to Congress, expressing dismay over the thousands of civilian deaths and the humanitarian crisis from Israel’s campaign in Gaza.
The war in Gaza began on October 7 when thousands of Palestinian terrorists broke through the border to slaughter some 1,200 Israelis, most of them civilians, and kidnap 251 to Gaza.
The enclave’s Hamas-run health ministry has said at least 39,000 Palestinians have been killed since the start of Israel’s military offensive. The toll cannot be verified and does not differentiate between civilians and fighters. Israel says it has killed some 15,000 combatants in battle and some 1,000 terrorists inside Israel during the October 7 attack.
Israel’s toll in the ground offensive against Hamas in Gaza and in military operations along the border with the Strip stands at 327.
Netanyahu’s speech is the Israeli leader’s fourth address to a joint session of Congress. He most recently did so in 2015, when he controversially sought to convince US lawmakers to torpedo negotiations at the time between the Obama administration and Iran over its nuclear program.