DENVER — State legislatures wield little if any influence over U.S. foreign policy, but you wouldn’t necessarily know that from the pro-Palestinian demonstrators converging on the state capitals.

Crowds of anti-Israel protesters are spilling from the streets and universities into the chambers and rotundas, greeting lawmakers at the start of the 2024 legislative session with noisy demonstrations and demands for ceasefire resolutions.

The activists aren’t always mindful of the rules of decorum. Rarely are state legislatures halted by protests, but it’s already happened this year at least twice, when rowdy pro-Palestinian demonstrators forced the California and Colorado legislatures to stop business on the first day of their sessions.

California Assembly Minority Leader James Gallagher, who has served in the Legislature for 10 years, said the last time he could recall a chamber adjourning over a protest was in 2019, when a lone vaccine activist threw a bloody object onto the Senate floor.

“I’ve never seen anything quite like this, in terms of a very organized effort that was designed to just keep shouting and chanting until you couldn’t actually conduct business,” Mr. Gallagher, a Republican, told The Washington Times.

In Colorado, the House recessed while state patrol officers ejected demonstrators shouting pro-Palestinian slogans from the gallery. The next day, protesters outside the statehouse in Denver were so loud that they could be heard inside the chamber during Gov. Jared Polis’s State of the State address.

The Colorado Palestine Coalition mocked those criticizing the protests, saying that “other attendees in the gallery were upset that we disrupted their little ceremony,” but vowed to “continue increasing the frequency, intensity and size of our actions until there is an end to the suffocating occupation of Palestine.”

Republican state Rep. Ron Weinberg said he doesn’t doubt it, predicting that “this is going to happen continually” during the 2024 General Assembly.

“If it wasn’t for strenuous precautions for the State of the State with our governor, there would have been interruptions,” Mr. Weinberg said. “We had a huge, huge disruption outside of the building because, guess what, they didn’t allow anyone in.”

In New Mexico, Democratic Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham was interrupted three times during her Jan. 16 State of the State address by anti-Israel and climate-change protesters. As the unruly activists were escorted out, she refused to condemn them, saying it was important to “embrace differences of opinion.”

“I want you to do a round of applause, even though it’s a disruption. That the world is complicated,” Ms. Lujan Grisham told the legislative gathering.

For all the noise and drama, there’s little evidence that the protests have changed any minds. About 60 state bills and resolutions have been introduced supporting Israel and condemning Hamas, while it’s hard to imagine any state legislature seriously considering a pro-ceasefire bill.

Roz Rothstein, co-founder and CEO of the pro-Israel group StandWithUs, said the pro-Palestinian groups advocating for state and municipal resolutions calling for a cease-fire “know that it will have no bearing on U.S. foreign policy.”

“A ceasefire and peace are everyone’s wish,” Ms. Rothstein said in a statement. “However, a ceasefire that has Israel holding its fire while Hamas — which has threatened to repeat the actions of October 7 — reloads its weapons, is a promise for more terror, bloodshed and tragedy.”

At least eight state legislatures approved pro-Israel resolutions in the aftermath of the Oct. 7 Hamas attack on Israeli civilians by overwhelmingly margins. In Wisconsin, for example, the Legislature passed in October a measure “condemning Hamas’ barbaric attack against Israel” with no dissenting votes.

If anything, the raucous pro-Palestinian protests have only reinforced the views of pro-Israel lawmakers. On the first day of the California legislative session, 16 Assembly Republicans introduced a resolution condemning Hamas and the Oct. 7 attack.

“From my standpoint, I’m not going to do anything that they [protesters] want,” Mr. Gallagher said. “We’re not going to call for a ceasefire now and ignore the atrocities of Hamas. That’s not happening. It certainly won’t happen if I have anything to say about it.”

In Arizona, the Legislature approved a concurrent resolution this month supporting “the nation of Israel in its efforts to defend itself and its citizens from terrorism” over the objections of protesters outside the state capital in Phoenix.

That doesn’t mean there isn’t sympathy for the protesters on the legislative left, which has already created headaches for Democrats.

Colorado House Speaker Julie McCluskie issued a formal letter of reprimand this month to Democratic state Rep. Elisabeth Epps for violating six House rules after she joined a pro-Palestinian protest in the House gallery that shut down proceedings during the November special session.

Ms. Epps also yelled “Free Palestine!” at the end of a speech at the podium. Another Democrat, state Rep. Tim Hernandez, replaced the American flag on his desk on the floor with a Palestinian flag, Colorado Politics reported.

No arrests were made during the California Assembly protest, which adjourned after hundreds of protesters unfurl pro-Palestinian banners in the rotunda and chant “ceasefire now.” Same for Colorado, where the House recessed briefly as the state patrol ushered out dozens of noisy activists.

Those frustrated by the stoppage included California state Sen. Scott Wiener, a Democrat and co-chair of the Legislative Jewish Caucus.

“Protesting is a good thing,” Mr. Wiener told reporters afterward, as per the Courthouse News Service. “Shutting down the democratic process is not a good thing.”

Meanwhile, Republicans blasted the Democratic majority for not doing more to discourage the protests, predicting that more disruptions are to come unless the legislature takes a stand.

“There was chaos and a lack of any leadership to remove these people who are clearly impeding the government process,” Mr. Gallagher said. “We were back for our first day of the legislature, and even though they were instructed to cease chanting, they just continued to do it and basically shut down the legislature the first day. And there was really no effort to remove them. It was just like we let them shut down our business.”

• This story is based in part on wire service reports.

• Valerie Richardson can be reached at vrichardson@washingtontimes.com.