Pro-Palestine Protesters Storm Senate Hearing
A group of pro-Palestine protesters were dragged out of the Senate chamber on Tuesday by police after they disrupted a hearing on the Biden administration’s $75 billion national security supplemental funding request for American taxpayers to fund the Ukraine war and Israel-Hamas war.
The activists interrupted testimony from Biden administration officials with disorderly conduct, including holding up their hands covered in a red substance meant to appear like blood for the television cameras aimed at the witnesses.
Pro-Palestine activists seemed more concerned about the potential deaths of children in Gaza than the already-reported deaths of Israeli children. They also demanded a “cease fire” in the conflict.
“No to the siege of Gaza,” one protestor shouted as other activists began chanting, “Cease fire now.”
Other activists held up signs demanding the destruction of the wall built between Israel and Palestine, which is meant to protect Israelis from terrorist attacks such as the October 7 massacre.
The signs read: “From Palestine to Mexico all walls have got to go” and “No walls no war.”
One of the activists was forcibly removed from the Senate chamber by police, chanting “cease-fire now” as they escorted her out. She carried a sign that read, “No more $$$ 4 Israel.”
“The world is calling for a cease-fire!” she yelled. “The American people don’t want to support this brutal war. Stop the war. Cease-fire now. Stop funding this brutal massacre that Israel is doing on the people of Gaza. Cease-fire now! Cease-fire now! Cease-fire now!”
“Cease-fire now! Save the children of Gaza! Save the children of Gaza! Cease-fire now! Where is your pride, American?” another protester yelled before being forcibly removed from the chamber.
Some of the disruption came during an opening statement made by Secretary of State Antony Blinken, who was interrupted several times during a ten-minute speech.
“I do recognize that people feel very passionately, but I ask that we have order in their hearing room and respect our speakers,” Senate Appropriations Committee Chair Patty Murray (D-WA) told the crowd. “We will move forward with the hearing and allow the people here and the American people to hear from their witnesses.”
Blinken tried to sympathize with the activists, claiming he could “hear, very much, the passions expressed in this room and outside this room.”
“All of us are committed to the protection of civilian life. All of us know the suffering that is taking place as we speak. All of us are determined to see it end,” he added.
“But all of us know the imperative of standing up with our allies and partners when their security when their democracies are threatened. That’s what’s happening now. We stand resolutely with them even as we stand resolutely for the protection of innocent civilians,” Blinken concluded.
