Protesters Denounce Netanyahu’s Speech to Congress and Some Clash With Police

[Pelican Press 0]

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Protesters Denounce Netanyahu’s Speech to Congress and Some Clash With Police

Thousands of protesters from across the ******* States flooded the streets around a battened-down U.S. Capitol before, during and after a speech by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of ******* to a ****** meeting of Congress on Wednesday afternoon.

The elevated security around the Capitol echoed preparations for a presidential inauguration or the days following the Jan. 6 ******* on the building in 2021. Starting Tuesday night, the Capitol Police erected a tall chain-link fence around the Capitol building and set up barricades on the broad avenues surrounding it.

The Capitol Police also called in reinforcements from at least six other law enforcement agencies. Officers from the Baltimore Police, the New York City Police and Department of Homeland Security law enforcement officers joined local D.C. police offers at the rally scene. Amtrak police and U.S. Park Police were at the nearby Union Station.

While the main protest site, west of the Capitol near the National Gallery of Art, was peaceful through the afternoon, smaller breakoff groups clashed with the police near the Capitol and outside Union Station, where they burned an effigy of Mr. Netanyahu and set ***** to an ********* flag.

The Capitol Police and Washington Metropolitan Police arrested 15 protesters across the city: four near Union Station; five on the National Mall, after they crossed a police line a few blocks west of the Capitol; and six who protested inside the House galleries, according to the Capitol Police.

Hours before Mr. Netanyahu was scheduled to take the podium inside the House chamber, demonstrators rallied around a stage in the main protest area, near the east wing of the National Gallery of Art. Waving ************ flags and wearing kaffiyehs to symbolize their allegiance with Gazans, the protesters carried banners calling for a halt to ********* aid for ******* and an end to the war. Several signs called Mr. Netanyahu a war *********.

The protest, organized primarily by the umbrella group Act Now to Stop War and End Racism, or Answer, was planned a month ago by a coalition of *******, *******, feminist and antiwar groups. Organizers accused the Biden administration of failing to draw red lines on *******’s conduct of the war in Gaza.

“We are the red line!” the organizers told those in the crowd, some of whom had come long distances.

“We don’t believe that Netanyahu should be here addressing our Congress,” said Emerson Wolfe, who drove 11 hours from Grand Rapids, Mich., to take part in the protest. “I believe that our Congress should end U.S. aid to ******* and should end the siege on Gaza,” she said.

Gus Mamlouk of New Jersey, who drove five hours to be on the National Mall, held up signs bearing the faces and names of children ******* in Gaza.“We are here protesting against war, against inviting a war ********* to the U.S. Capitol to speak,” he said.

One of the speakers on a central stage, Claudia De La Cruz, who is running for president with an ********* ********** party, singled out Vice President Kamala Harris, who is under new scrutiny since becoming the presumptive Democratic nominee for president.

“We’re not going to give her a pass because she’s ****** and she’s a woman,” she said, before leading the group in chants of “Free, free Palestine!”

A number of activist groups, including ******* Voice for Peace and Code Pink, both of which are part of the coalition that organized the rally, have maintained a regular presence on Capitol Hill since the war in Gaza began after the Oct. 7 ******-led ******* on *******.

Rally attendees marched in the street as Mr. Netanyahu’s speech neared, forming a sea of green, red and ****** as they waved ************ flags and signs above their heads amid chants and drumbeats.

Groups of demonstrators blocked various roads around the Capitol, some hoping to stall the prime minister’s motorcade on its way to the building. They were unsuccessful.

Just before the speech began, officers sprayed several people with mace when they refused to back away from a police line just a block west of the Capitol.

A group of about 50 congressional workers, organized as Congressional Staff for a Ceasefire Now, walked out to join the thousands of protesters in the street during the speech.

One organizer with the group, who identified himself only as Ishmael and a ************ *********, listed its demands in a statement: “Stop funding this war against civilians. Send meals, not missiles. Secure the release of ******** hostages and arbitrarily detained Palestinians. And use the leverage the ********* people have paid for to establish a lasting cease-***** that will bring an end to this brutal war.”

The staff members, wearing business suits and dresses, unfurled a banner with the phrase, “Staff say kick the war ********* out of our Capitol!”

After the speech was over, protesters burned an effigy of Mr. Netanyahu outside Union Station and set ***** to an ********* flag that was torn down from a nearby flagpole when the crowd hoisted three ************ flags.

At a separate protest at the Capitol, organized by UnXeptable, a group of Israelis living abroad who say they are concerned about the future of *******’s democracy, protesters carried banners that read “Netanyahu Non Grata” and waved ******** flags. T’ruah, a human rights group made up of rabbis, also attended.

“We began this morning in prayer but we’re NOT LEAVING,” the group wrote in a

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that showed an image of its members carrying a banner calling for an end to the war. “We’re staying here to protest Prime Minister Netanyahu.”

Minho Kim, Aishvarya Kavi, Ephrat Livni and Eric Lee contributed reporting.

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