Gaza solidarity activists take over Congress' cafeteria with powerful dramatization: "It is a holocaust!"

Washington DC - In their latest powerful protest, activists with the feminist anti-war organization CODEPINK took over Congress' cafeteria to raise awareness of Israel's brutal actions in northern Gaza.

CODEPINK activists participate in a dramatization of Israeli human rights abuses in northern Gaza during an action in the US Congress' cafeteria.
CODEPINK activists participate in a dramatization of Israeli human rights abuses in northern Gaza during an action in the US Congress' cafeteria.  © Collage: Screenshots/X/Medea Benjamin

"We were in the cafeteria in Congress today depicting an Israeli soldier pushing a Palestinian in his underwear and behind us a woman saying what is happening in northern Gaza right now, it is reminiscent of what happened to the Jews during the Holocaust," CODEPINK co-founder Medea Benjamin says in a video shared to social media on Thursday.

The clip shows Benjamin dressed as an Israeli soldier with a toy gun threatening another activist representing a Palestinian man in northern Gaza, repeatedly calling him a "terrorist."

Benjamin orders the man to keep moving as they make their way through the cafeteria building.

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A third activist, representing a Jewish survivor of Nazi terror, says, "Never again, never again, we decried, we cried after the Jewish Holocaust. Never again! The world should not be silent."

The action continues until a security officer approaches the group ordering them to stop.

CODEPINK draws attention to Israeli atrocities in northern Gaza

Forcibly displaced Palestinian families flee Israeli military attacks in Jabalia in northern Gaza, taking the main Salah al-Din road towards Gaza City.
Forcibly displaced Palestinian families flee Israeli military attacks in Jabalia in northern Gaza, taking the main Salah al-Din road towards Gaza City.  © AFP

The dramatization is CODEPINK's latest high-profile action since Israel began its genocide in Gaza more than a year ago.

"We do this because we don't think the American people are paying attention to the devastation that's going on in northern Gaza where they're separating males 16 years and older, taking them we don't know where. They're being tortured, they're being detained, they're being shot, and we're seeing people being starved," Benjamin explains in the video.

Israel has slaughtered at least 43,552 Palestinians in Gaza in the last year, according to the territory's health ministry. The British medical journal Lancet and other experts believe the true number to be far greater, potentially upwards of 186,000 as of July.

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Israel recently ramped up its assault on the besieged people of northern Gaza. A cruel blockade has left the trapped population without access to food and at risk of mass starvation. Rescue workers have been forced to cease operations, while humanitarian organizations have warned that northern Gaza is "being erased."

Nevertheless, the US government continues to support the Israeli apartheid regime with deadly weapons and diplomatic cover.

"The American people have to wake up," Benjamin urges. "The people around the world have to wake up and tell all our governments: Stop this! It is a holocaust!"

Cover photo: Collage: Screenshots/X/Medea Benjamin

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