Thousands turn out against "horrendous" Netanyahu address as cops arrest hostage family members
Washington DC - Thousands of demonstrators protesting Israel's horrific assault on Gaza marched on the US Capitol on Wednesday as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu received countless standing ovations in Congress despite widespread war crimes accusations.
A group of protesters burned Netanyahu in effigy, along with American flags – a raucous end to a mostly peaceful march that also drew families, children, and the elderly, as well as concerned citizens from thousands of miles away.
Crowds carrying Palestinian flags and signs ranging from left-wing slogans to Bible verses gathered near the Capitol calling for a ceasefire in Gaza and the arrest of Netanyahu, as prosecutors seek a warrant for him at the International Criminal Court.
"Seek peace and pursue it," read one sign, quoting the Bible, while others were styled as criminal "wanted" signs, with photos of Netanyahu in place of a mugshot.
At a rally before the march, Palestinian and Jewish organizers stood on a stage and denounced both the US and the Israeli government for genocide, calling for a "citizen's arrest" of Netanyahu.
Karameh Kuemmerle, of the organization Doctors Against Genocide, told AFP that she and her medical colleagues were "horrified by the destruction of the health system in Gaza."
"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," said the doctor, who traveled to Washington from Boston.
Protesters decry shame and hypocrisy
On Wednesday, Capitol police at times deployed pepper spray and made a series of arrests, mostly toward the end of the march, outside Union Station. The day before, hundreds of Jewish protesters were arrested after they staged a sit-in at a Capitol office building.
As members of Congress from both sides of the aisle fawned over Netanyahu, protesters pointed out the complicity of the US in the mass killing of Palestinians.
"The hypocrisy of our politicians today has gone beyond any limits," 58-year-old Mo told AFP.
Elsewhere, a group of congressional staffers staged a walkout, calling for a ceasefire in the name of their constituents.
These were some of the people that the Israeli prime minister shockingly smeared as directly funded by Iran, in a rambling, Trumpian address that attacked every institution or group who does not offer unqualified support to Israel's destruction of Gaza, while also repeating debunked falsehoods about "babies" slaughtered in kibbutzim on October 7.
The war, Netanyahu insisted, must continue until Hamas is destroyed and all hostages are returned.
But among those arrested on at the Capitol were six family members of abducted Israelis. As Forward reported, their offense was wearing t-shirts emblazoned with the demand: "Seal the Deal Now" – a reference to a ceasefire agreement that Netanyahu has repeatedly blocked.
"I felt ashamed for Congress to have to witness this," Zahiro Shachar Mor, whose uncle is still being held in Gaza, told Forward, calling the speech "horrendous."
Cover photo: REUTERS