Police deployed pepper spray as demonstrations against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s address to Congress swelled in Washington, D.C., on Wednesday.
Thousands of protesters gathered near the Capitol, chanting “Free, Free Palestine,” and some tried to block streets ahead of Netanyahu’s speech, the Associated Press reported. Police wearing gas marks blocked the crowd — which was calling for an end to the war in Gaza that has killed more than 39,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza officials — from getting closer to the Capitol.
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The U.S. Capitol Police said on social media that pepper spray was being deployed because some members of the crowd had “started to become violent” and failed to obey an order to move back from the police line.
After the protesters were turned away by police, they wound through Capitol Hill for several blocks before gathering in front of Union Station, according to the Associated Press, where protesters climbed the flagpoles outside Union Station and replaced the American flags with Palestinian flags. At least one person was arrested, and police again deployed “chemical agents,” the AP reported, causing at least two people to be treated for chemical agent effects on the eyes.
In videos posted to social media Wednesday evening by Republican Rep. Brandon Williams of New York, Williams said that after he observed that the Union Station flag poles “were still bare,” he “recruited…fellow members of Congress” — including House Speaker Mike Johnson and several veterans — to restore “the flags to their proper place.” The videos showed two new U.S. flags being raised.
Inside the chamber, five people were removed from the House Gallery after disrupting Netanyahu’s speech, the Capitol Police said online. All were arrested. According to the Associated Press, the five wore yellow T-shirts reading “Seal the deal now,” a rallying cry calling on leaders to make a cease-fire deal to secure the release of the remaining hostages held by Hamas, but the news agency reports they did not speak or verbally disrupt the speech.
In his speech, Netanyahu referred to protesters against the war as “useful idiots” who he said were being manipulated by Israel’s adversaries.
“These protesters that stand with (Hamas), they should be ashamed of themselves,” he said.
Moments later, Rep. Rashida Tlaib, a Democrat from Michigan, held up a sign that said “war criminal” on one side and “guilty of genocide” on the other. She also wore a Palestinian keffiyeh and a pin with the Palestinian flag on it. Tlaib, who has relatives in the West Bank and represents a Michigan district with many Palestinians, has been one of Netanyahu’s loudest critics in Congress. She was censured for her comments last year about the latest Israel-Hamas war.
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Earlier this week, a group of top former Israeli security and political officials accused Netanyahu of selfishly prioritizing his own political survival over the hostages’ fate and the security of his nation, the region, and even the world, in a letter sent to Congressional leaders.
“We are all pawns in a game of this handful of deciders,” Rachel Goldberg-Polin, whose son was among those kidnapped during Hamas’ attack on Israel on Oct. 7, told CBS News. “Everyone in the region is oozing with pain and agony and misery, and it is enough.”
During his speech, Netanyahu addressed the plight of the hostages. Some family members of hostages or people who had been rescued sat in the crowd.
“I will not rest until all our loved ones are home,” he said. “All of them.”