Thousands of anti-Israel protesters descended on Washington DC on Wednesday to protest Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s speech to parliament, sparking chaos in the streets.
Protesters chanted “Allah is great” outside Union Station, where agitators were seen burning an American flag and writing threatening graffiti on statues, including “Hamas is coming.”
Police said on Wednesday evening that nine people had been arrested on charges including crowding, obstruction, causing inconvenience and assaulting police officers.
Anti-Israel agitators burn American flag, denounce Netanyahu as ‘war criminal’ as he speaks to parliament
Protesters gather outside Union Station during a joint session of Congress with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, in Washington, DC, Wednesday, July 24, 2024. Netanyahu’s address to Congress will be a test of whether Democrats can maintain their newfound unity around Vice President Kamala Harris, despite sharp divisions over Middle East policy. (Graham Sloane/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
Since the Hamas terrorist attack on October 7, anti-Israel protests have become a powder keg in the United States. College YearAgitators and student demonstrators flooded university campuses across the country to protest the Israeli war, and incidents of anti-Semitism soared, with Jewish students publicly stating that they did not feel safe on some campuses.
On Columbia University’s campus, for example, protesters occupied the school’s Hamilton Hall building, while UCLA, Harvard, Yale and other universities worked to clear student encampments where protesters gathered to demand that the elite schools completely divest from Israel.
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Republican Rep. Carlos Gimenez of Florida told Fox News Digital on Thursday that the unrest on the streets of Washington, D.C., is the “responsibility of those in power who failed to act,” including Democrats and university officials who failed to end or condemn protests that turned violent and disruptive earlier this year.
People demonstrate with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ahead of a joint session of Parliament, in front of the U.S. Capitol building in Washington, DC, Wednesday, July 24, 2024. (Graham Sloane/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
“Since October 7, the Biden administration and woke university officials across America have refused to take action and quell anti-Semitic, pro-Hamas violence. Their inaction led to one of the most reprehensible riots at the U.S. Capitol while Prime Minister Netanyahu was speaking,” he told Fox News Digital. “Rioters attacked police officers, defaced monuments, set fire to the American flag and caused chaos in Washington DC, all while spreading anti-Semitic misinformation. This chaos is the fault of those in power who failed to act.”
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“What happened yesterday is not freedom of speech, it is freedom of hate. This is just a taste of what is to come. Universities across the country are at risk of becoming pro-Hamas dumping grounds as students return to campus this semester.”
Student protesters gather inside an encampment on the Columbia University campus in New York, Monday, April 29, 2024. (AP Photo/Stephen Jeremiah)
The White House condemned the protests Wednesday night, calling the unrest “disgraceful.”
“It is shameful to support an evil terrorist organization like Hamas, to burn the American flag, or to forcibly remove the American flag and replace it with another flag.” White House Press Secretary Andrew Bates He made the remarks in comments to Fox News Digital on Wednesday night.
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“Anti-Semitism and violence will never be tolerated. Period. All Americans have the right to peaceful protest. But shamefully, not everyone was peaceful today.”
Vice President Kamala Harris, who became the leading Democratic presidential candidate after President Biden dropped out of the race on Sunday, did not condemn the protests until late Thursday morning. She was also notable for not attending Netanyahu’s speech to Congress on Wednesday.
Earlier this month, Harris amid growing speculation that Biden would drop out of the race. He told The Nation She said she understands “the emotion behind” the anti-Israel protests that have intensified on college campuses.
“They are showing exactly what human emotion should be in response to Gaza,” Harris told the progressive magazine. “Some of the protesters hold views that I absolutely reject, so I’m not going to fully endorse what they’re saying, but we have to get past it. I understand the emotion behind it.”
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Harris was quoted by media and White House sources as urging Biden and his administration to get “tougher” against Netanyahu as the war escalated late last year, and allegedly arguing that the White House needed to be more sympathetic to the Palestinians.
“Kamala Harris @Netanyahu“Harris’ joint address to Congress was a ploy to appease the pro-Hamas wing of the Democrats who burned American flags, clashed with police, and spread dangerous terror-sponsored chaos and violence. Why doesn’t Kamala repudiate these anti-Semitic terrorist sympathizers?” New York Rep. Elise Stefanik posted on Harris’ X account.
Israel has been a target of attack for the Democratic Party since October, with the party’s progressive wing, including members of the Squad, coming under fire from the Jewish community and conservatives for not taking a tougher stance against Hamas.
On July 24, 2024, in Washington, DC, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s motorcade, scheduled to address the US Congress, was blocked by a group of pro-Palestinian and anti-war activists on its way to the US Capitol. (Mostafa Basim/Anadolu via Getty Images)
Netanyahu spoke to Congress on Wednesday to discuss the country’s ongoing war with the terrorist organization Hamas, which launched attacks on Israel in October. During the speech, Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.), a member of the Squad, held up a sign that read “war criminals” as she listened to Netanyahu’s speech.
The Israeli prime minister slammed the protesters while speaking on Capitol Hill.
““I have a message for protesters: You have officially become Iran’s useful fools, because you are being praised, promoted and funded by the tyrants in Tehran who hang gays from cranes and kill women for not covering their hair,” Netanyahu said.
“Some of the protesters are holding up signs in support of gays in Gaza, which is no different from holding up signs saying ‘chicken for KFC’. Protesters are shouting ‘from the river to the sea’, but they have little idea which river or sea they are referring to.”
Protesters in the capital on Wednesday carried signs reading “Wanted war criminal” along with a portrait of Nentanyahu, while some chanted “Liberate Palestine” and “From the river to the sea…”.
Other protesters yelled “you f**ks” at police on the scene, with Fox News witnessing pepper spray being used at one point.
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Activists cheer as they burn a flag and an effigy of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu during a pro-Palestinian protest near the U.S. Capitol in Washington, DC, on July 24, 2024. Activists have held multiple protests near the Capitol to protest Netanyahu’s visit to Washington and Israel’s war on Gaza. (Alex Wong/Getty Images)
“I am deeply troubled by the anti-Israel protests we have seen on college campuses last year and in our nation’s capital this week,” Jewish influencer Lizzie Savetsky told Fox News Digital on Thursday about the protests. “So-called ‘peaceful protesters’ are burning the American flag and flying the flag of Hamas, the terrorist organization that massacred 1,200 innocent civilians and took hundreds hostage on October 7th. Such actions go beyond the scope of rational dialogue. They represent support for a group that oppresses both Israelis and Palestinians and rejects the pursuit of peace. Supporting Hamas is not a support for justice, it is an embrace of tyranny and oppression. We must stand firm against hatred and anti-Semitism in our society.”
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Conservative lawmakers and political leaders, including former President Trump, have long spoken out against the anti-Israel protests and rising anti-Semitism that have erupted on college campuses this year.
At left, Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-N.Y.) clashes with Harvard University President Claudine Gay during a hearing on Capitol Hill, Tuesday, Dec. 5, 2023. (Getty Images)
The House Education and Labor Committee held hearings late last year in which it grilled leaders of some of the nation’s most prestigious universities, including the University of Pennsylvania, MIT, Harvard University, and Northwestern University.
“Is it not true that a Jewish student wearing a yarmulke was spat on?” Stefanik told Northwestern University President Michael Schill in May, after Schill asked how long she expected the investigation into incidents of anti-Semitism on campus would last.
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“I can’t say that. The Conduct Office and Title VI Office, who are experts on this issue, will make the final decision,” Sill said.
Hamas supporters cause mayhem outside Union Station in Washington, DC, on Wednesday, July 24, 2024. (Image direct from Fox News Digital)
“This is why you got an F,” she said, referring to the school’s F grade in the Anti-Defamation League’s Campus Anti-Semitism Report this year.
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In December, Stefanik and her committee grilled Claudine Gay and Liz McGill, then presidents of Harvard and the University of Pennsylvania, about their response to anti-Semitism. They drew widespread condemnation for being ambivalent about whether calls to kill Jews violated their respective schools’ codes of conduct, and both presidents resigned shortly after the hearings.
Fox News Digital’s Liz Elkind, Bree Stimson and Danielle Wallace contributed to this report.
