Hundreds of Jewish activists were arrested in the U.S. Capitol complex on Tuesday after staging a sit-in to protest Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s visit to the U.S. and address to Congress this week, carrying signs and wearing shirts with slogans like “Not in Our Name” as they demanded an end to Israel’s U.S.-backed genocide of Palestinians in Gaza.
Protesters with Jewish Voice for Peace called for Biden to stop sending weapons to Israel and to push for an immediate ceasefire, occupying the Cannon House Office building rotunda — the same place protesters occupied in October to demand a ceasefire as Israel was first embarking on its genocide.
“No one is free until everyone is free,” “Jews say stop arming Israel” and “Jews say: stop the genocide,” read some of the banners hoisted by the crowd, who were clad in matching red shirts with a demand for an arms embargo.
Since Jewish Voice for Peace’s October protest, Israel has slaughtered nearly 40,000 more Palestinians in Gaza, including tens of thousands of children, according to official counts. The true death toll is likely far higher when accounting for the thousands of people who died under the rubble, the missing and presumed dead, and deaths due to factors like Israel’s famine campaign.
The protest took place the day before Netanyahu is slated to address Congress and as he is expected to hold meetings with President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris during his delegation’s visit to D.C. this week. Members of other groups opposed to the genocide — IfNotNow, Democratic Socialists of America and Shoresh — also participated in the protest.
“For nine months, we’ve watched in horror as the Israeli government has carried out a genocide, armed and funded by the U.S. Congress and the Biden administration have the power to end this horror today,” said Jewish Voice for Peace executive director Stefanie Fox in a statement. “Instead, our president is preparing to meet with Netanyahu and Congressional leadership has honored him with an invitation to address Congress. Enough is enough.”
Among those arrested were over a dozen rabbis, according to the group. The rabbis led the group in prayer and songs, wearing handmade prayer shawls saying “Never Again for Anyone.”
The protesters cited their Jewish heritage as a reason for their protest, as Israeli leaders weaponize accusations of antisemitism against those opposed to the slaughter.
“The Israeli government is using U.S. funding and weapons to slaughter and starve Palestinians in Gaza. Americans — including Jewish Americans — are disgusted by our own government’s complicity in this genocide,” said Jewish Voice for Peace member Jane Hirschmann, a daughter of Holocaust survivors. “The only way to reach a ceasefire and build a just future is for the U.S. to stop sending weapons to Israel now.”
Also among the group was Cameron Jones, a Columbia University student who participated in the campus protests demanding divestment from Israel that made waves across the country this spring.
“As a student, I spent the last several months calling on my university to divest from the Israeli military,” Jones said. “Now that the semester is over, I’ve come to Washington D.C. to call on my government to stop arming Israel which has murdered over 14,000 children.”
Truthout Is Preparing to Meet Trump’s Agenda With Resistance at Every Turn
Dear Truthout Community,
If you feel rage, despondency, confusion and deep fear today, you are not alone. We’re feeling it too. We are heartsick. Facing down Trump’s fascist agenda, we are desperately worried about the most vulnerable people among us, including our loved ones and everyone in the Truthout community, and our minds are racing a million miles a minute to try to map out all that needs to be done.
We must give ourselves space to grieve and feel our fear, feel our rage, and keep in the forefront of our mind the stark truth that millions of real human lives are on the line. And simultaneously, we’ve got to get to work, take stock of our resources, and prepare to throw ourselves full force into the movement.
Journalism is a linchpin of that movement. Even as we are reeling, we’re summoning up all the energy we can to face down what’s coming, because we know that one of the sharpest weapons against fascism is publishing the truth.
There are many terrifying planks to the Trump agenda, and we plan to devote ourselves to reporting thoroughly on each one and, crucially, covering the movements resisting them. We also recognize that Trump is a dire threat to journalism itself, and that we must take this seriously from the outset.
After the election, the four of us sat down to have some hard but necessary conversations about Truthout under a Trump presidency. How would we defend our publication from an avalanche of far right lawsuits that seek to bankrupt us? How would we keep our reporters safe if they need to cover outbreaks of political violence, or if they are targeted by authorities? How will we urgently produce the practical analysis, tools and movement coverage that you need right now — breaking through our normal routines to meet a terrifying moment in ways that best serve you?
It will be a tough, scary four years to produce social justice-driven journalism. We need to deliver news, strategy, liberatory ideas, tools and movement-sparking solutions with a force that we never have had to before. And at the same time, we desperately need to protect our ability to do so.
We know this is such a painful moment and donations may understandably be the last thing on your mind. But we must ask for your support, which is needed in a new and urgent way.
We promise we will kick into an even higher gear to give you truthful news that cuts against the disinformation and vitriol and hate and violence. We promise to publish analyses that will serve the needs of the movements we all rely on to survive the next four years, and even build for the future. We promise to be responsive, to recognize you as members of our community with a vital stake and voice in this work.
Please dig deep if you can, but a donation of any amount will be a truly meaningful and tangible action in this cataclysmic historical moment. We’re presently working to find 1500 new monthly donors to Truthout before the end of the year.
We’re with you. Let’s do all we can to move forward together.
With love, rage, and solidarity,
Maya, Negin, Saima, and Ziggy