WASHINGTON—Despite heavy security which prevented them from surrounding the U.S. Capitol, thousands of protesters jammed Washington’s Pennsylvania Avenue to denounce Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in a mass march Wednesday. They declared him “a war criminal,” demanded his arrest, and blasted U.S. aid to and complicity with his ongoing genocidal war on Gaza.
The protests continued even as Netanyahu spoke to a joint meeting of Congress, thanking Democratic President Joe Biden for weapons shipments since the Israeli military launched its massive retaliatory invasion of Gaza last October.
The far-right PM lavished even more praise on former Republican President Donald Trump—a white nationalist, misogynist, convicted felon—and once again the party’s nominee. Both Netanyahu and Trump seek to again split the Democratic coalition that backed Biden and is now coalescing around Vice President Kamala Harris’s candidacy to succeed him.
Using a Cold War insult, the U.S.-educated Netanyahu called the protesters “useful idiots.” Seizing on a chance to try to pinkwash the genocide, he took a shot at LGBTQ protesters, in particular, saying protesters holding signs reading “Gays for Gaza” were akin to poultry carrying “Chickens for KFC” placards.
Addressing a pared-down gathering of lawmakers, Netanyahu demanded even more U.S. money and weaponry for his military campaign to subjugate Gaza. “Give us the tools faster, and we’ll finish the job faster,” he said. The war has reduced Gaza to ruins, produced two million refugees, killed at least 38,000 people, and left more than 100,000 injured.
Aside from condemning Netanyahu, the big targets for the protesters were Congress and President Biden. “Our leaders have tacitly endorsed his [Netanyahu’s] crimes…. Biden and too many members of Congress have not only tolerated these atrocities, they’ve been complicit in them,” one demonstrator told People’s World.
“As Americans and taxpayers, we do not welcome war criminals into our legislative chambers,” meaning Netanyahu, another said.
Labor leads in the streets
Besides Palestinian solidarity groups, organized labor and Jewish peace groups were also large presences among the demonstrators. The United Auto Workers took the lead in building a “Labor for Ceasefire” contingent which ultimately encompassed several unions.
UAW Region 9A President Brandon Mancilla spoke to attendees, and the Auto Workers chartered several buses from Detroit and five or six busloads from New York. “The more money going to war, the less money goes to working-class needs,” Mancilla said. “This has been a key demand of our working-class movement.”
Postal Workers (APWU) President Mark Dimondstein declared, “We’re in solidarity with the workers and students of Gaza.” APWU was the first big national union to demand a ceasefire and negotiations to end the Gaza War. “We call on the U.S. government to halt all military aid to the Netanyahu government.”
“Our tax dollars should never be used to bomb the men, women, and children of Gaza,” Dimondstein told the crowd. The Israeli war on Gaza “is raising the danger of a wider war,” he warned. “The U.S. government has the leverage to stop Israel,” Dimondstein elaborated. “And it is a falsehood that being anti-Israel is being anti-Semitic,” as both Netanyahu and Republicans contend.
APWU was one of seven unions to sign a joint letter to Biden with those ceasefire and negotiations demands the day before Netanyahu’s speech. They also backed an aid cutoff. APWU reaffirmed its anti-war stand at a recent convention, Dimondstein told the crowd.
Other signers included the National Education Association, the Association of Flight Attendants/CWA, the Service Employees, the Auto Workers, the Painters, and the United Electrical Workers. Speakers estimated the seven unions speak for 7.5 million members.
“The Israeli government will continue to pursue its vicious response to the horrific attacks of October 7th until it is forced to stop,” their letter said. “We believe immediately cutting U.S. military aid to the Israeli government is necessary to bring about a peaceful resolution to this conflict.”
Those unions, plus members of the Office and Professional Employees, the Communications Workers, the Steelworkers, and the National Nurses United, also marched.
“I think union activists and organizers and the rank and file, for many months, have pressed our leadership to come out in opposition to the war crimes and pressed our [U.S.] administration to do more” to stop them, said OPEIU Local 2 member Chelsea Bland.
The protesters were barred from ringing the Capitol due to a massive police presence, including 200 imported New York City cops. They responded with chants of “Free Palestine” and more. Signs declared, “The blood is on your hands” showing pictures of both Biden and Netanyahu. “Netanyahu, you can’t hide. We charge you with genocide,” another chant went.
Code Pink reported that after both the demonstration and Netanyahu’s speech ended, police pepper-sprayed and arrested some of its members protesting at various barricades. The Hill reported 16 arrests, including five who stood up with anti-war insignia in the House gallery.
Dissent inside the Capitol
Some 50 lawmakers boycotted the speech, including Sen. Bernie Sanders, Ind-Vt., the prime sponsor of military aid cutoffs to Israel. Rep. Rashida Tlaib, D-Mich., a Palestinian-American whose Detroit-area district includes the nation’s largest concentration of Arab-Americans, and who blasted the administration in a floor speech the day before, wore a kaffiyeh to the House floor.
She defiantly faced down Netanyahu from her seat in the House chamber, holding up a black and white sign with messages the Israeli leader couldn’t avoid. On one side, it read, “Guilty of Genocide,” and on the other was “War Criminal.”
Both Vice President Kamala Harris, and Trump’s running mate, Sen. J.D. Vance, R-Ohio, were out campaigning. So was Trump. People noticed Harris’s absence. The Vice President and House Speaker usually jointly preside at such joint meetings. Pro-Israel Sen. Ben Cardin, D-Md., replaced Harris.
The vice president is expected to meet one-on-one with Netanyahu at some point during his visit, and many ceasefire activists are hoping she will signal a break from Biden’s policy of essentially unconditional support for Netanyahu. Tlaib has encouraged the new Democratic nominee to back an Israeli arms embargo.
Right-wing and Trumpite Republicans repeatedly cheered the Israeli PM, while most of the other Democrats sat in stony silence. As for those who boycotted the speech, some had a lot to say.
“I am past pissed off. I am past upset. I am absolutely ashamed of what is happening,” Rep. Cori Bush, D-Mo., told the press. She participated in a conference call alongside other Democrats and former government officials who have resigned from their jobs in protest of the administration’s policy. “Our government has been actively complicit in genocide every step of the way,” Bush added.
Anti-war voices
“We want to make sure our voices are heard and our dissatisfactions are discussed,” said Melissa Kiseling, one of a group of Young Communist League members, from D.C., Baltimore, and Brooklyn, who carried a large banner and signs during the protest.
“As workers and as union members, I think it is really important that we are standing with the workers and the union movement in Palestine,” added another, Justin Otter.
The Communist Party USA distributed a statement Wednesday drawing attention to the fact that International Criminal Court Prosecutor Karim Khan is seeking an arrest warrant for Netanyahu for war crimes and crimes against humanity.
“Netanyahu’s presence in Congress is a disgrace and an affront,” the CPUSA said. “We demand the arrest of Benjamin Netanyahu, and we call for the United States to end its complicity in genocide and to support a permanent, lasting ceasefire.”
The party reiterated its support for “Palestinian self-determination and an end to the illegal 76-year Israeli occupation of Palestine.”
Gokar Ivfar, an Auto Worker Region 9A member from the Graduate Students Union at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, spoke with People’s World about youth involvement in the ceasefire movement. “It’s very important to represent not just students in the U.S., but students around the world,” who have protested Biden’s aid to Israel for the Gaza War, he said. The war “should alarm all of us.”
Some of the marchers and speakers wondered to what extent Harris would deviate from Biden’s lockstep support for Israel’s war. Some were skeptical, but others expressed the view that she is not as emotionally committed as he is to uncritical support of Netanyahu’s right-wing government and its military campaign.
Harris “seems to be more open to a different approach” to the Israel-Palestinian conflict in general and the war in particular, UAW 9A President Brandon Mancilla told People’s World. “But we need to see results.” He noted Harris’s absence from Netanyahu’s speech.
Netanyahu the opportunist
The Associated Press reported that before Netanyahu’s speech, some 60 lawmakers, led by Rep. Tlaib, met privately with families of hostages whom Hamas still holds, nine months after the Oct. 7 attack. The families said Netanyahu ignores the hostages’ plight to seek peace in order to further his own political purposes.
Netanyahu’s purposes, Israeli media report, are to “win the war,” establish complete rule over Gaza, and by doing so, keep himself and his far-right nationalist coalition in power while he evades trial on corruption charges.
In a measure of how controversial Netanyahu is, security for his speech covered most of the nation’s capital. High steel fences surrounded the Capitol building, just as they did during anti-Trump and pro-abortion protests. The surrounding neighborhood was cordoned off, and the rest of D.C. suffered its most massive traffic jam in decades.
Major avenues and all side streets for a mile or more around the Israeli embassy were closed for hours. Police cruisers blocked everything. Helicopters constantly patrolled overhead. Bus routes were canceled or stopped. Only the subway ran, and an occasional pedestrian got through.
But none of that stopped demonstrators’ message from getting through to the world: Ceasefire and arms embargo now.
C.J. Atkins contributed to this article.
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