While Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu spoke to the United States Congress — a speech that was snubbed by Vice President Kamala Harris — pro-Hamas protestors outside the Capitol have clashed with Capitol Police. The police officers have, so far, been forced to deploy pepper spray to keep rioters away from the police line.
The Capitol Police’s official X account, during the Israeli PM’s speech, posted:
Part of the crowd has started to become violent at First Street and Constitution Avenue, NW. The crowd failed to obey our order to move back from our police line. We are deploying pepper spray towards anyone trying to break the law and cross that line.
— The U.S. Capitol Police (@CapitolPolice) July 24, 2024
Hamas flags were seen among the rioters.
Hamas flag seen among the protesters near the U.S. Capitol ahead of Israeli prime minister Netanyahu’s address pic.twitter.com/LE7eU1S9KY
— Lucas Tomlinson (@LucasFoxNews) July 24, 2024
The Capitol Police, anticipating just such trouble, were reinforced by police officers from New York and other jurisdictions before the PM’s appearance.
The US Capitol Police “anticipates a lot of demonstrators to show up,” the department said in a statement Tuesday. “The department respects everyone’s First Amendment rights, however all demonstrations must be done peacefully and legally.”
Kaz Daughtry, a New York deputy police commissioner, wrote on X that more than 200 of his department’s officers had been “been sworn in as United States Capitol Police Special Officers to assist in policing events this week.”
Tim Barber, a Capitol Police spokesman, said departments in Maryland and Virginia as well as Washington’s Metropolitan Police Department were also providing reinforcements. He did not say how many officers were arriving, but added they would bring their own equipment.
Protestors have not only clashed with the Capitol Police and their supporting officers but also took over and occupied the Cannon Building Rotunda for a time, resulting in arrests.
On Tuesday, several people protesting against the conflict in Gaza entered the Cannon Office Building and refused to leave. “We told the people, who legally entered, to stop or they would be arrested. They did not stop, so we are arresting them,” the Capitol Police said on X.
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Prime Minister Netanyahu correctly identified the Israel-Hamas conflict not as a conflict of civilizations but as a conflict between civilization and barbarity. The protestors in the streets of our nation’s capitol, some among them waving Hamas flags, are on the side of barbarity. They are supporting people who murder the innocent; they are supporting people who, during the October 7th atrocities, committed mass rapes, murdered children and the elderly along with adult Israelis, and committed atrocities that cannot be adequately described.
These are the people that the protestors in Washington, the people who are attacking cops, the people waving Hamas flags, are supporting. These are the acts that they are in favor of.
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