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When US Congress becomes a circus

Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu addresses US Congress on July 24, 2024. (Photo by AP)

Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu's controversial address at the US Congress, despite nine months of brutal ethnic cleansing and attempted genocide in Gaza, was met by over 10,000 angry protesters and boycotted by representatives of the Democratic Party.

The protesters demanded not just an end to Washington's unconditional support and arming of Israel, but also the arrest of Netanyahu himself.

This is Netanyahu’s first foreign visit since October 7 as well as being his first foreign visit since the International Criminal Court announced that they will seek an arrest warrant for Netanyahu over war crimes in Gaza.

He should be locked up. He's a war criminal. The ICC declared him a criminal.

He committed genocide, he committed atrocities and he is killing innocent babies and women and those people that are dying, they are not Hamas, they don't have weapons.

Protester 01

Almost 130 Democratic lawmakers, half of all Democrats in Congress, boycotted his speech.

I think it's all a show. I mean, in the end, they're not really voting for anything that substantial.

We have just a couple of people in Congress that are doing some work, but the majority of the Democratic establishment, and all the Republicans are basically establishment, is just toeing the line of whatever AIPAC wants them to do.

Protester 02

Many in the Democratic Party are hoping that the apparent election replacement of Joe Biden with his vice president Kamala Harris, can somehow win back the huge number of progressive voters who vowed never to vote for Biden over his role in the genocide.

I don't think so because she oversaw everything that he was doing.

She's also a huge AIPAC supporter, has taken a lot of money from AIPAC. She's married to a huge Zionist.

So for us right now, it doesn't really matter who, you know, she's the same thing as Biden.

It's not really making a difference to us that she's potentially going to be taking over.

Protester 03

The protest was filled with American Jews who insisted that Israel does not represent all Jews, and that anti-Zionism can never be equated with anti-Semitism.

You know, as long as Zionism has existed, there have been Jews who have spoken out and opposed it, that have made it clear that Zionism is an ideology that wants to create a Jewish only state where Jews have special rights over Palestinians.

And for centuries Jews have stood up for equal rights, stood up against fascism, to say that everyone deserves equal rights, everyone deserves safety and we are hundreds of Jews, thousands of Jews, acting in that tradition and calling for peace and justice and safety for all.

Protester 04

A huge police presence led to many protesters renaming Washington DC as Fort Netanyahu.

This week, there have been hundreds of arrests with police using pepper spray on protesters.

In his speech, Netanyahu immediately focused on war mongering against Iran, and even called the pro Palestinian protesters outside "Iran's useful idiots"


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