The United States Capitol Police on Tuesday arrested dozens of anti-Israel protesters in a Senate office building after demonstrators blocked access to and occupied the upper chamber’s cafeteria.
Chanting “the Senate can’t eat until Gaza eats” and calling for a permanent cease-fire between Israel and Hamas, the protesters included representatives from organizations like Code Pink and Christians for a Free Palestine, videos captured inside the building show.
“Approximately 50 people were arrested for illegally demonstrating inside the Dirksen Senate Office Building this afternoon,” a Capitol Police spokesperson told told National Review. Demonstrating inside any congressional building is against the law, the spokesperson said, and offenders could be charged with “crowding, obstructing, or incommoding.”
Before entering the Dirksen Senate Office Building, the protesters interrupted a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing with defense secretary Lloyd Austin and Joint Chiefs of Staff chairman Charles Brown on the upcoming Pentagon budget.
Barging into the hearing room while Austin delivered his opening remarks, protesters chanted “stop the genocide in Gaza” before being removed by Capitol Police. Senator Jack Reed (D., R.I.), the committee chairman, said it was “not appropriate for comments or demonstrations” to go forward during a hearing.
It was at that hearing when Austin, prompted by a question from Senator Tom Cotton (R., Ark.), said the U.S. does not “have any evidence of genocide” and reminded “everybody that what happened on October 7 was absolutely horrible.”
Videos show many of the protesters with red paint covering the palms of their hands, a visual that has become commonplace at anti-Israel demonstrations and appeared on lapel pins worn by many Academy Award attendees earlier this year. While it is unclear whether the activists are aware of the significance of the red palms, they call back to an image from the Second Intifada. A mob of Palestinians in Ramallah abducted, beat, stabbed, and disemboweled two young Israeli men in 2000, and one of the most well-known photographs of the scene depicts a member of the mob showing off his blood-covered hands through a window while a crowd looks on in celebration.
Tuesday was far from the first time anti-Israel protesters have congregated inside the Capitol and the office buildings within the complex. Capitol Police arrested some 300 demonstrators inside and around the Cannon House Office Building in October, a rally many connected to Representative Rashida Tlaib’s (D., Mich.) call for a Palestine “from the river to the sea” and speech in front of the crowd that ultimately breached the Cannon doors.
Anti-Israel protesters in January nearly breached an exterior White House gate during a rally that saw activists clash with law enforcement officials and throw objects over the fence.