A guide to the Jewish and Israeli groups that protested Netanyahu’s DC visit
Six people were arrested in the House Galleries due to ‘unlawful conduct’
The Hostages and Missing Families Forum protesting outside of the Capitol on Tuesday, a day before Netanyahu’s address to Congress. Photo by @BringThemHome23/X Screenshot
By Rebecca Massel July 24, 2024
As Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu addressed Congress on Wednesday, thousands of protesters marched outside of the Capitol building and others demonstrated within the House Chamber.
The U.S. Capitol Police wrote in a post on X that the crowd was becoming “violent” and did not obey orders to move back from the police line. The Capitol Police deployed pepper spray toward “anyone trying to break the law and cross that line.”
At the same time, six individuals were removed and arrested in the House Galleries due to “unlawful conduct,” Brianna Burch, a U.S. Capitol Police spokesperson, wrote to the Forward in a statement. While members of Congress gave Netanyahu standing ovations throughout his speech, a few individuals wore yellow shirts that read “SEAL THE DEAL NOW,” a demand that the Netanyahu administration sign a hostage deal and bring home the Israeli hostages still held in Gaza.
On Tuesday, hundreds of members of Jewish Voices for Peace, the largest anti-Zionist Jewish organization in the United States, held a sit-in in the Cannon House Office Building rotunda to protest Netanyahu’s address. Approximately 200 members were arrested for “Crowding, Obstructing, or Incommoding,” the U.S. Capitol Police posted on X.
Here is a guide to the Jewish and Israeli organizations which protested Netanyahu in Washington this week.
Jewish Voices for Peace
- Mission: JVP was founded at UC Berkeley in 1996 to advocate for “a world where all people — from the U.S. to Palestine — live in freedom, justice, equality, and dignity” and has since grown to become the largest anti-Zionist Jewish organization in the US.
- Partners: The group works with Palestinian partner organizations and says it holds itself accountable to those partners, who work directly with Palestinian communities.
- On campus: While the group organizes and protests around the country and has members of all generations, the Jewish anti-Israel organization is best known for their activity on college campuses.
- Protests: In October, the group participated in a 300-person sit-in in the Cannon House Office Building rotunda with shirts that read, “NOT IN OUR NAME.” On Tuesday, JVP led a second sit-in in the same location with hundreds of members of JVP — in shirts that read “JEWS SAY STOP ARMING ISRAEL” — to demand that the U.S. government immediately enforce an arms embargo on Israel. Approximately 200 members were arrested.
T’ruah
- Mission: T’ruah is a left-wing organization of rabbis and cantors, which empowers Jewish leaders to advocate for “advancing democracy and human rights for all people in the United States, Israel, and the occupied Palestinian territories.” The organization was founded in 2002 and is currently run by Rabbi Jill Jacobs.
- Partners: The group has aligned themselves with left-wing political groups in Israel, calling for Israel to exit the West Bank and posting on X about the plight of the Israeli hostages held in Gaza, calling for their release. It does not affiliate with the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions movement. In addition to advocacy for issues in the Middle East, the organization has opposed mass incarceration and U.S. President Donald Trump’s immigration policies in America.
- Protest: On Wednesday morning, T’ruah held a morning prayer service outside the Capitol with posters reading, “NO FUTURE WITH BIBI” and “American Jews say: END THE WAR!”
UnXeptable
- Mission: Founded four years ago by Israeli expats in the San Francisco Bay Area, UnXeptable works with world Jewry to “preserve the democratic identity of Israel as the home of all of its inhabitants.”
- Judicial reform: In July 2023, during the heat of protests against the judicial reform proposed by the Netanyahu administration, the organization sent a letter to the Israeli government signed by 200 Jewish rabbis, clergy, and community leaders calling for Israel to become “a beacon of democracy, justice, and equality.”
- Partner: Throughout the Israel-Hamas war, UnXeptable has aligned with the Hostages and Missing Families Forum to free the Israeli hostages held in Gaza, with a day tracker on their website counting the time since the civilians were captured.
- Protest: On Wednesday, UnXeptable held a protest near the Capitol two hours before Netanyahu’s address, saying the group demands an “immediate hostage deal, opposes Netanyahu and his destructive government, and stands for a democratic, liberal and just Israel for everyone.” The protest is organized under the slogan “NON GRATA” — meaning “unwelcome” — with a picture of Netanyahu.
The Hostages and Missing Families Forum
- Mission: An umbrella group of family members of Israeli hostages held in Gaza formed the Hostage and Missing Families Forum less than 24 hours after Hamas’ Oct. 7 attacks in order to demand that the Israeli government make a hostage deal to return the hostages. Some family members of hostages are also part of another group, Kulanu Hatufim, or “We Are All Hostages.”
- Tel Aviv protests: The group has organized protests against the Netanyahu government in Tel Aviv for months, including a large protest there on Wednesday.
- ‘Seal the Deal’: Around 15 minutes into Netanyahu’s speech, as he spoke about the Israeli government’s successes in rescuing its hostages, more than 10 family members of hostages stood up in the gallery in protest with yellow shirts reading, “SEAL THE DEAL NOW,” according to the Forum’s post on X. At the end of Netanyahu’s address, one protester, Zahiro Shachar Mor, who is part of Kulanu Hatufim, shouted “1,400 dead,” referring to the original estimate of how many people Hamas murdered during their Oct. 7 attacks on Israel. He and five other individuals from the Hostage and Missing Families Forum were removed and arrested in the House Galleries during the prime minister’s speech.
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