Nine American Jewish activists have been arrested outside the office of Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer while protesting against a forthcoming visit by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to the United States.
Netanyahu is due to visit Washington and address the US Congress on 24 July this year. Schumer has said that he supported the invitation despite his “clear and profound disagreements” with Netanyahu.
Video uploaded by the US Jewish group IfNotNow, which campaigns against US support for Israel’s “apartheid system” and in favour of Palestinian rights, showed the nine activists holding a sit-in protest outside Schumer’s office.
They held up sings saying “Let Gaza Live” and “Jews Say: No Platform for Netanyahu”.
A police officer in the video warns the activists that they had to move but they refused to end their protest. After this, more officers could be seen approaching to detain the activists.
IfNotNow has organised a number of protests against the Gaza war since it broke out last October, calling for “equality, justice, and a thriving future for all Palestinians and Israelis”.
The US has also seen a large-scale protest movement against the Gaza war and investment in Israel on college campuses, with authorities detaining thousands of students across a number of universities and failing to intervene when pro-Palestinian protesters were attacked by pro-Israeli rioters at the University of California in May.
President Joe Biden's administration has supported Israel militarily and politically throughout its indiscriminate war on Gaza, which has devastated the territory and killed at least 37,266 people, most of them women and children.