Netanyahu Insulted and Smeared the Pro-Palestine Protest Movement. Congress Clapped.

As thousands of protesters gathered outside the Capitol, Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu addressed a joint session of the U.S. Congress — and spent a significant portion of his hourlong speech attacking the U.S. pro-Palestinian protest movement with insults and misinformation. 

The prime minister went after campus protesters, drawing a false equivalence between students calling on their schools to divest from Israel and antisemitic attacks. He went on to insult protesters’ geographical and historical knowledge of the region, in reference to the protest slogan “From the river to the sea,” and belittled the slogan “Gays for Gaza,” saying it was the same as “Chickens for KFC.” 

More broadly, Netanyahu claimed that movements for Palestine liberation were choosing “to stand with evil … to stand with Hamas.”

The prime minister also claimed that the pro-Palestinian movement is funded by the Iranian government, labeling protesters “Iran’s useful idiots,” without offering any evidence to substantiate his claim.

The allegation of Iranian funding drew a standing ovation from many members of Congress who attended the speech but also a spattering of “boos.” The comment likely stemmed from a statement released earlier this month from the White House’s head of national intelligence, Avril Haines, who said they found “actors tied to Iran’s government posing as activists online, seeking to encourage protests, and even providing financial support to protesters.” In the same statement, Haines clarified that Americans who protest are expressing their view on Gaza “in good faith” and that her office’s “intelligence does not indicate otherwise.”

A number of media reports in recent months have found that Netanyahu’s government has been operating a similar influence campaign on social media, largely targeting Black members of Congress, in order to shore up support for its war on Gaza. 

To Palestine solidarity advocates demanding a ceasefire and an end to Israel’s war, Netanyahu’s attacks spoke to the power of their movement.

The speech was an “attempt to delegitimize a social movement that has a lot of power, that has a lot of clarity,” said Benjamin Kersten, a member of Jewish Voice for Peace, who participated in the rally outside the Capitol in Washington, D.C., on Wednesday, as well as the sit-in a day earlier in the Capitol rotunda. “It is also a distraction from what should be in focus, which is that over 39,000 people, over 14,000 children, have been killed by the Israeli government and military, making great use of United States’ weapons and funding.”

A central demand of protests around the Capitol during Netanyahu’s visit was an arms embargo on Israel. Since October 7, the U.S. has sent more than $12 billion in military aid to Israel, contributing to more than $141 billion in weapons to the Israeli government since the nation’s formation in 1948. 

During his speech, Netanyahu appealed to lawmakers to fast-track military aid and invoked former British Prime Minister Winston Churchill’s World War II appeal to the United States: “Give us the tools, and we’ll finish the job.” He also said that sending more weapons would “help keep American’s boots off the ground,” despite the fact that American soldiers in the region have been readied for deployment to Gaza, have died in attacks related to the ongoing war, and have been actively defending Israeli targets from attack.

Netanyahu’s appearance before Congress generated significant controversy among Democratic lawmakers, drawing detractors across the party’s political spectrum, from Rep. Nancy Pelosi, who said the invitation was a mistake, to Sen. Bernie Sanders, who said Israel “has trampled on international law, on American law, and on basic human values” in its war on Gaza.

More than 50 Democratic lawmakers boycotted the address in protest. 

Rep. Rashida Tlaib, the only Palestinian in Congress and most vocal opponent of the event, was in attendance, wearing a keffiyeh draped around her neck, holding a sign that read “War criminal.” Her guest at the address was Hani Almadhoun, a Palestinian American and director of philanthropy at UNRWA USA, who Tlaib said had lost “over 150 members of his extended family in Netanyahu’s genocide.” 

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But roaring applause met Netanyahu as he walked onto the House floor, with the ovation lasting for more than five minutes. More clapping came after he dismissed protesters outside the Capitol, and chants of “USA” broke out after Netanyahu praised members of a University of North Carolina fraternity who went viral for stopping an American flag from touching the ground during campus protests in May. The fraternity members were also honored last week at the Republican National Convention.

Throughout his speech, Netanyahu singled guests in attendance out for praise. Israel Defense Forces soldiers were repeatedly highlighted in his remarks, including one soldier who had immigrated to Israel from Ethiopia, and several others who continued fighting despite injuries and bragged about their record of killing “many terrorists.” Also present in the House chambers was Noa Argamani, who was among four Israeli hostages taken by Hamas and were freed during an IDF operation at the Nuseirat refugee camp in Gaza in early June. During the raid, more than 200 Palestinians were killed, including children as well as some of the hostages, Gazan officials said.

Some families of hostages have expressed distaste for Netanyahu’s speech, and were critical of his desire to prolong the incursion on Gaza, which they say risks the safety of the hostages. At least six people who were guests at the speech were detained by Capitol Police for holding signs during standing ovations that read “SEAL THE DEAL NOW,” referring to a ceasefire and deal to free the remaining hostages, according to Axios. 

Among those detained was Carmit Palty Katzir, an Israeli citizen whose father and brother were both hostages killed in Hamas captivity, according to a photo posted to social media that showed her wearing a “Seal the deal now” shirt. Other family members of hostages critical of Netanyahu gathered at a rally in downtown Washington, arguing that their relatives are paying the price for his war.

The International Criminal Court’s prosecutor requested arrest warrants in May for Netanyahu and his cabinet member and Defense Minister Yoav Gallant on a series of war crimes, including starvation of Palestinian civilians in Gaza and the targeting of civilians in its military attacks. The ICC has yet to approve the warrants, which would restrict the politicians’ travel to dozens of countries that are party to the court’s Rome Statute, which governs the enforcement of war crimes.

In Congress, Netanyahu openly dismissed the ICC’s case against him, defending his government’s record of delivering aid to Gaza and avoiding civilian deaths.

“The ICC is trying to shackle Israel’s hands and prevent us from defending ourselves,” Netanyahu said, before drawing a connection to the U.S., which, like Israel, is not party to the Rome Statute. “If Israel’s hands are tied, America’s next.”

Protest organizers hope to shift the focus from individual actors, such as Netanyahu, to the broader catastrophe of Israel’s treatment of Palestinians and war on Gaza. Last Friday, the International Court of Justice, the United Nations’ top court, ruled that Israel’s occupation of the West Bank and East Jerusalem is illegal, rife with war crime violations, and amounts to apartheid. A separate ICJ case is considering whether Israel is committing genocide in Gaza.

“As American taxpayers, we understand that Netanyahu is not the cause — this is not Netanyahu’s war — but that he really is the symptom of the larger problem of Israeli occupation, and apartheid, and now genocide” being carried out with American weapons and the support of the American government, said Kersten, the JVP organizer.

Kersten believes that U.S. lawmakers are wrong to isolate blame to Netanyahu: “What that allows is criticism of Netanyahu and no change in policy, or change in behavior.”