Over 50 protesters were arrested Tuesday after storming a coffee shop inside the Dirksen Senate Office Building. Some of those involved in the protest can be heard shouting that “the Senate cannot eat until Gaza eats!”
Fox News host Harris Faulkner describes the site blocked by protesters as the “largest cafeteria on the Senate side” of the Capitol complex.
Several protesters can be seen with their hands painted pink and alternately shouting: “Children are starving in Gaza” and “People are dying in Gaza.”
Capitol Police reportedly advised that arrests would be made. This prompted one of the Senate protesters to respond, “This is the people’s house!”
One woman bravely wears a T-shirt proclaiming, “Biden’s Legacy = Genocide.”
🚨BREAKING: Anti-Israel protesters closed the Senate canteen shouting: “This is the People’s House, the Senate cannot eat until Gaza eats.” pic.twitter.com/dYQzF30O4d
— Io Meme Therefore I Am 🇺🇸 (@ImMeme0) April 9, 2024
RELATED: 6 police officers injured as violent anti-Israel protesters storm DNC headquarters
Protesters in the Senate disrupted the Senate hearing
Reports have linked these protesters who shut down a Senate cafeteria to the same group that repeatedly disrupted a Senate hearing with Pentagon leaders on Tuesday.
These protesters twice disrupted Senate Armed Services Committee hearings on Capitol Hill. They called for the United States to “stop funding Israel” and support “genocide” in Gaza.
US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said there was no evidence Israel committed genocide in Gaza, after he was repeatedly interrupted by pro-Palestinian protesters during a Senate hearing.
⬇️ https://t.co/WMqxdD6Jlc pic.twitter.com/GcYKAq3LZZ
— Sky News (@SkyNews) April 10, 2024
The message coming from these protesters is that Israel is committing “genocide”. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, however, testified at the Senate hearing that: “We have no evidence of genocide.”
I asked today @SecDef a simple question: “Is Israel committing genocide in Gaza?”
Spreading that lie, parroted by pro-Hamas activists, is nothing more than anti-Israel propaganda. pic.twitter.com/3eEkqQi5S0
— Tom Cotton (@SenTomCotton) April 9, 2024
Capitol Police released a statement reminding protesters in the Senate that “it is unlawful to demonstrate inside any building of Congress.”
RELATED: Rashida Tlaib cries uncontrollably, leads ‘insurrection’ at Capitol
It is not the first interruption of an official proceeding
Critics note that this is not the first time protesters have disrupted the official proceedings of Congress. This is the crux of all the media talk about the “insurrection” at the Capitol.
In March, over a dozen pro-Palestinian protesters were arrested at the Russell Senate Office Building.
A month earlier, several protesters inside the rotunda of the Cannon House office building were arrested. The group of activists had staged a “die-in”.
Anti-Israel protesters also sprung into action last October when rallygoers, egged on by Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-MN), stormed the Cannon Building, disrupting an official proceeding in the House.
WATCH: A group of pro-Palestinian insurrectionists stormed the Capitol today. Have any of them already been arrested, hunted down or thrown into gulags? Will any of them be sentenced to 17-22 years in prison? Shake. pic.twitter.com/jOV3AFv3sq
— TikTok Libraries (@libsoftiktok) October 18, 2023
Additionally, in November, six police officers were injured when pro-Palestinian protesters stormed the Democratic National Committee (DNC) headquarters.
