Republicans Compare Jewish Protesters Calling for Gaza Cease-fire to January 6 Insurrectionists - U.S. News - Haaretz.com
WASHINGTON – Republicans deeply embroiled in the January 6 insurrection are comparing Wednesday’s protest by American-Jewish activists calling for a cease-fire in the Israel-Gaza war to the storming of the U.S. Capitol in 2021.
GOP lawmakers and media figures are calling for the hundreds of Jewish activists detained by Capitol Police to be charged with committing an insurrection, as well as Democratic Rep. Rashida Tlaib for fomenting the sit-in inside a congressional office building.
In what organizers described as “the largest Jewish protest in solidarity with Palestinians in U.S. history,” somewhere between 300 and 500 activists were detained in the Cannon House Office Building’s rotunda.
Capitol Police confirmed that three were charged with assault on a police officer, after officers ripped banners reading “Cease-fire now.” Wearing matching shirts reading “Not in our name – Jews say cease-fire now,” protesters blew shofars and chanted Hebrew prayers.
Tlaib and Rep. Cori Bush, who co-sponsored a resolution demanding a cease-fire, addressed a rally on the National Mall prior to the sit-in along with author Naomi Klein.
“Since we were children, so many of us have told ourselves that we would not stand by if we were ever witnesses to genocidal violence. We told ourselves that we would raise our voices. We told ourselves we would put our bodies on the line. We pledged that such horrors would never again happen on our watch,” said Klein. “The ‘never again’ of our lifetimes is underway in Gaza right now. And we refuse to stand by and watch.”
The demonstration mirrored similar events at the White House earlier this week, where dozens were arrested after blocking all entries to the White House complex.
Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, one of former U.S. President Donald Trump’s most steadfast supporters who has attempted to both downplay and justify the events of January 6, posted images of protesters’ private text messages, accusing the events of being “an Arabic rebellion and uprising!!!”
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Greene also wrote the chief of Capitol Police in an official capacity, requesting that the Capitol Police preserve all video surveillance footage, photographic evidence, police reports and arrest records relating to Wednesday’s events.
In her letter, Greene highlighted protest organizer Jewish Voice for Peace, citing the Anti-Defamation League in describing the organization as a “pro-Islamic antisemitic group that seeks the destruction of the State of Israel.”
The ADL under CEO Jonathan Greenblatt has drawn the wrath of some progressives, who claim he has conflated criticism of Israel with antisemitism, putting a disproportionate focus on antisemitism from the left compared to far-right extremism and white supremacy.
“It appears Greenblatt has become so consumed with his anti-Palestinian agenda that he can no longer distinguish between antisemitic white supremacists and anti-war rabbis. He’s lost credibility to speak forcefully about real antisemitism,” said Simone Zimmerman, communications director of the newly formed Diaspora Alliance – a group dedicated to fighting antisemitism and its politicization.
Greene accused Tlaib, the only Palestinian-American lawmaker in Congress, of “[organizing] an insurrection today that broke federal law. She coordinated with Global Intifada and anti-Israel JVP. They all must be held in the DC gulag and Tlaib must be held accountable.”
Greene also called Tlaib a “terrorist sympathizer” who “followed Hezbollah’s orders for a ‘day of unprecedented anger.’”
In the years since January 6, Greene and her allies have attempted to depict those who rioted on the Capitol following Trump’s “Stop the Steal” rally as victims and political prisoners, visiting several charged and convicted rioters in prison.
She was not the only member of Congress or Trumpist influencer who sought to draw equivalencies between Wednesday’s anti-war protesters and the January 6 riots.
“INSURRECTIONISTS are storming the Capitol in support of Hamas. They are interrupting official government proceedings. Will there be federal charges? Solitary confinement? Will FBI raid their homes? WHO PAID for their buses, signs & T-shirts? I’ll join [Greene] to get answers,” wrote GOP Rep. Mary Miller (Illinois). Rep. Andy Ogles (Tennessee), meanwhile, accused “Hamas insurrectionists” of taking over the rotunda.
Kevin Sorbo, the actor and pro-Trump activist who previously accused the January 6 rioters of being paid leftist actors, said: “What happened today was an actual insurrection. Where’s the media coverage?”
Orthodox Jewish anti-LGBTQ influencer Chaya Raichik and her Libs of TikTok account said “a group of pro-Palestinian insurrectionists stormed the Capitol today. Have any of them been arrested, hunted down, or thrown in gulags yet? Will any of them get 17-22-year prison sentences? Shaking.”
She added: “Rashida Tlaib lied to a crowd of protesters. They then stormed the Capitol in an act of violence. It’s looking like she incited the insurrection today. When will she be investigated by Jack Smith,” she added, referring to the Department of Justice special counsel who indicted Trump.
Benny Johnson, chief creative officer for conservative group Turning Point USA, said: “When pro-Palestine protesters storm the Capitol, they are victims of police brutality. When Trump supporters protest at the Capitol, they are domestic terrorists who get shot and killed or locked in solitary confinement for years without trial.”
Sebastian Gorka, the far-right political commentator and former Trump assistant, also called the demonstrators “pro-Hamas insurrectionists.”
When asked about the comparisons, Jewish activists who spearheaded the demonstrations painted the efforts as patently not serious.
“Comparing hundreds of peaceful protesters, led in song by rabbis, advocating for treating all human life as equally sacred, to the violent white nationalist coup that Greene herself backed on January 6 is a joke,” said IfNotNow Political Director Eva Borgwardt.
'Radically different'
Beth Miller, the political director of Jewish Voice for Peace Action, said: “As President [Joe] Biden is pledging unwavering support for the Israeli government, a government that is actively and openly committing war crimes against Palestinians, thousands and thousands of American Jews showed up at the Capitol to say: enough. And yet, hateful extremist members of Congress view an antiwar group of multigenerational Jews calling for a cease-fire as the enemy. It’s time for this to stop. We demand our elected officials call for a cease-fire now.”
Democratic Rep. Jamie Raskin, who served on the House January 6 panel and was a lead impeachment manager against Trump for his conduct, told Haaretz: “Whether you agree or disagree with the purpose of their protest or the content of their speech, the nonviolent protesters submitting to arrest in the Cannon Office Building cannot be seriously likened to the violent insurrectionists who overran the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021. Without respect to their political viewpoints, the actions of these two groups were radically different.”
He continued: “Wednesday’s protesters never stormed the U.S. Capitol. They carried no weapons and never violently or unlawfully entered the House or Senate chambers. They never disrupted any of today’s congressional proceedings. They never violently attacked Capitol or Metropolitan police officers and they never hospitalized any of them. Nor did they ever threaten to nullify a lawful presidential election or otherwise thwart our basic constitutional processes. They simply did not attack our constitutional order.”
Raskin called the comparison between January 6 insurrectionists and nonviolent protesters “completely obtuse and absurd. It’s not even apples and oranges; it’s more like bananas and pineapples. This false equation is undertaken for transparently political reasons and can be debunked by any reasonable and informed person.”