Tony Blinken Interrupted During Senate Hearing By Protesters Of Israel’s Actions In Gaza
Secretary of State Antony Blinken was repeatedly interrupted at a Senate hearing today by about a dozen protesters opposed to Israel’s actions in Gaza.
The demonstrators, some of whom chanted “ceasefire now” and “no Gaza genocide,” were escorted or dragged out of the hearing by Capitol Police.
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On CNN, which was carrying the hearing live, one woman was seen standing up behind Blinken with the sign, “ceasefire in Gaza.” Others in the crowd had painted their hands red to represent blood and held them up during the hearing.
“I appreciate that people feel passionately about these issues. I would ask that you respect our witnesses and our committee members and allow the American people to hear their testimony. We will pause until the room is clear,” said Sen. Patti Murray (D-WA), the chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee.
Blinken was interrupted again by another demonstrator, and then by a larger group. Some of the members screamed “ceasefire now” and “all the walls have got to go.” Blinken paused and listened but did not appear to look back at the demonstrators as they shouted.
Blinken and Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin are testifying before the committee in support of the Biden administration’s $105 billion supplemental funding request for emergency aid to Israel and Ukraine, as well as to Taiwan and border security.
House Speaker Mike Johnson has proposed legislation that would separate $14 billion in aid to Israel from the rest of the supplemental budget request. The GOP House bill also would require that the money be offset by cuts to the IRS budget that had been directed to increased enforcement. The Biden administration and Senate Democrats quickly bashed the proposal, as they want to see a standalone bill. They also see a precedent in requiring budget offsets for emergency funding.
During the hearing, Blinken said that a ceasefire in the Israel-Hamas war “would simply consolidate what Hamas has been able to do and allow it to remain where it is, and potentially repeat what it did another day. And that’s not tolerable. No nation would tolerate it.”
“We do believe that we have to consider things like humanitarian pauses, to make sure that assistance can go to those who need it, and people can be protected to get out of harm’s way. But we can’t have a situation where there’s a reversion to the status quo, where when this is over it goes back to Hamas being responsible for the governance and so-called security of Gaza, because that is simply an invitation to repeat what happened.”
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