“Butcher of Gaza”: Pro-Palestine Protesters Interrupt Blinken Hearing
At the Senate Tuesday, Secretary of State Antony Blinken had to contend with protesters upset over the Biden administration’s support for Israel during its brutal war on Gaza. Screams of “war criminal” and “butcher of Gaza” broke out on the Senate floor before protesters were forcibly removed.
Blinken was called to testify before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee in a review of the State Department’s budget for the 2025 fiscal year, and later the Senate appropriations subcommittee. While Blinken was speaking during the first hearing, protesters who had red paint on their hands stood up and called him “bloody Blinken,” shouting that “the blood of 40,000 Palestinians” is on his hands.
“Blinken, you will be remembered as the butcher of Gaza!” one protester yelled as Capitol Police officers removed him from the hearing. “You will be remembered for murdering innocent Palestinians.”
NOW: @SecBlinken continues to be disrupted during his testimony to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.
— CODEPINK (@codepink) May 21, 2024
"Blinken is a war criminal! He is a war criminal! The blood of 40,000 Palestinians is on his hands!" pic.twitter.com/bmx0CTfkrJ
The antiwar organization Code Pink posted video of the interruption to X (formerly Twitter) and also posted video of one protester being picked up and carried outside of the room by police.
In a brief moment of levity, Senator Lindsey Graham warned in the hearing that if the ICC followed through on pursuing warrants for Israeli officials, “we’re next.” His statement drew applause from protesters, who welcomed the news.
“You can clap all you want to,” Graham said. “They tried to come after our soldiers in Afghanistan but reason prevailed.… What I hope to happen is that we level sanctions against the ICC for this outrage.”
Blinken, Graham, and many other Biden officials and politicians from both parties have been confronted by protesters calling for a cease-fire in the war in Gaza. On Tuesday, though, Blinken seemed relatively unfazed, saying the administration is willing to work with “a profoundly wrong-headed decision” regarding possible warrants for Israeli leaders issued by the International Criminal Court.
Meanwhile, Israel’s war has killed over 35,000 people, including at least 15,000 children. Israel has clamped down on press coverage of the war, including briefly shutting down an Associated Press camera on Tuesday. The United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees has had to shut down food distribution in the city of Rafah, where many Gazans have been displaced, due to the security situation and a lack of supplies. The Biden administration, after briefly pausing one weapons shipment to Israel, continues to send weapons to Israel, instead of listening to protesters and taking steps to end the war by stopping the flow of arms altogether.