Protesters Urge Biden to “Fund Housing Not Genocide”
The Senate is scheduled to vote on joint resolutions of disapproval to block weapons sales to Israel on Wednesday, and protesters have filled the Hart Senate Office Building in Washington calling on senators to support the resolutions.
Several protesters donned red T-shirts reading “Stop Arming Israel” and “Fund Housing, Not Genocide” as police confiscated banners colored black, red, and green for Palestine, displaying slogans such as “Fund Education, Not Genocide.”
NOW—Scores of people here in Hart Senate Building in DC, calling on senators to support Joint Resolutions of Disapproval to block weapon sales to Israel.
— Prem Thakker (@prem_thakker) November 19, 2024
Am told members of faith groups, moms, healthcare workers, educators, students, veterans are here.
Police snatching banners. pic.twitter.com/C5iX1f9h5W
Protests also took place outside of the building, as participants chanted “1. We are the people. 2. We won’t stop fighting. 3. For Gaza’s freedom. Now, now, now!” even as other protesters were arrested.
“1. We are the people. 2. We won’t stop fighting. 3. For Gaza’s freedom. Now, now, now!”
— Prem Thakker (@prem_thakker) November 19, 2024
Protestors outside the Senate Building in Washington DC, as their fellow demonstrators are booked by police. https://t.co/ScPtO8XiGX pic.twitter.com/V64lV8OcE2
Senator Bernie Sanders introduced the resolutions in September, saying that “we must end complicity in Israel’s illegal and indiscriminate bombing campaign, which has caused mass civilian death” in a letter to his fellow senators. As of Tuesday, seven senators, including Sanders, have expressed support for the effort.
Israel’s brutal war in Gaza has killed more than 44,700 Palestinians, including at least 17,492 children, and injured more than 104,008. These are all likely undercounts, as the actual death toll could exceed 186,000, according to a July study from the medical journal The Lancet. Thousands of bodies are trapped under rubble in Gaza, and official figures don’t take indirect deaths into account, such as those due to the destruction of infrastructure, including hospitals and food distribution systems.
Last month, 99 health workers who worked in Gaza sent President Biden a letter saying that they had “witnessed crimes beyond comprehension,” urging a U.S. arms embargo on Israel. The U.S. provided 69 percent of Israel’s conventional weapons imports between 2019 and 2023, and gives Israel $3.8 billion in military aid every year as part of a 10-year agreement.
The Biden administration has refused to entertain even the possibility of halting weapons aid or using it as leverage for a cease-fire, even as Israel’s bombing has created a humanitarian catastrophe. The Senate resolutions are unlikely to succeed in stopping weapons shipments to Israel, but they are another reminder of America’s ability to halt the killing even as politicians refuse.