Multiple pro-Palestinian protesters interrupted a Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing on Wednesday.
From videos posted to social media, the disruptions appeared coordinated, though they involved only a handful of individuals.
Those few individuals, however, made their hysterical-sounding voices heard.
Sophie Louise Delquie, Strategic Communications Director for Senate Republicans, shared a brief clip of one disruption on X.
In the clip, Republican Sen. James Risch of Idaho, the SFRC’s ranking member, calmly paused and waited for police to remove the protester.
“Sen. Risch handled like a champ,” Delquie posted.
?JUST NOW: Pro-Hamas protesters are interrupting the Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing.
Sen. Risch handled like a champ. pic.twitter.com/f5YKEkV7QX
— Sophie Louise Delquié (@SophieDelquie) October 18, 2023
Ellie Sennett, foreign policy correspondent for The National — a news outlet focused on the Middle East — added details regarding the hearing and shared three short videos of three different protesters yelling and being removed from the room.
“Pro-Ceasefire demonstrators interrupt the Senate Foreign Relations Committee nomination hearing for Jack Lew as Ambassador to #Israel,” Sennett wrote in part.
“The expedited hearing occurs just a day after Israel faced accusations of bombing a #hospital in #Gaza, killing 500+ people,” she added.
In the first video, a male protester yelled while holding a sign and being dragged away.
“Families are dying! Our families are dying! We need a cease-fire now! We need a cease-fire now! Cease-fire now! Cease-fire now!” he yelled.
Then, a second video showed the protester who interrupted Risch.
“Eight hundred international human rights lawyers called our state to intervene to stop this genocide in Gaza! Palestine — Palestinians need freedom!” she yelled at a volume that made some words inaudible.
Finally, in Sennett’s third video — a seven-second clip — a different woman protested U.S. funding of Israel.
“Stop sending aid to Israel! Stop the Israeli genocide of Palestinians!” the third protester shrieked.
Pro-Ceasefire demonstrators interrupt the Senate Foreign Relations Committee nomination hearing for Jack Lew as Ambassador to #Israel
The expedited hearing occurs just a day after Israel faced accusations of bombing a #hospital in #Gaza, killing 500+ people @TheNationalNews pic.twitter.com/wFlSn4avwh
— Ellie Sennett (@EllieMSennett) October 18, 2023
Meanwhile, American Muslims for Palestine posted a lengthier video that showed police leading the masked female protester to an elevator.
As one might expect, she did not stop protesting.
While still within earshot of the SFRC hearing room, she continued yelling at the top of her voice. Then, when she arrived at the elevator, she tried to engage and shame the police officers.
“This is how mass atrocities happen,” she said to one of the officers, who ignored her.
“When you’re reading history books and ask ‘Why? How did people not speak up?’ This is how,” she later added.
After a brief pause, she turned to specific accusations.
“Israel has killed about 1,500 kids in 10 days,” she said, again speaking to the first officer who ignored her.
She then cited the alleged atrocity to which Sennett referred in her post — the Tuesday bombing of a Gaza hospital.
“Fifteen hundred children with their heads blown off! Did you see the father picking up the body parts of his kids yesterday? Because they were in a hospital when Israel bombed them? And our tax dollars are funding it!” the protester said.
The video then showed police leading the other female protester — still yelling for a cease-fire — toward and into the elevator.
? BREAKING: Protestors disrupt the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee Hearing demanding a ceasefire in Gaza.#CeasefireNow pic.twitter.com/LhYMfsA8ih
— American Muslims for Palestine (@AMPalestine) October 18, 2023
The fog of war envelops everything. As any historian knows, early reports seldom contain the full truth.
Thus, with respect to the destroyed Gaza hospital and hundreds of attendant fatalities, we must ask one question: Who benefited? What could Israel have gained from bombing that hospital? On the other hand, what did Hamas gain from the perception of Israeli culpability?
Setting aside questions of morality, the Israelis have no strategic motive for destroying hospitals or committing genocide. Hamas, however, cannot survive an Israeli onslaught in Gaza without outside intervention, which tales of flattened hospitals might provoke.
Indeed, Israeli sources already have produced audio evidence suggesting that Hamas terrorists knew Israelis had not bombed the hospital.
Nothing but revenge-fueled bloodlust could compel the intentional targeting of children and other innocents. If we think the Israelis are capable of that, then we would have to alter our entire view of the conflict.
Meanwhile, we know the depths to which Hamas will descend. That fact alone makes us skeptical of pro-Palestinian protesters and their morals.
After all, we have heard a great deal about “proportionate” responses. But we have not seen that same proportionality of protest.
All but the most soulless wretches have ached for the innocent lives lost in Gaza. We pray that God will spare those who still survive.
Alas, we did not sense those same feelings of regret from pro-Palestinian protesters when Hamas slaughtered Israelis.
This article appeared originally on The Western Journal.
