U.S. flag set ablaze, 23 arrested as thousands protest Netanyahu’s D.C. visit

Thousands of Palestinian supporters and critics of the ongoing Israel-Gaza war descended on Washington on Wednesday in opposition to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu before and during his address to a joint meeting of Congress, drawing a massive police response as they marched around the city.

Though most demonstrators walked and chanted peacefully, there were some clashes with law enforcement, and D.C. police and Capitol Police said they arrested 15 people in total. The U.S. Park Police arrested eight people.

Outside Union Station, pro-Palestinian protesters set an American flag ablaze, along with an effigy of Netanyahu, and spray-painted the Christopher Columbus fountain and adjacent Liberty Bell reproduction with messages like “Free Gaza,” “All zionists are bastards,” and “Free Palestine.” Police appeared to hit some demonstrators with a chemical irritant at multiple points during the day.

The protesters came, they said, to decry Netanyahu’s policies and condemn how Israel has prosecuted the war in Gaza. Although the demonstrators expressed a range of political beliefs about the conflict, they voiced a similar message: The human suffering from the war has continued far too long, and it is past time for Netanyahu to sign a cease-fire deal. Others demanded the release of hostages taken during Hamas’s Oct. 7 attack that precipitated the war and an end to U.S. aid to Israel.

[Netanyahu defends war in Gaza and denounces protesters in speech to Congress]

Protesters began gathering midmorning on Pennsylvania Avenue a few blocks from the Capitol holding signs calling for an end to U.S. aid to Israel and others with photos of Netanyahu under the word “WANTED.”

Tables were set up nearby providing water as well as red shirts and kaffiyehs for protesters to wear. Hundreds of signs attached to wooden stakes were distributed to rallygoers. Small Palestinian flags had been attached to lampposts and street signs up and down Pennsylvania Avenue.

In anticipation of the protests, bike racks and fencing were set up around the Capitol, and a Capitol Police spokesperson said the agency planned to add more officers, including from outside agencies. New York Police Department Deputy Commissioner Kaz Daughtry posted on X that more than 200 officers from his agency would be assisting Capitol Police.

Hasan Isham, 34, held his 3-month-old daughter, Amelia, as he gathered with other protesters. Amelia was dressed in a onesie covered in watermelons, a symbol for Palestinian liberation.

“Little kids are being killed in Gaza,” Isham said. “Little kids like mine.”

The resident of Silver Spring, Md., came to the protest because he “had to do something” to register his anger, especially because he felt his tax dollars were supporting the deaths.

“Over the past 10 months, many Hasans have been killed in Gaza along with their entire family,” he said. “Every time I pick up my daughter, I can’t help but think: ‘That’s something that could happen to me. That’s happening to people who look like me.’”

Sereen Haddad has lost more than 130 members of her family in Gaza since the onset of the war. Relatives have been displaced. Family members are living on the streets, searching for any shelter, including a cousin who gave birth to twins in November.

These are the people Haddad, 19, was keeping in mind Wednesday.

“Netanyahu has decided that he’s apparently welcome in D.C., and we’re making it clear to him that he’s not,” she said.

Maryland residents David Reed, 76, and Mark Harrison, 73, listened to the speeches as the crowd around them grew. The longtime friends said they were outraged by Netanyahu’s presence in the city and U.S. support of Israel’s military incursion into Gaza, but heartened by the feeling that protest movements were making a difference.

“The movement is now beginning to influence formal U.S. policy,” said Reed, “[evidenced] by the boycott of many congressional leaders from [Netanyahu’s] speech.”

“I wouldn’t be out here if I didn’t think I was making a difference,” Harrison added.

The largest demonstration Wednesday was organized by several groups, including the ANSWER Coalition, the Palestinian Youth Movement, the People’s Forum and the International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network.

Additional protests against Netanyahu’s handling of the war included demonstrators blocking traffic downtown.

At noon, close to 100 people rallied in a park near Union Station. Some waved Israeli flags, and others stood behind a banner that read “Save Israel from Bibi,” using Netanyahu’s nickname. The gathering was organized by UnXeptable, an activist group of Israeli expatriates, and speakers, including Rabbi Jill Jacobs, who urged political leaders to save the hostages but also to “save Israel and its democracy.”

“We’re here today to say we refuse to let a small number of zealots, including Benjamin Netanyahu, destroy the state of Israel,” Jacobs said to the crowd. “We’re here to tell Netanyahu that he and his fascist politics are not welcome here in the United States or in Israel.” Participants punctuated the remarks with chants of “Shame, shame, shame” and “Seal the deal” to bring hostages home.

Pro-Palestinian protesters rallying on the National Mall demanded Netanyahu be arrested as a “war criminal,” citing the International Criminal Court chief prosecutor’s announcement in May that he was seeking to charge Netanyahu and Hamas leader Yehiya Sinwar with war crimes and crimes against humanity.

A little before noon, a few dozen protesters blocked traffic at 14th Street and Independence Avenue SW, hoping to disrupt Netanyahu’s motorcade route. As cars stuck on Independence honked, the protesters chanted: “Not another nickel, not another dime. No more money for Israel’s crimes.”

Two black SUVs flashing police lights tried to pass, but protesters did not move and the vehicles were driven away. Protesters held up a large papier-mâché depiction of Netanyahu wearing handcuffs.

“So long as this genocide happens, we the people are going to take things into our hands,” said Reem Assil, an organizer who traveled to the protests from Oakland, Calif., and was part of the group blocking traffic.

Assil said she has family in Gaza, where more than 40 of her relatives have died since the start of the war.

Closer to the Capitol, a bagpiper in a green plaid kilt played “Amazing Grace” as he marched from Union Station among about 100 demonstrators. The group applauded at his finish, before he joined the crowd to shout “Free, free Palestine!”

Later in the afternoon, as Netanyahu prepared to give his speech to Congress, thousands of protesters marched up Constitution Avenue toward the Capitol. Near the intersection with Louisiana Avenue, they approached a line of Capitol Police officers who ordered them to stop and move back. As the marchers continued to press forward, police officers sprayed the protesters with pepper spray.

Capitol Police posted on X that some protesters “started to become violent” and did not “obey our order to move back from our police line.”

“We are deploying pepper spray towards anyone trying to break the law and cross that line,” police said in the post.

Capitol Police arrested and charged six people with unlawful conduct in the House galleries, said agency spokeswoman Brianna Burch. Earlier in the day, D.C. police arrested five people on Independence Avenue and Fourth Street SW on charges of crowding, obstructing or incommoding in a public place, according to Paris Lewbel, the department’s deputy communications director.

Among those arrested by Capitol Police was Zahiro Shahar Mor, nephew of hostage Avraham Munder.

“I’m proud to be arrested, along with my fellow family members of hostages, if that is what it takes to make clear that our families need a deal now,” he said. “We cannot wait any longer.”

At Union Station around 3 p.m., demonstrators replaced the American flags with Palestinian flags, and a man climbed up to the middle of the fountain with red spray paint and wrote “Hamas is comin” in big letters. D.C. police made four arrests at Columbus Circle on charges of assaulting a police officer, a spokesperson said, bringing the department’s total number of arrests in the Wednesday demonstration to nine.

The U.S. Park Police on Wednesday arrested eight people at Columbus Circle, according to spokesman Thomas Twiname. He said officers made the arrests after demonstrators “damaged and destroyed park property, including vandalizing statues and fountains, tearing down and burning flags, and starting several small fires.”

But by late afternoon the demonstration began to come to a close and protesters started making their way home. For many in the crowd - made up of different races and religions and spanning generations - the day of protest was one of kinship they hoped would send a message to U.S. leaders.

“It’s a pretty good feeling that there are so many people here … irrespective of cause, race, creed, gender or religion, and they’re just here as human beings,” said Kaneez Fizza, 34, who moved to Maryland two years ago from India. She came to the protest with her husband and 2-month-old son. “I feel very hopeful looking at the crowd because we are not looking at this as just a Muslim or Arab issue anymore. We are looking at it as a humanitarian crisis.”