Posted on 06/16/24
| News Source: Arutz-7
Many Democrat representatives and senators are planning to protest or boycott Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's address to Congress next month, and are even discussing counter-programing the speech.
Axios, citing six sources familiar with the planning, reported that there had been multiple discussions about counter-programming, primarily among progressives but including other Democratic lawmakers as well.
According to the report, the proposals include a press conference, a vigil, or an event with families of those taken hostage by Hamas who oppose their Prime Minister.
While some progressives intend to attend the address and actively disrupt it, others intend to skip it.
Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Ca.), said he would not attend Netanyahu's address, noting in an interview with NBC News' Meet the Press that if the Prime Minister wants to come to speak to members of Congress about "how to end the war and release hostages, I would be fine doing that. But I'm not going to sit in a one-way lecture."
With this, he noted that any protest or boycott should be polite: "We're not going to make a big deal about it. He's obviously addressing the Congress and there has to be decorum."
In contrast to many of the progressives in his party, Sen. John Fetterman (D-PA) strongly called out plans to protest or boycott the Israeli Prime Minister's speech: “For any member that boycotts, it makes a Hamas terrorist smile. I don’t think it’s helpful; I don’t think performance art is important during a war.”