51 pro-Palestine protesters arrested in Senate office building as lawmakers consider foreign aid bill

Earlier this week, the U.S. Capitol Police arrested 51 protesters in the Hart Senate Office building in Washington, D.C. The group was demonstrating against the U.S. sending funding to Israel.

The protest happened a week after President Joe Biden’s proposed $110 billion foreign aid bill allocating $61.4 billion for Ukraine, $13.6 billion to the U.S. border and $14.3 billion for Israel failed in the Senate after all Republicans and two Democrats voted against it, per Reuters.

One of the groups that arranged the protest, the U.S. Campaign for Palestinian Rights, wrote in an X post that over 100 people came to the atrium of the building Monday to protest. They brought bags of fake money painted red, labeled, “Stop arming Israel” and scattered it across the floor.

Protesters held a banner that said, “Aid to Israel = Bombing Palestinians.”

One protester climbed the statue “Mountains and Clouds” by Alexander Calder in the atrium and refused to come down until firemen forced him to make his descent, according to an X post by NBC reporter Frank Thorp V.

All but two of the 51 protesters were arrested for unlawful crowding, obstructing or incommoding, while the statue climber and another woman were charged with resisting arrest, according to the New York Post.

Related

• Schumer to bring Biden’s $105B foreign aid package for a vote next week

• Sen. Mike Lee slams ‘fig leaf’ proposals that would extend government surveillance tool

Opposition to Biden’s emergency funding bill comes from multiple groups

Though a majority of Democratic senators voted to send money to Israel, Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-N.Y., explained why he voted against Biden’s foreign aid package in a Dec. 5 press release.

He said, “I do not think we should be appropriating $10.1 billion for the right-wing, extremist Netanyahu government to continue its current military strategy. What the Netanyahu government is doing is immoral, it is in violation of international law, and the United States should not be complicit in those actions.”

Biden’s $110 billion emergency request includes funding that many in both parties are opposed to, and when Sens. Mike Lee, R-Utah, Roger Marshall, R-Kan. and Ted Cruz, R-Texas, co-sponsored a bill to decouple the funding, it failed with Biden and in the Senate.

Lee said, “It is unreasonable for the administration to exploit an aid package for Israel to siphon off billions of taxpayer dollars in yet another blank check for Ukraine.”

Punchbowl News reporter Andrew Desiderio reported that Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., told Senate Republicans that voting on Biden’s emergency funding bill will likely “be punted to January,” per X.