The two leading US presidential candidates, Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump, on Thursday condemned the most visible of the pro-Hamas protests against Israel that erupted the day before near the US Capitol.
The protests came as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu defiantly defended his country’s war against Hamas militants in a speech to Congress.
Harris, a likely Democratic presidential nominee in 2024, said in a statement: “We saw despicable actions by unpatriotic protesters and dangerous rhetoric fueled by hate” at Union Station, the Washington, D.C., train station near the Capitol.
In the square outside the train station, protesters replaced American flags with Palestinian flags, and one man stood in the middle of a fountain and used red spray paint to write in large letters, “Hamas is coming.” Protesters also burned an effigy of Netanyahu and an American flag.
On his Truth Social platform, Trump said: “If the protesters who rioted in Washington yesterday were Republicans/Conservatives, they would all be in prison right now, facing 10-20 year sentences. Under this corrupt administration, nothing will happen to them!”
Police arrest 23 people
Thousands of protesters demonstrated in Washington on Wednesday against Mr Netanyahu’s presence at the Capitol and in support of the Palestinians. Most of the demonstrations were peaceful, but some protesters clashed with police and 23 people were arrested.
“I condemn anyone who associates with the brutal terrorist organization Hamas, which is sworn to destroy the State of Israel and kill Jews,” Harris said. “Pro-Hamas graffiti and rhetoric are abhorrent and we must not tolerate them in our country.”
In photos: Protests during Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu’s speech to US Congress
Harris also condemned the burning of the American flag. “This flag is a symbol of our highest ideals as a nation and represents the promise of America. It should never be desecrated in this way,” Harris said, despite a 1989 U.S. Supreme Court decision that declared burning an American flag to be a legal form of free speech.
Some House Republicans went to Union Station Wednesday night and replaced three American flags that anti-Israel protesters had burned with Palestinian flags earlier in the day.
“We acknowledge that they put Palestinian flags on those flagpoles,” Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson told reporters. “That’s outrageous. They were taken down, thankfully.”
Rep. Hakeem Jeffries, the Democratic minority leader in the House of Representatives, also condemned the protests in a statement Thursday.
“Defacing public property, desecrating the American flag, threatening Jews with violence, and promoting terrorist groups like Hamas are not acceptable under any circumstances,” he said. “There is a difference between lawful expression and disorderly conduct. Anyone who violates the law must be held accountable to the fullest extent of the law.”
In her statement, Harris concluded: “I support the right to peaceful protest, but let us be clear: anti-Semitism, hatred, and violence of any kind have no place in our nation.”
In the early days of her presidential campaign against Republican Trump, Harris held a campaign rally with a teachers union in the southwestern state of Texas on Thursday before flying to Washington to meet with Netanyahu at the White House. Trump will meet with Netanyahu on Friday at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida.
Harris, as outgoing President Joe Biden’s number two and like all senior US officials, condemned the Hamas terrorist attack on Israel on October 7, which killed about 1,200 people and led to the capture of about 250 hostages.
But as months of fighting raged and Israel’s counteroffensive in Gaza targeting Hamas fighters killed more Palestinian civilians, especially thousands of women and children, Harris became more outspoken, initially more direct than Biden, about the need to end the conflict.
In March, she called for an “immediate” pause in the fighting, saying Israel had not done enough to alleviate the “humanitarian catastrophe” among Palestinians in Gaza.
“The people of Gaza are suffering from hunger,” she said. “The living conditions are inhumane and our common humanity compels us to act.”
She has not yet said publicly what she will tell him as she prepares to meet with Netanyahu. Biden has said frequently recently that it is time for the war to end. But Israeli and Hamas negotiators have failed to agree on a six-week ceasefire and the fighting continues.
As for Kamala Harris’s overall view of Israel, her husband, Doug Emhoff, who is Jewish, told a group of Jewish organizations earlier this week: “Let me be clear: Vice President Harris has been and will be a strong supporter of Israel as a Jewish, democratic, and secure state. And she will always ensure that Israel can defend itself. Period. That’s who Kamala Harris is.”
Trump, after remaining mostly silent on the war between Israel and Hamas, told Israel in March that it must “end the problem. There was a horrible invasion that would never have happened if I were president.”
After Wednesday’s protests, Trump called on Israel to quickly end the war and said the country was “not good” at advancing its cause in world affairs.
“We have to do it quickly,” Trump told Fox News.
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