USA: Protesters seize the Congress building, demanding a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip

Jewish demonstrators demand an end to hostilities in Gaza. At least a hundred people occupied the US Congress building on Wednesday, demanding elected officials, as the Biden administration pressed for a ceasefire in Gaza, which has been shelled by Israel since the October 7 Hamas attack.

The demonstration was organized in response to the call of the Jewish Voice for Peace movement. Wearing black T-shirts that read “Jews are talking about a ceasefire now” and “Not in our name,” they sat cheering and singing in the rotunda of the Cannon Building, one of the Congressional buildings, and hung large banners reading “Ceasefire” and “ Let Gaza Live.”

Before some headed to the Cannon Building, hundreds of people gathered on the National Mall near the Capitol to urge the Biden administration to advocate for a ceasefire.

“End genocide”

“Biden is really the only one who has the power to put pressure on Israel right now, and he needs to use that power to save innocent lives,” Hannah Lawrence, 32, of Vermont, pleaded about the event.

“If I could send a message to the president, I would say: open your eyes, look at what is happening in the Gaza Strip. If you want to be able to look at yourself in the mirror, you must stand up and end genocide. “For her part, said Rabbi Linda Holtzman, 71, from Philadelphia.

Capitol Police arrested several protesters. “Protests are not allowed inside Congressional buildings,” she wrote on X (formerly Twitter). “We warned the protesters that they should stop demonstrating, and when they did not comply, we began to arrest them,” she explained.