Protesters joined in chants together rallying on H Street NW outside of the White House on Feb. 4 to demand Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s arrest for “war crimes,” instead of being welcomed by the U.S. government.
The International Criminal Court (ICC) issued the warrant for the arrest of Netanyahu citing he “intentionally and knowingly deprived the civilian population in Gaza of objects indispensable to their survival, including food, water, and medicine and medical supplies, as well as fuel and electricity, from at least 8 October 2023 to 20 May 2024.”
“We, the Palestinian Youth Movement, are here today because we are demanding that the administration comply with the [ICC] warrant and arrest the war criminal, Netanyahu,” said Laila Khalil, a Palestinian Youth Movement spokesperson. “We are also here to demand an arms embargo. We’re demanding no more U.S. aid to Israel.”
The PYM, Maryland 2 Palestine and the Party for Socialism and Liberation organized the protest. The groups converged in response to Netanyahu's visit to the White House to discuss next steps of the ceasefire between Hamas and Israel that was recently signed into effect.
As a Palestinian American, Laila emphasized how she is “empowered by the strength” of her people in Palestine that continue to show up and fight.
“It’s because of them that we got a cease-fire because they just refuse to give up,” Laila said. “We’re seeing them now return to land that they were ethnically cleansed from in the past 15 months. That’s so heartwarming and liberating for me to see. I have to fight for them.”
Laila said everyone has a stake in this fight with billions of U.S. dollars sent to Israel, which should be utilized differently. Experts suggest over $17.9 billion in military aid has been sent to Israel since the Oct. 7 Hamas terrorist attack in 2023.
“That money could be going to housing, it could be going to education, it could be going to health care, it could be going to disaster relief …That’s our money,” Laila said.
Other members of the PYM attended, such as Deena Khalil, another spokesperson for the organization.
“We’re here to continue to demand arms embargo [and] cessation of all U.S. aid to Israel,” Deena said. “It’s pertinent that Netanyahu is the first foreign leader to be invited by [President Donald Trump’s] administration during his second term, and the community is out here as well to demand accountability and to tell Netanyahu he is not welcome here.”
Protesters waved large Palestinian flags with many carrying homemade signs, wearing keffiyehs or a knitted watermelon hat. Organizers moved throughout the group, passing out masks and pamphlets of information. A cart full of oranges and water bottles rested near a group of organizers on the side.
“Say it loud, say it clear… Immigrants are welcome… Say it loud, say it clear… War criminals aren’t welcome here,” protesters chanted.
“We need to show that there’s a people’s resistance to these injustices,” said Benjamin Zinevich, a spokesperson for the Party for Socialism and Liberation. “We’re out here with arrest warrants and handcuffs, ready to be the people’s justice that helps enforce the ICC arrest warrant and indictment of war criminal Netanyahu.”
Zinevich said that Israel promotes violence “not just on the people of Palestine, but also people in Latin America and across the world… Just as we would resist the South African apartheid regime, the Nazi regime, we as well should oppose the Zionist regime in Tel Aviv.”
At the beginning of the demonstration, some participants dressed like Israel Defense Force members dragged a protester shackled in handcuffs posing as the Statue of Liberty in front of those gathered. Some played gunshot sound effects in the background while others chanted. A couple demonstrators followed behind Lady Liberty, holding large plaster hands dripping in blood and the head of a man meant to represent Netanyahu.
The protest began in full force at 6 p.m., the official start time, but people were chanting beforehand with about 60 officers combined from the Metropolitan Police Department, Secret Service and National Parks Service blocking off nearby streets, standing along the perimeter of H Street NW and biking alongside the protesters whenever they shifted locations.
At 6:06 p.m., the groups split with the PYM protestors remaining in line with the White House while others marched down H Street NW towards the intersection of 15th Street NW.
Around the same time, over 1,000 people were outside of the Treasury Department about two blocks away protesting Elon Musk’s informal Department of Government Efficiency being granted access to the Treasury’s payment systems.
In the corner of the demonstration, an interpreter signed the chants and longer speeches being spoken to a group of protestors. On the side of the Hays Adam Hotel, an image of Netanyahu was projected with the words “ARMED Arrest War Criminal Netanyahu.” The projection was moved onto the Office of Resolution Management facing inwards towards the protest at a later point.
Members of CODEPINK, an anti-war, grassroots movement advocating that global tax dollars support welfare and climate action instead of war initiatives, were present at the protest. Medea Benjamin, among over 100 other women, founded the organization in 2002.
“We don’t want the billion dollars that Trump just asked Congress to approve,” Benjamin said, adding that this money would fund the same “thousand-pound bombs and armed bulldozers that have been razing the houses of people not only in Gaza, but in the West Bank.”
Benjamin is personally connected to the conflict between Israel and Palestine.
“I feel a responsibility as a Jew to be working [towards] justice for Palestinians and not to have this kind of horrific repression be done in the name of my religion,” Benjamin said.
Ann Wright, a member of CODEPINK, was an army colonel and, for 16 years, was a U.S. diplomat. Wright eventually resigned in protest of “the war on Iraq.”
“Even in my letter of resignation, I talked about Israel and Palestine and U.S. unbalanced policies, and they've gotten even more unbalanced year by year,” Wright said.
Wright also disagrees with how both Democrats and Republicans handled the conflict.
“They do what they damn well please and kill as many people as they want to, even though the majority of Americans don't want us in wars,” Wright said.
Chip Gibbons, who has protested for Palestinian rights since 2007, said he was at the demonstration because he was “disturbed by the [U.S.] government’s complicity” in Israel’s siege on Gaza.
“I have always been disturbed by our government’s willingness to fund human rights abuses around the world, not just in Palestine,” Gibbons said.
British journalist Linda Pentz Gunter attended as a pro-Palestinian protester and felt “frustrated” by how the American public has reacted to Netanyahu’s presence in the United States.
“In the [United Kingdom], there have been three [pro-]Palestine protests every month since October 7th… If Netanyahu showed up at 10 Downing Street to meet the prime minister, Keir Starmer, I think there’d be a million people on the streets immediately,” Gunter said. “Where’s the outrage?… Where’s the compassion? It’s a genocide we’ve all watched unfold.”
Nick Barrickman, a spokesperson for the Social Equality Party believes people “must turn to the working class.”
Barrickman associates “the statements that [Netanyahu] said about emptying out, cleaning out Gaza” with the type of language Adolf Hitler employed during World War II.
“Hitler spoke about cleansing Germany of Jews,” Barrickman said. “It’s ethnic cleansing now as an official position of the American White House.”
Rabbi Yisroel Dovid Weiss, a rabbi with Neturei Karta International, stood in a long line across H Street NW with other Orthodox Jewish boys and men who opposed the U.S. 's continued support of Zionism, which he said was “masquerading in my Judaism.”
“No more support for this apartheid, for this genocide in Palestine,” Weiss said. “When that will end, the world will awaken to the fact that we have been living with a distinctly different religion and peace and tranquility, and that we can once again, re-awaken that coexistence with the simple removal of the impediment to peace, called the Zionist state of Israel.”
Kris Antonio, another demonstrator at the protest, stated that while learning more about the fallout of World War II, “I realized that we did a disservice to Palestinians, and we did a disservice to Jewish people.”
Organizers called for those gathered to raise their posters, flags and keffiyehs high in the air at 7:54 p.m. as they marched as one towards Connecticut Avenue NW chanting for freedom. A protester sounding a noisemaker led the charge. Police followed on their bicycles with police cars blocking off the corresponding streets.
Turning onto 17th Street NW, the protesters strode down the street before stopping at 8:13 p.m. the intersection of Pennsylvania Avenue NW to continue calling for Netanyahu to be removed from Blair House nearby where he was staying during his visit at 8:20 p.m.
“If there’s anything you’re learning right now in America, your voice matters,” Antonio said. “And if you’re not using it, it’s being taken away from you.”
This article was edited by Abigail Hatting, Maya Cederlund, Tyler Davis and Abigail Turner. Copy editing done by Hannah Langenfeld.
