Getting arrested on Capitol Hill to resist genocide

Photo credit: Eman Mohammed

By Ahmad Abuznaid, Executive Director of the US Campaign for Palestinian Rights

On Tuesday, Dec. 19, I got arrested in a protest on Capitol Hill, in which 80+ other movement leaders united to stop Biden’s $106 billion deadly deal in the Senate. This package includes $14.3 billion to arm Israel and $8 billion to oppress immigrants.

As the Senate debated how to use these dollars to death, we called them out. Congress is going against the will of the people, 61% of whom widely support a permanent ceasefire to stop the genocide in Gaza.

The people choose life, not weapons and genocide!

I carried children’s shoes with me to represent the 8,000+ Palestinian children killed in Gaza with our tax dollars. Each child should have gone on to live a long and vibrant life—but their lives were stolen by Israel in genocidal massacres. We must fight for them and all the Palestinians who are still alive in Gaza.

Once our group of 80+ executive directors and other movement leaders began our protest at the Capitol Rotunda, the police rounded up and arrested all 60 of us who refused to leave. Watch the video here.

Photos by Eman Mohammed

Every single member of Congress who has not yet called for a ceasefire is complicit in these killings. Every single member of Congress who continues to arm Israel, knowing full well that these tax dollars fuel genocide, is complicit. The people demand justice!

NEW: Call your members of Congress now to tell them to stop arming Israel and invest in life. With this call tool, you can click a button and read the script.

Tell Congress you don’t want your tax dollars to fund genocide and violence. Tell them that they are complicit. Tell them they must call for a permanent ceasefire and an end to the siege on Gaza. Refuse to let the U.S. government use your tax dollars for death.

Thanks to the collective power built by our movement, we succeeded in stalling Biden’s deadly deal in the Senate until January. As the pressure mounts, we must fight harder than ever before for a permanent ceasefire and an end to all U.S. military funding to Israel.

Here’s my closing message to you. Disrupt, disrupt, disrupt, and keep fighting until Palestine is free.

Ahmad Abuznaid is the Executive Director at the US Campaign for Palestinian Rights.