Pro-Palestine supporters storm US hearing on £100 billion Israel aid | US News

Pro-Palestine protesters interrupted and were dragged out screaming from a US government hearing on a $105billion request for aid for Israel, Ukraine and more security matters.

President Biden’s two top foreign policy heads testified in the Senate on Tuesday morning when protesters in the audience stood up and called for a cease-fire in the Israel-Hamas war and protection for civilians in Gaza.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken was delivering his opening statement when protesters yelled over him in a coordinated effort that halted the hearing at multiple moments.

An elderly woman wearing a pink shirt and holding up a sign that read, ‘NO MORE $$$ 4 ISRAEL’, stood up on a chair. Security guards pulled her down from the chair and lead her out of the room as she resisted.

‘Cease fire now on the people of Gaza!’ she shouted. ‘Stop this brutal massascre that Israel is doing on the people of Gaza.’

Other pro-Palestine protesters sitting in the room collectively held up their hands, with their palms painted pink.

A short time afterward, another woman stood up behind Blinken holding a sign that read, ‘CEASE FIRE IN GAZA’.

The hearing was suspended again as the clerk said ‘I appreciate that people feel passionately about these issues’, but asking that they respect Senate Appropriations Committee members and witnesses and allow the American people to hear the testimony.

As a security guard dragged her out, the woman claimed she was a former diplomat and said, ‘Israel’s genocide on Gaza is a terrible thing.’

At least two other women screamed for a cease fire and were escorted out.

Blinken said that US adversaries ‘continue to do everything they can to disrupt us’.

‘Many are again making the bet that the United States is too divided or distracted at home to stay the course,’ he said. ‘That’s what’s at stake with President Biden’s national security supplemental funding request.’

Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said that failure to provide the funds would lead to more global instability.

‘In both Israel and Ukraine, democracies are fighting ruthless foes who are out to annihilate them. We will not let Hamas or Putin win,’ said Austin.

‘Only firm American leadership can ensure that tyrants and thugs and terrorists worldwide are not emboldened to commit more aggression and more atrocities.’

Funding for Israel and Ukraine largely has support from Democrats and Republicans, but some congressional Republicans are skeptical about providing more support to Kyiv.

The proposal would provide Israel with $14.3billion in aid, most of which would go toward air and missile defense systems.

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