At least 19 pro-Palestinian protesters were arrested Thursday for disrupting traffic in the nation’s capital as they demanded a cease-fire in the Israel-Hamas war.
The pro-Palestinian protesters snarled traffic by blocking five major roads in Washington during morning rush hour, including outside the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum.
The protesters’ shouts of “Free, free Palestine!” and “We demand liberation!” were intermingled with the horns of commuters stuck in traffic as demonstrators stood in the middle of intersections.
The D.C. Metropolitan Police Department reported arresting eight protesters in connection with crowding, obstructing, or incommoding at the intersection of 23rd Street and Constitution Avenue NW.
U.S. Capitol Police, responsible for the grounds at the Capitol, reported arresting 11 persons in connection with the same offenses. Three also face charges of resisting arrest, police said.
During their demonstration, protesters blocked the street in front of the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum at 100 Raoul Wallenberg Pl. SW.
In response, Sacha Roytman, CEO of a group called the Combat Antisemitism Movement, released a written statement.
“These demonstrators, in choosing to stage their protest in front of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, an area of the city with no ties to the U.S. military, Israel, Yemen, or the Palestinian people, chose to make their protest about Jews,” Roytman said.
“The museum tells the story of the 6 million Jews who were murdered by the Nazis; it has nothing to do with Israel or the U.S. military,” he said. “In choosing this location, instead of the White House, the Pentagon, or the Israeli Embassy, the protesters showed their true colors. This is antisemitism, plain and simple.”
U.S. Park Police did not respond by publication time to The Daily Signal’s request for comment on any related arrests.
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