Protestors shut down US Senate cafeteria in demonstration for Palestine

By Diyar Guldogan

WASHINGTON (AA) – More than 60 Christians from across the US forced the Senate cafeteria to close Tuesday as they demanded Congress support a cease-fire in the Gaza Strip, restore aid to the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) and end military aid to Israel.

"Congress and their staff will not eat today until Gaza eats," protestors from the Christians For A Free Palestine (CFPA) chanted.

While unfurling banners that said: "Woe To You Who Slay The Hungry", "Send Food Not Bombs", "Break Bread Not Bodies,” the demonstrators sang, "Palestine will be free, Palestine will be free. We will not avert our eyes, Palestine will be free."

Dozens were arrested following the anti-Israel protest.

"Peaceful protest and song calling for the cessation of a genocide shouldn’t be met with policing and arrest but then again, we shouldn’t have to protest to get genocide to stop in the first place," the group wrote on X.

While being arrested, one protestor chanted: "Blessed are Gazans, woe to the Biden administration!"

"These powerful words were shared as peaceful protesters with #CFPAction were arrested & taken away by the police for calling attention to the complicity of Christian Zionism & US militarism in the genocidal assault on Gaza," it said.

Israel has waged a deadly military offensive on the Palestinian territory since an Oct. 7 cross-border attack by the Palestinian resistance group, Hamas, which killed nearly 1,200 people.

More than 33,200 Palestinians have since been killed and nearly 76,000 injured amid mass destruction and shortages of necessities.

Israel has also imposed a crippling blockade on the Gaza Strip, leaving its population, particularly residents of northern Gaza, on the verge of starvation.

Israel is accused of genocide at the International Court of Justice (ICJ), which in January issued an interim ruling that ordered Tel Aviv to stop genocidal acts and take measures to guarantee that humanitarian assistance is provided to civilians in Gaza.