'Woke' political, college leaders set stage for pro-Hamas DC protest: lawmaker

Chaos broke out on the streets of Washington, D.C., on Wednesday as thousands of anti-Israel agitators descended on the city in protest of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s address to Congress. 

Protesters chanted "Allahu Akbar" outside of Union Station, where agitators were seen burning the American flag and scrawling menacing graffiti on statues, including "Hamas is coming." 

The police department reported Wednesday evening that nine people were arrested for crimes such as crowding, obstructing, or incommoding, and assault on a police officer. 

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Demonstrators outside Union Station during a joint meeting of Congress with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Washington, D.C., on Wednesday, July 24, 2024. Netanyahu's speech to Congress will test whether Democrats can sustain their newfound unity over Vice President Kamala Harris despite searing divisions over Middle East policy. (Graeme Sloan/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

Anti-Israel protests have been a powder keg situation in the U.S. since shortly after the Oct. 7 terror attack by Hamas. During the 2023-24 college school year, agitators and student protesters flooded college campuses nationwide to protest the war in Israel, which also included spiking instances of antisemitism and Jewish students publicly speaking out that they did not feel safe on some campuses. 

Agitators on Columbia University’s campus, for example, took over the school's Hamilton Hall building, while schools such as UCLA, Harvard and Yale worked to clear spiraling student encampments where protesters demanded their elite schools completely divest from Israel. 

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Florida Republican Rep. Carlos Gimenez told Fox News Digital on Thursday that the chaos unfolding on the streets of Washington, D.C., "lies squarely on the shoulders of those in power who failed to act," including Democrats and college officials who did not end or condemn the protests earlier this year as they turned violent and chaotic. 

Demonstrators ahead of a joint meeting of Congress with Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu, outside the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C., on Wednesday, July 24, 2024. (Graeme Sloan/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

"Since October 7, the Biden administration and woke university administrators across America have refused to take action and shut down these antisemitic, pro-Hamas riots. Their inaction led to one of the most reprehensible riots on Capitol Hill during PM Netanyahu’s address," he told Fox News Digital. "Rioters attacked police officers, defaced our monuments, set American flags ablaze, and wreaked havoc in Washington, DC, all while spreading antisemitic canards. This chaos lies squarely on the shoulders of those in power who failed to act."

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"What happened yesterday is not free speech; it's free hate. This is just a glimpse of what's to come. Universities across the nation are in danger of becoming pro-Hamas dumpster fires as students return to campus this upcoming semester."

Student protesters gather in protest inside their encampment on the Columbia University campus on Monday, April 29, 2024 in New York. (AP Photo/Stefan Jeremiah)

The White House condemned the protests Wednesday evening, calling the chaos "disgraceful." 

"Identifying with evil terrorist organizations like Hamas, burning the American flag, or forcibly removing the American flag and replacing it with another, is disgraceful," White House spokesperson Andrew Bates said in a comment to Fox News Digital Wednesday evening. 

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"Antisemitism and violence are never acceptable. Period. Every American has the right to peaceful protest. But shamefully, not everyone demonstrated peacefulness today." 

Vice President Kamala Harris, who is now the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee after President Biden dropped out of the race on Sunday, did not condemn the protests until late Thursday morning. Harris also notably was not in attendance during Netanyahu's address to Congress on Wednesday. 

Earlier this month, as speculation mounted Biden would drop out of the race, Harris told The Nation that she understands "the emotion behind" the anti-Israel protests that raged on college campuses. 

"They are showing exactly what the human emotion should be, as a response to Gaza," Harris told the progressive magazine. "There are things some of the protesters are saying that I absolutely reject, so I don’t mean to wholesale endorse their points. But we have to navigate it. I understand the emotion behind it."

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Harris was notably cited by the media and White House sources late last year as urging Biden and the administration to be "tougher" on Netanyahu as war raged, allegedly arguing the White House needed to be more sympathetic toward Palestinians. 

"Kamala Harris' embarrassing snub of @netanyahu's Joint Address to Congress was a stunt to appease the pro-Hamas base of the Democrat Party that just burned American flags, clashed with police, and spread dangerous pro-terror chaos and violence. Why won’t Kamala disavow these antisemitic terrorist sympathizers?" New York Rep. Elise Stefanik posted to her X account of Harris. 

Israel has become a lightning rod for the Democratic Party since October, with the party’s progressive faction, including members of the "Squad," coming under fierce condemnation from the Jewish community and conservatives for not taking harder stances against Hamas. 

A group of pro-Palestinian and anti-war activists block the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's motorcade on the route to the U.S. Capitol Building as he is set to address the U.S. Congress in Washington, D.C., on July 24, 2024. (Mostafa Bassim/Anadolu via Getty Images)

On Wednesday, Netanyahu addressed Congress to discuss his nation’s ongoing war against Hamas after the terrorist group launched attacks on Israel in October. During the speech, "Squad" member Rashida Tlaib, D-Mich., held up a sign that said "war criminal" while listening to Netanyahu's speech. 

The Israeli prime minister tore into the protesters amid his speech in the U.S. Capitol. 

"I have a message for these protesters. When the tyrants of Tehran, who hang gays from cranes and murder women for not covering their hair, are praising, promoting and funding you, you have officially become Iran's useful idiots," Netanyahu said.

"Some of these protesters hold up signs proclaiming gays for Gaza. They might as well hold up signs saying ‘Chickens for KFC.’ These protesters chant ‘From the river to the sea.’ But many don't have a clue what river and what sea they're talking about."

The protesters in the nation’s capital on Wednesday held signs reading "Wanted War Criminal," alongside depictions of Nentanyahu, while others chanted "Free Palestine" and "From the river to the sea…."

Other protesters yelled at the swath of police officers on the scene, "You're a b----." Fox News witnessed pepper spray being used at one point. 

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Activists cheer as they burn flags and a puppet of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu during a pro-Palestinian protest near the U.S. Capitol on July 24, 2024 in Washington, D.C. Activists staged multiple protests near the Capitol to protest Netanyahu's visit to Washington and to protest Israel's war in Gaza.  (Alex Wong/Getty Images)

"I am deeply disturbed by the anti-Israel protests that we saw on college campuses this past year and again this week in our nation's capital," Jewish influencer Lizzy Savetsky told Fox News Digital on Thursday of the protests. "The so-called ‘peaceful protesters’ are burning American flags and displaying the flag of Hamas, a terrorist organization that slaughtered 1,200 innocent civilians on October 7th and took hundreds hostage. Such actions are beyond the scope of reasonable dialogue; they represent support for a group that oppresses both Israelis and Palestinians and rejects any pursuit of peace. Endorsing Hamas is not a stand for justice but an embrace of tyranny and oppression. We must stand unwaveringly against hatred and antisemitism in our society."

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Conservative lawmakers and political leaders, including former President Trump, have long stood against the anti-Israel protests and rising antisemtism that unfolded on college campuses this year. 

Rep. Elise Stefanik, R-NY, left, clashed with President of Harvard University Dr. Claudine Gay during hearings held Tuesday, Dec. 5, 2023 on Capitol Hill. (Getty Images)

The House Committee on Education and the Workforce held hearings late last year, when they grilled leaders from some of the nation’s most elite universities, including the University of Pennsylvania, MIT, Harvard and Northwestern. 

"Isn't it true that a Jewish student wearing a yarmulke was spat on," Stefanik said to Northwestern University President Michael Schill in May, before asking how long Schill anticipates campus investigations will last regarding instances of antisemitism on campus. 

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"I'm not going to be able to tell you that. They'll be finalized when the conduct office and the Title VI office, which are well on this issue…" Schill said. 

Pro-Hamas supporters cause havoc outside of Union Station in Washington, D.C., Wednesday, July 24, 2024. (The Image Direct for Fox News Digital)

"This is why you've earned an F," she said, referring to the school receiving an F grade in the Anti-Defamation League’s Campus Antisemitism Report Card this year. 

In December, Stefanik and the committee grilled the then-presidents of Harvard and Penn, Claudine Gay and Liz Magill respectively, about their handling of antisemitism. The pair of administrators resigned from their positions shortly after the hearing, amid widespread backlash for waffling on whether calls for the genocide of Jews violated their respective schools’ codes of conduct. 

Fox News Digital's Liz Elkind, Brie Stimson and Danielle Wallace contributed to this report.