Organizers Behind Pro-Palestinian ‘Insurrection’ at Capitol Have Pro-terror History

Capitol insurrection Palestinian (Celal Gunes/Anadolu via Getty)
Celal Gunes/Anadolu via Getty
Nick Gilbertson and Joel B. Pollak

The pro-Palestinian protesters who staged an “insurrection” on Wednesday by illegally occupying a Capitol office building were led, in part, by a group that calls itself “Jewish Voice for Peace” (JVP) but has a history of supporting Palestinian terrorists.

As Breitbart News reported:

Pro-Palestinian protesters, who want a ceasefire that would benefit the Hamas terrorist organization in Gaza, stormed the U.S. Capitol on Wednesday and staged a protest inside the Cannon Rotunda that one observer likened to an “insurrection.”

The Cannon Rotunda is part of the Cannon House Office Building. It is separate from the iconic Capitol building but is considered part of the Capitol complex. It is the oldest congressional office building on Capitol Hill.

…

Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-MI), who falsely accused Israel of bombing a Gaza hospital Tuesday, addressed the protesters.

As The Hill reported, three protesters were arrested for assaulting police officers.

The demonstration, it noted, was “organized jointly by the Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP) and IfNotNow” — both radical left-wing organizations that oppose the State of Israel.

IfNotNow supports radical anti-Israel Reps. Tlaib and Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN). In addition, as Breitbart News noted in 2019:

IfNotNow seeks to disrupt the connections that many American Jewish organizations have with Israel. It blames American Jewish support for Israel for the persistence of the Israeli occupation of Judea and Samaria (the West Bank), though most Palestinians in that territory live under the administration of the Palestinian Authority.

In addition to staging sit-ins and protests, members of IfNotNow attempt to infiltrate Jewish summer camps and tours of Israel, where they launch demonstrations or expose the mainstream Jewish community to anti-Israel propaganda.

In one episode in 2018, members of IfNotNow were arrested while reciting the Kaddish — the traditional Jewish prayer for the dead — near the offices of the Jewish Federation of Greater Los Angeles, memorializing Palestinians killed in “protests” at the Gaza border. (The vast majority of Palestinians killed were members of Hamas, and they were trying to infiltrate Israel to carry out attacks, not stage a non-violent protest against Israeli policies.)

Recently, JVP spoke at a “Free Palestine” rally in Dearborn, Michigan, that defended Hamas. The JVP representative did not criticize the terror attack against Israelis — but did, ironically, criticize peace agreements between Israel and Arab states.

JVP, as Breitbart News has noted, also invited convicted Palestinian terrorist Rasmea Odeh — responsible for the murders of two Israelis in 1969 — to address its conference in Chicago in 2017 before she was deported for lying to U.S. immigration authorities.

Odeh remains an inspirational figure to the radical left in Chicago.

The Black Lives Matter (BLM) Chicago chapter took to X to defend Odeh in the aftermath of Hamas’s terrorist attacks on Israel, which left 1,200 dead and well over 4,000 wounded, with more than 200 taken hostage.

“For everyone withdrawing support, saying they stood with us & now they’re removing signs, bye, toodles,” BLM Chicago posted on X. “We’ve always been for Palestinian freedom… we stood with Rasmea, there’s no way you could have been with us at any point & missed that to be shocked now.”

Odeh, who served ten years of a life sentence for the Super Market bombing murders of Leon Kaner, 21, and Edward Joffe, 22, was released in a prisoner swap for a captured Israeli soldier and subsequently made her way to the United States after allegedly lying to immigration officials, as Breitbart News noted. 

In 2017, she cut a plea deal with U.S. prosecutors to avoid prison time and leave the country. She claimed the Department of Justice, led at that time by former Attorney General Jeff Sessions, was “too racist” to bother challenging in court, as Breitbart News noted.

She found herself at the center of anti-Trump demonstrations and issued a defiant address in Chicago, Illinois, before her departure from America under the plea agreement, as Breitbart News reported.

In additional tweets in the aftermath of the attacks, BLM Chicago accused Israel of “terrorism” and “genocide” while also posting a now-deleted image of a silhouette with a parachute bearing a Palestinian flag, and attempted to walk the pro-terrorism post back the next day, as the Daily Beast noted.

The dysfunction of Black Lives Matter as an organization at large was on full display in another post. BLM Chicago shared a screen grab from what looked to be a Facebook page called “Blk LivesMatter,” which stated that the BLM Chicago account is “falsely claiming to be on behalf of the BLM Organization” and that it is an “independently run Twitter account” operated by one person. 

“Good job to BLMG for reminding everyone we broke up with them years ago, & felt the need to tell everyone,” wrote the BLM Chicago page. “We aren’t surprised in the least that they’ve never been pro Palestine, & listed their follower numbers.” 

In response, the official Black Lives Matter Twitter account wrote, “We never posted this.” 

“Not sure who is running the BLM Chicago account, but it would be good for you to do some simple research before spreading fake news,” it added. 

“Did we tag you? Between BLMGN & BLMGR we never know who did or does what & fingers point in all directions,” BLM Chicago responded. “Whoever wrote that we appreciate the reminder of the separation. You don’t know who’s running our account & we don’t know who yall even are.” 

Editor’s Note:  This story was updated to reflect a revised number on the death toll from the October 7 Hamas attack in Israel.  The Israeli government estimate of 1,400 was revised to around 1,200, according to Reuters. 

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