Pro-Palestine protesters repeatedly interrupt Blinken in Senate
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Furious protesters interrupted Antony Blinken in Congress on Tuesday as he faced criticism from the Right and Left over the United States’ Israel policy.
Republicans have accused the Biden administration of failing Israel, while Democrats have said it is doing too little to help civilians in Gaza.
As Mr Blinken began his testimony before two committees in the Democrat-controlled Senate, protesters called him a war criminal and accused him of involvement in genocide.
Several silent protesters held up their hands, stained with red paint or dye, behind Mr Blinken during his appearances.
At the first hearing, before the Senate foreign relations committee, Mr Blinken flinched from a protester who approached him from behind, waving a sign that said “criminal”, before security officers carried her out of the room.
Mr Blinken reiterated the support of Joe Biden’s administration for Israel, but insisted it was focused on easing the humanitarian crisis in Gaza and opposed an Israeli assault on Rafah, the southernmost city in Gaza where over one million displaced people had taken shelter.
“When it comes to making sure that Israel has everything it needs to defend itself, no one has, no one will do more than president Biden,” Mr Blinken said, pushing back against Republican accusations that Washington’s pause on a weapons shipment to Israel was weakening it in its war against Hamas.
“At the same time when it comes to Rafah we’ve been very clear in many conversations with Israeli leadership over the past months about our deep concerns about a major military operation in Rafah and the impact that that would have on civilians,” he said.
Mr Blinken appeared later on Tuesday before the Senate appropriations subcommittee, which oversees diplomatic and foreign aid spending.
He will return to Capitol Hill on Wednesday for two more rounds of testimony at hearings of the Republican-led House of Representatives foreign affairs committee and a House appropriations subcommittee.
Republicans criticised Mr Biden for saying this month that he would delay a shipment of bombs to Israel and consider withholding others if Israeli forces launched a major invasion of Rafah.
Billions of dollars in US military assistance remain in the pipeline for Benjamin Netanyahu’s Israeli government.
Republicans also called for action in response to the International Criminal Court (ICC) prosecutor’s announcement on Monday that he had requested arrest warrants for Mr Netanyahu and his defence minister over alleged war crimes in the Gaza conflict. The prosecutor, Karim Khan, also sought arrest warrants for three Hamas leaders.
Mr Blinken said the Biden administration would be happy to work with Congress to formulate a response to what he called “a profoundly wrong-headed decision” regarding the warrants for the Israeli leaders.
Democratic Senator Ben Cardin, who chairs the foreign relations panel, also criticised the ICC.
“I see it as a step in the wrong direction,” Mr Cardin said.
