A pro-Palestine protester claims a congressman attacked her when he turned off her phone while she harassed him about Gaza.
Sumer Mobarak, a Palestinian-American who frequently ambushes lawmakers on the issue, interrupted Congressman Mike Ezell in a hallway at the US Capitol.
The first-term Republican was walking to a House Transportation and Infrastructure committee meeting Tuesday when two activists began yelling at him.
One asked him whether Israel should accept a peace proposal offered by Hamas. —Do you want this genocide to continue? she said.
Sumer Mobarak (center), a Palestinian-American who frequently ambushes lawmakers on the issue, claims a congressman assaulted her when he turned off her phone while she was harassing him about Gaza at the U.S. Capitol (pictured outside).
Mobarak said: ‘Do you want to kill my people, my Palestinian people?’ to which he replied ‘Shut up’. Stop’
Mobarak then added: ‘Do you want to kill my people, my Palestinian people?’
‘Shut up. Enough is enough,’ Ezell says as the video shows him reaching out and knocking down the phone he was being used to record.
Mobarak said he filed a police report against Ezell, alleging assault. US Capitol Police said they were investigating the incident but had no further comment.
‘You are a disgusting racist. How shameful of you that you even work in this administration, and you put your hands on a person, what a shame, what a shame,’ he shouted at her afterwards.
“You are the violent one, not the people who protest peacefully.”
Mobarak and her fellow activist belonged to CodePink, which calls itself a “grassroots feminist organization working to end America’s wars and militarism.”
Her Instagram profile shows many other videos of her harassing lawmakers in the hallways of the Capitol, other buildings and on the street.
First-term Republican Congressman Mike Ezell was walking to a House Transportation and Infrastructure committee meeting Tuesday when two activists began yelling at him.
Mobarak in a rare photo without hijab and dressed in a traditional costume
It is unclear how activists regularly gain access to the Capitol and can confront politicians.
“These Chinese-backed protesters want to harass and intimidate members of Congress into ending our support for Israel and our opposition to Hamas terrorists,” Ezell said.
“I will not be harassed or intimidated by the Chinese Communist Party, Hamas or their supporters, and will continue to support our Israeli allies against terrorism.”
CodePink says on its website that “China is not our enemy” and shares some opinions about the Chinese Communist Party, including its human rights abuses.
The group refers to the Uyghurs, a Muslim minority in China that the government relentlessly persecutes, as terrorists and advocates their mass detention in “re-education” camps.
The video shows him reaching out and knocking down the phone that was being used to record.
Ezell was sheriff before winning a U.S. House seat in south Mississippi in 2022, and is seeking re-election this year.
Last year he spoke out against massive pro-Palestinian protests, in which 300 people were arrested for demonstrating in the rotunda of an office building next to the Capitol.
‘Thousands of pro-Hamas protesters showed up at the Capitol. Many of them chose to break the law and were arrested in the Cannon House office building, not far from my office. Fortunately, my staff and I are fine,” he said.
‘While I believe in the First Amendment, I condemn both the illegal actions and hateful rhetoric of these protesters.
“Anti-Semitism and support for terrorism have no place on Capitol Hill or anywhere in the United States.”
Mobarak tried the same trick on Congressman Brian Mast, a 12-year U.S. Army veteran who lost both legs to an improvised explosive device in Afghanistan.
Activists asked him if he agreed that there should be a ceasefire in Gaza since “the world was asking for it.”
“I think Israel should go in there and kick them, just completely destroy them, their infrastructure, raze everything they touch. Quite clear?’ she responded.
