'Netanyahu, You Don’t Speak for Me': DC rally challenges Israeli Prime Minister's speech to Congress

posted on: Mar 5, 2015

On March 3 after Netanyahu’s speech to Congress and as thousands of American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) activists finished their visits with members of Congress, about 150 protesters gathered for the JVP-DC Metro’s  “Netanyahu, You Don’t Speak for Me” rally in freezing rain on the West Lawn of the U.S. Capitol Building.

Protest organizer Carolyn Karcher explains “AIPAC (American Israel Public Affairs Committee) and Israel are trying to force on the United States a foreign policy that is not in the interest of the American people. On false pretenses, the American people were dragged into wars with Iraq and Afghanistan, which have had a disastrous impact, not only in the United States but especially in those countries. And now the same people who tried to drag us into those wars are trying to drag us into another war that would be even more disastrous.”

On January 21, Speaker of the House John Boehner invited Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to address a joint session of the US Congress to challenge President Obama’s negotiations strategy with Iran. On February 8, Netanyahu stated that he would be addressing Congress as a representative of the entire Jewish people. In response, Jewish Voice for Peace–D.C. Metro began to organize a protest, “Netanyahu, You Don’t Speak for Me” for the day of Netanyahu’s speech to Congress, March 3

Source: mondoweiss.net