The Vice President of the United States and potential Democratic presidential candidate, Kamala Harris, today condemned the burning of an American flag during a protest against the visit of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to Washington.
“I condemn the burning of the American flag. This flag is a symbol of our highest ideals as a nation and represents the promise of America. It should never be desecrated in this way,” Harris said in a statement.
Thousands of people demonstrated on the streets of Washington on Wednesday against the presence of Benjamin Netanyahu in the Congress of the United States of America (USA). The Israeli leader spoke during a joint meeting of the House of Representatives and the Senate, the two chambers that make up Congress.
Although most of the protest passed without serious incident, there were minor clashes with authorities and 23 people were detained.
Pro-Palestinian protesters burned an American flag in front of the Union Station train station, along with an effigy of Netanyahu, and painted statues in the area with messages such as “Liberate Gaza” and “Hamas is coming”.
“At Union Station in Washington, D.C. we witnessed despicable acts by unpatriotic protesters and dangerous rhetoric fueled by hate,” Harris commented in her message.
The vice president said she condemned “any individual who associates with the brutal terrorist organization Hamas, which has promised to annihilate the State of Israel and kill Jews.”
“The ‘graffiti’ and the rhetoric in favor of Hamas are abominable and we should not tolerate them in our nation”, said the vice president, who guaranteed support for the right to protest peacefully, but remembering that “anti-Semitism, hatred and Violence of any kind is not acceptable.”
Kamala Harris – the only candidate so far for the Democratic presidential nomination after President Joe Biden abandoned the race for the White House – has been one of the Government’s most critical voices regarding the deaths of thousands of civilians in Israel’s offensive in the Gaza Strip.
The ongoing war between Israel and Hamas was triggered by an unprecedented attack by the Palestinian Islamist group on Israeli soil, on October 7, 2023, which caused around 1,200 deaths and more than two hundred hostages, according to Israeli authorities.
After the Hamas attack, Israel launched a large-scale offensive in the Gaza Strip, which has already caused more than 39,000 deaths, mostly civilians, and a humanitarian disaster, destabilizing the entire Middle East region.
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