VIDEO: Anti-Israel Protesters Surround and Try To Intimidate Journalist Outside CUFI Summit
Protesters approached me, surrounded me, held keffiyehs and signs in my face. On multiple occasions, I had to tell the people getting in my face not to touch me or I would call the police.
Legal Insurrection previously exclusively reported on plans by several anti-Israel groups to disrupt the annual summit of Christians United For Israel (CUFI) held in Washington, D.C.
The main organizing group was Friends of Sabeel North America (FOSNA), assisted by American Muslims for Palestine (AMP), Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP), and the U.S. Campaign for Palestinian Rights. The groups called the collective protest “Counter CUFI.”
My write up from last week, Investigation: Anti-Israel groups plan disruption of Christians United for Israel Annual Summit presents background on the campaign’s four co-sponsoring group and covers the first report of Counter CUFI’s plan to stage a planned disruption inside the summit. My post from yesterday, Anti-Israel groups lock down planning for disruption inside Christians United For Israel Summit, recounts my efforts to report on Counter CUFI’s “Nonviolent direct action training and preparation”— and how Counter CUFI organizers expelled me from the public event.
As we expected, protesters gathered outside the CUFI venue. While they posted tightly cropped video and photos to make it appear that there was a large crowd, in fact only about 100 people showed up.
Our march has begun! #CounterCUFI pic.twitter.com/ZQjDsDvQog
— Friends of Sabeel NA (@fosnalive) July 8, 2019
There also were the obligatory attempts to “blockade” the doors to the venue, but it was all for show. Thousands of people entered the summit through other entrances and the venue was packed.
We broke through the barriers as we break through walls, as all oppressed people will break from their chains. #FreePalestine #CounterCUFI pic.twitter.com/U9QW0j1K9C
— Friends of Sabeel NA (@fosnalive) July 8, 2019
"Hey CUFI you shall see, Palestine will be free!"
Just sat in and blocked the doors of the CUFI summit in DC#counterCUFI#cufisummit2019 #freepalestine@fosnalive @jvplive pic.twitter.com/T1l2xDtolU— JVP – DC Metro (@JVPDCMetro) July 8, 2019
As planned, some protesters managed to infiltrate the venue and engage in disruptions, which if anything just excited the pro-Israel crowd even more.
While John Hagee speaks at @CUFI summit, @fosnalive member and a leader from @jvpbayarea shout “Israel imprisons children” #CounterCUFI #nowaytotreatachild pic.twitter.com/MmQCoAg9PB
— Jewish Voice for Peace (@jvplive) July 8, 2019
Another interruption, this one featuring a member of the group Queers Against Israeli Apartheid, resulted in the disruptor being escorted out of the hall.
“Israel is an #apartheid state. #Zionism is Racism.” A member of @nyc_QAIA being removed by security at the CUFI conference in DC. #CounterCUFI pic.twitter.com/3cN4vMAHmY
— Friends of Sabeel NA (@fosnalive) July 8, 2019
Meanwhile, FOSNA executive director Tarek Abuata stole the show with a rousing disruption during which he forced security to carry him bodily from the building as he shrieked that “people of god” should “wake up” and that “Zionism is racism”. FOSNA tries to present itself as the voice of reason and compassion, but look at the hateful shrieks of its executive director.
FOSNA ED Tarek Abuata being carried off by security at CUFI conference in DC, shouting: “People of God, wake up! #Zionism is racism. Protect the #Palestinian people.” #CounterCUFI pic.twitter.com/9OYvCf2HWR
— Friends of Sabeel NA (@fosnalive) July 8, 2019
(If Twitter video doesn’t load, click here)
Outside, the group had moved to the back entrance to the building, conveniently located in an area with zero outside foot traffic, and thus almost completely hidden from public view. Some group members continued to sing and wave banners, while others banged on the glass walls with their fists.
By this time, I had arrived at the venue. After the planning meeting that was the subject of our first post, we were informed that Tarek Abuata, the Executive Director of FOSNA, had coached would-be protesters on how to respond if asked whether they supported Hamas. Abuata reportedly explained that he would practice non-violence, but that he would refuse to condemn Hamas or Hezbollah.
So I decided to ask the protesters, did they support Hamas and Hezbollah?
You can view my complete, unedited 26 minute video here.
Below is an excerpt, which shows how soon after my arrival, word spread that I was associated with Legal Insurrection. One protester even pulled up the prior Legal Insurrection post on his cell phone and asked me if I was Samantha.
Much as at yesterday’s public event from which I was expelled, it was clear that the organizers and protesters did not want me asking questions or reporting on what they were doing.
At one point, someone approached closed to me and shouted into a bullhorn directed at me.
Not surprisingly, none would condemn Hamas or Hezbollah. None would tell me what a Palestine, “free from the river to the sea” meant to them. None would say whether or not they believed that Jews should be cleansed from the land. And none would address the alleged terrorist connections of co-sponsoring organization American Muslims for Palestine (AMP).
Instead, when the protesters I spoke to pulled up my LIF post and word spread that I was the same person who had tried to attend yesterday’s training, they began efforts to try intimidate me. One refused to speak to me at all because [he] “do[esn’t] speak to Zionists.” Soon after that others approached me, surrounded me, stood close, and held keffiyehs and signs in my face to block my sight and camera. They started to yell that “fascists” were not welcome, and began singing loudly in my direction.
On multiple occasions, I had to tell the people getting in my face not to touch me or I would call the police.
If I walked in another direction to renew my camera’s sight-line, they followed me and continued to surround me, blocking my view and unfurling their keffiyehs in my face.
They told me to leave, and that I was “not allowed” to be there. More than once, I was forced to tell them not to touch me, to step back from me. Most refused and continued to yell over me.
Their intent, clearly, was to intimidate me into leaving, and perhaps to provoke me into a physical confrontation. Eventually, a police officer was forced to escort me out of the protest and into the venue.
After this confrontation, I entered the venue to watch the summit from the media location.
The protesters made one last appearance; during Vice President Mike Pence’s speech, a few erupted with unintelligible chants. They were almost immediately drowned out by the cacophony of CUFI attendees calling simply, “Israel lives!”
And by the time I left the conference for lunch, all the protesters had gone.
———–
Samantha Mandeles is Senior Researcher and Outreach Director at the Legal Insurrection Foundation.
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Comments
Thank you for doing that. “For evil to thrive, it is enough that the good stand aside”
The left called Trump supporters “Brownshirts,” but they are projecting their evil selves onto us – predictably.
They’re about as credible as bill clinton denying availing himself of Epstein’s 14 year olds sex slaves.
I automatically discount the validity of any group that depends on fore or tries to shut down the opposition voice by violence. They have nothing to say and nothing to contribute but hate.
I’m sorry, I see two classes of stories here. One is about the protesters (from any point of view). The other is about the reporter, who is becoming part of the story by repeatedly asking the protesters whether they support Hamas. That is like covering yourself in blood and jumping into an area swarming with sharks and asking them why they are attacking you and not eating fish.
Try asking them more open questions where the answers can shed light on their beliefs and thought processes. Don’t provoke them – you’ll only get the responses you’ve seen. I don’t think you’ve accomplished anything except to show what you would expect from a group of protesters. These aren’t conference attendees participating in a cerebral debate. These are protesters.
Because if you ask a bunch of Hamas supporters if they support Hamas that is provocative or something? Lord forbid we should ask a protester who they support or what their agenda is.
No way, sir, that is out of bounds.
Its like asking protesters of Planned Parenthood if they are pro-life or want to forbid late-term abortion or want to overturn Roe v. Wade or … well, never mind.
Those protesters would tell you exactly what they think. No chum or sharks required.
PS- By the way, how badly did Andy Ngo deserve to be beat up in Portland? Thinking you might have a strong opinion on that one too.
It is hard to understand how so many people ignore the reality of the Muslim cult. All over the world we see that it infiltrates and destroys civilized places.
Major thanks and props to Samantha for her reporting on this story, and, for enduring the thuggish intimidation of the Jew-hating Islamist jackboots and their useful idiot, dhimmi enabler-collaborators on the Left.
Only morally bankrupt and willfully ignorant fools promote a contrived and fallacious mythology of Muslim victimhood, when, in reality, Muslims belong to the most unabashedly supremacist, totalitarian, belligerent and intolerant ideology on the planet. All while simultaneously painting members of the smallest and most-persecuted religious group in history as alleged “oppressors,” because they have the temerity to resist Arab Muslims’ perpetual genocidal bloodlust and jihadist marching orders.
Only in the most warped and evil mind do resisting Islamic belligerence and genocidal aspirations count as alleged “oppression.” Leftists have lost all sanity and reason, in service of their brainless fanaticism and zealotry.
Islam on the move!
And what role is JVP playing on the ground in Israel today, using Ethiopian Jews to promulgate “Zionism is racism”?
You should have carried a pound of bacon with you for defensive purposes.
Somewhat like my experience when I tried to see Ben Shapiro speak at Cal State LA.
People who shout slogans, participate in performance-art politics, and refuse to engage in civil discussion are not to be taken seriously.
“We will not be silenced!” –When are they ever silent? When are they ever not shouting some mindless slogan?
Those eyes, whoa. What in the holy creepy cult crap is going on in them.
Lord help us if Creepy Cult Eye Boy there ever gains real power.
Kudos for documenting this.