Several progressive Democrats said they will boycott a speech from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu if he accepts an expected invitation to address a joint session of Congress, citing their objections to his actions in the Israel-Hamas war.
"I'm not going, [because] there is nothing Netanyahu can tell me that can help my district at all," Rep. Jamaal Bowman, D-N.Y., told Axios, adding that his constituents are angry at Israel's war effort.
Rep. Maxwell Frost, D-Fla., also said he won't attend, calling the Israeli prime minister a "bad person." Rep. Chuy Garcia, D-Ill., called Netanyahu's coalition the "most extreme government in the country's history."
Rep. Greg Casar, D-Texas, said it's "important symbolically" to show up for the speech to express disagreement with Netanyahu, but he also said he is "unlikely to change up my schedule" to attend.
Rep. Rashida Tlaib, D-Mich., the only Palestinian-American in Congress, said that not only should Netanyahu stay away from Congress, "he should be sent to the Hague," where war criminals are prosecuted.
"He has no business coming to the United States of America," Tlaib said.
House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., said Thursday he will invite Netanyahu to speak, and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, who has come under fire for his criticism of the prime minister, said he would give his consent for Netanyahu to appear.
"I will always welcome the opportunity for the Prime Minister of Israel to speak to Congress in a bipartisan way," Schumer said.
Netanyahu last spoke before a joint session of Congress in 2015 while the Obama administration was negotiating the Iran nuclear deal.
Israeli President Isaac Herzog spoke to Congress in July, and Rep. Ro Khanna, D-Calif., who attended that speech, said it is a "different situation" with Netanyahu, "given his policies that have been in defiance of the president and disastrous."
Some Jewish progressives, have not committed to listening to Netanyahu, and Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., refused to entertain the question while citing the deaths in Gaza.
"Is that what your worry is, whether I will attend or not?" Sanders said.
However, some Democrats will attend, even though they are disappointed by the war's high civilian death toll, said Rep. Annie Kuster, D-N.H., who chairs the center-left New Democrat Coalition.
"Our support for the people of Israel and the existence of Israel has not diminished," Kuster said.
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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