Rep. Brad Sherman (D-Calif.) scolded pro-Palestinian protesters at a House committee hearing, accusing them of having “blood on their hands” for “shouting the praises” of Houthi militants in the Red Sea.
The protesters painted their hands red and repeatedly interrupted a House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on Middle East, North Africa and Central Asia hearing on Houthi aggression in the Red Sea, calling for an immediate cease-fire in Gaza.
The Houthis, an Iran-backed Yemeni rebel group, have involved themselves in the Israel-Hamas war by attacking commercial ships in the Red Sea. The group claimed it is targeting Israel-based boats or boats headed to Israel in an attempt to protect Palestinians from Israel as the war in Gaza continues, The Hill previously reported.
“There’s blood on the hands of the Houthi, and there’s blood on the hands of those who prevent us from taking effective action against them and shout their praises, and I see that blood is actually on the hands of people visible to me right now,” Sherman said.
Raising his voice over demonstrators’ shouts, Sherman said “a durable cease-fire cannot exist if Hamas is [in Gaza], because they’ve already declared, they want to repeat Oct. 7 again and again until the blood of Israelis flows again and again.”
Subcommittee Chair Joe Wilson (R-S.C.) called the interruptions “ignorant outbursts” that were against the law, and he had protesters who raised their voices removed.
Demonstrators interrupted Rep. Rich McCormick (R-Ga.) soon after. He accused the protesters of forgoing realism for idealism in their demands for a cease-fire in the Israel-Hamas war.
“And there we go again with the absolute misunderstanding of realism versus idealism,” McCormick said after one of the demonstrators was escorted out of the hearing.
“Iran is an evil regime,” McCormick continued. “It’s a theocracy that oppresses its people; it has kept women from their natural, God-given rights, and yet we’re more concerned with not getting food to the people when we give aid to these corrupt agencies than we are with a resistance to a regime that is actually supporting all of our enemies, all around the world.”
The committee had convened to debate how the U.S. can combat aggression by Houthi militants in the Red Sea.
The Biden administration designated the Houthis as a Specially Designated Terrorist Group in January, but the sanction takes effect Friday.
Iran wants to drag the United States in a “grinding, open-ended conflict” in the Middle East, an “Iranian trap,” said Jon Alterman, senior vice president for the Center for Strategic and International Studies.
Alterman told lawmakers that by sponsoring Houthi attacks in the Red Sea, Iran is instigating the United States. He cautioned, “getting into a war of wills over the Houthis, I worry, is going to leave them victorious and looking strong, and us looking weak.”
“We have to be successful 100 percent of the time, and if we’re successful 99 percent of the time, our adversaries point to the 1 percent, and our people point to the 1 percent, and we look like we’re failing instead of succeeding,” Alterman said.
Former CIA analyst Kenneth Pollack and Alterman both said Houthi aggression would instead require the United States to strategically use its resources to exert pressure on Iran and the Houthis while avoiding a hot war.
“I am not suggesting American boots on the ground in Yemen,” Pollack emphasized.
Pollack said the proxy conflict will “ultimately require the United States to arm, equip and train” anti-Houthi elements in the region, such as coalitions in Yemen or Saudi Arabia.
GOP lawmakers on the committee sharply criticized the Biden administration’s action on the Houthis, calling it a policy of “appeasement.”
“The Houthi’s ability to disrupt shipping gives a significant boost to the regime in Iran’s legitimacy and is a key to their goal of death to America, death to Israel,” Wilson said.