Representative Rashida Tlaib attended Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s address to Congress Wednesday and protested from her seat, holding up a sign that read “war criminal” on one side and “guilty of genocide” on the other.

Tlaib holding up a sign pic.twitter.com/MyNaF3lJm9

Speaker Mike Johnson warned against protests during Netanyahu’s speech, threatening arrests and claiming there would be an increased police presence. Tlaib was approached by a floor staffer at least twice during Netanyahu’s speech, and put the sign down each time. At one point, Republican Representative Anna Paulina Luna came and spoke to her before returning to her seat.

While many seats were empty during Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s speech Wednesday, as about half of congressional Democrats boycotted his address, tech billionaire Elon Musk was in attendance.

Musk attended Netanyahu’s address to Congress as his personal guest, he told reporters. The X (formerly Twitter) owner sat in the Senate gallery among rescued Israeli hostages and behind the prime minister’s wife, according to CNN.

Musk and Netanyahu have spoken several times over the past year, including before the war, discussing artificial intelligence and antisemitism. More recently, during a visit to Israel in November, Musk toured a kibbutz with Netanyahu.

This comes as Musk has continued to boost antisemitism on his platform, even explicitly agreeing with claims that Jewish people push “diabolical hatred against whites.”

Several attendees were escorted out of the U.S. Capitol for wearing yellow T-shirts with protest slogans during Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s address to Congress on Wednesday.

Throughout the beginning of the speech, speech guests unbuttoned their dress shirts and jackets to reveal yellow T-shirts that read, “Seal the Deal NOW!” They were promptly removed from the room by security, according to a post on X (formerly Twitter) from Axios’s Andrew Solender.

A protester wears a "Seal the Deal Now!" shirt in the gallery as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu enters Congress to deliver his speech. pic.twitter.com/tDZFjoyP7Z

This slogan is used by the families and allies of the Israeli hostages that Netanyahu has continually claimed he is committed to saving. He repeated those claims in his speech.

Netanyahu has received significant criticism from Israelis, as after nearly 10 months of military action in Gaza, he has failed to secure the safe return of hostages. He has also overseen the deaths of nearly 40,000 Palestinians in Gaza, as well as mass displacement and widespread famine.

Representative Ilhan Omar tore into Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu Wednesday—and her colleagues’ decision to invite him to speak to Congress.

“It is utterly immoral and cruel to the millions of lives impacted by [Netanyahu’s] catastrophic actions to platform him, let alone give him the honor of addressing Congress,” she wrote in a statement ahead of Netanyahu’s speech. “He is a war criminal who is actively committing genocide against the Palestinian people while putting the lives of the hostages and the stability of the region in jeopardy. I fully agree with the International Criminal Court and the International Court of Justice that he should be held accountable for his crimes, not addressing Congress.”

“Benjamin Netanyahu and his government are now responsible for the murder of over 38,000 and injuring over 88,000,” she added.

Omar is one of dozens of members of Congress boycotting Netanyahu’s speech on Wednesday, including House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and at least one MAGA Republican.

In her place, she has offered her ticket to family members of an American hostage held in Gaza.

Kentucky Representative Thomas Massie is openly feuding with the pro-Israel lobby ahead of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s speech to Congress.

The Republican representative, part of the far-right House Freedom Caucus, is the only GOP member who said he would boycott Netanyahu’s Wednesday speech.

“Today Congress will undertake political theater on behalf of the State Department. The purpose of having Netanyahu address Congress is to bolster his political standing in Israel and to quell int’l opposition to his war,” Massie wrote on X (formerly Twitter). “I don’t feel like being a prop so I won’t be attending.”

In response, the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) quote-tweeted the representative’s post, slamming Massie for “standing with” progressives such as Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Senator Bernie Sanders “against our ally Israel.”

Massie shot back, tweeting, “Call me anything you want. I still won’t be attending your war rally.”

This isn’t the Republican’s representatives first time feuding with AIPAC.

On matters of foreign policy and war, Massie often finds himself siding with House Democrats, which has earned him the scorn of pro-Israel groups. As John Nichols wrote for The Nation, “They recognize that he........

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