By EFE
25 Jul 2024, 13:35 PM EDT
US Vice President and presumptive Democratic candidate Kamala Harris on Thursday condemned the burning of an American flag at yesterday’s protest against the visit of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Washington DC
“I condemn the burning of the American flag. That 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 took to the streets of Washington DC on Wednesday to protest Netanyahu’s speech to the US Congress. Although most of the protest passed off without incident, there were minor clashes with law enforcement and 23 people were arrested.
Pro-Palestinian protesters burned an American flag in front of Union Station, along with an effigy of Netanyahu, and spray-painted statues in the area with messages such as “Free Gaza,” “Hamas is coming” and “All Zionists are bastards.”
“Yesterday at Union Station in Washington, DC, we witnessed despicable acts by unpatriotic protesters and dangerous rhetoric fueled by hate,” Harris said in her message.
The vice president condemned “any individual who associates with the brutal terrorist organization Hamas, which has vowed to annihilate the State of Israel and kill Jews.”
“Pro-Hamas graffiti and rhetoric are abhorrent and we must not tolerate them in our nation,” said the vice president, who said she supports the right to peaceful protest, although “anti-Semitism, hatred and violence of any kind have no place” in the country.
Kamala Harris, the only candidate for the Democratic presidential nomination after Joe Biden’s decision not to run for re-election, has been one of the most critical voices in the administration regarding the deaths of thousands of civilians in Israel’s offensive on the Gaza Strip.
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