Pro-Palestinian activists vandalized the American Israel Public Affairs Committee’s (AIPAC) Washington, D.C., headquarters on Monday, writing “F*** Israel” on the building in red paint.
Footage obtained by the D.C. Metropolitan Police Department and reported by Jewish Insider shows three masked individuals vandalizing the building early Monday morning. The department has since asked “for the community’s help to identify the suspects involved in a Destruction of Property offense in Northwest.”
Palestine Action, a U.K.-based activist group founded to shut down arms dealers in Britain, applauded the crime on social media, though it is unknown if members of the group were involved.
“Autonomous individuals paid visit to the American Israel Public Affairs Committee’s (AIPAC) or the Zionist Lobby as a call to mass escalation across the DMV and the United States for Palestine. 10 Months into this continued Genocide has yielded movement yet there has been little systemic change,” the post read. “Escalation needs to increase 10 fold. The Zionist Entity needs to feel the heat from all sides.”
“This message is once again targeted towards those in Washington DC to move past liberal zionist organizations, Peace Police, and fear mongers that have stunted political growth and development,” the post continued. “The Al-Thawabet set forth by Palestinians in Occupied Palestine for their liberation should be the first thing you know and understand. Honor all the Martyrs and Glory to the Resistance from Hämãs, Jenin’s Brigade, the Lions Den, HezBol, Yemen, and more.”
Marshall Wittmann, an AIPAC spokesman, told the Insider that the group “will not be deterred by the illegal actions of fringe, anti-Israel extremists in our efforts to strengthen the U.S.-Israel relationship.”
Activists also set off smoke bombs and threw red paint at the home of AIPAC’s president, Michael Tuchin, on Thanksgiving last year, shortly after Hamas invaded Israel on October 7. Extremists held a sign that read, “F*** your holiday, baby killer.”
Progressive “Squad” member Cori Bush (D., Mo.) told AIPAC that she would “tear [their] kingdom down” just one day after the latest attack, blaming the organization for her defeat this week against her AIPAC-funded primary opponent, Wesley Bell. Bush, who has declined to label Hamas a terrorist organization in the past, said that AIPAC “radicalized” her, and warned that the organization “should be afraid.”
Thousands of pro-Palestinian protesters also rioted near the U.S. Capitol in late July, vandalizing federal property, burning the American flag, and releasing maggots at the Watergate Hotel, where Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu stayed during his visit to the city. “Hamas is coming,” protesters spray-painted outside of Union Station.