A congressional debate in California’s Palo Alto broke out into shouts and jeers on Wednesday when pro-Palestinian activists in attendance insisted, an hour and a half into the event, that the candidates discuss the war in the Middle East.
When the candidates were asked about Gaza, they struggled to answer through boos and outcry from the venue’s wings whenever a candidate condemned Hamas’s actions on October 7 or suggested support for the existence of the State of Israel.
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The first interruption can be heard in a video of the event posted by the Midpen Media Center, a Palo Alto public access channel, on YouTube: an hour and thirty minutes into the forum, Sam Liccardo, formerly the mayor of San Jose, is answering a question about his use of a personal email while in office, when a voice off-screen shouts: “Who cares about your emails?!”
As the startled panel takes a moment to regain its composure, members of the audience are seen standing up, chanting “Ceasefire now! Ceasefire now!,” as a moderator assures them that they will get to the Gaza issue in due course. Then, the video cuts out for about ten minutes.
The feed returns to an announcement of “our final question of the night,” audio cutting in and out amid what appears to be continued shouting from the gallery. After some time, the moderator asks the assembled candidates: “What role do you think the United States should take in trying to end the war in Gaza—”
“Genocide!” the audience shouts, apparently taking issue with the moderator’s use of the term “war.”
SHOCKING: Last night, anti-Israel demonstrators at the 16th Congressional District Debate at Palo Alto City Hall denied the October 7 attacks, booed any mention of Israel and openly supported Hamas’ genocidal terrorism.We are thankful for the candidates who bravely stood up… pic.twitter.com/5v8eqydrGs
— JCRC Bay Area (@SFJCRC) February 1, 2024
“Do you want to hear the answer?” one moderator then scolds the audience, as another begins to shout over the din in order to get out the question: “Would you support a ceasefire and if so under what conditions?”
The candidates gave their responses
The first candidate to answer, Grek Tanaka, a Palo Alto city councilor, begins by calling the war in Gaza a “travesty,” and commenting that, according to some reports, more people have been killed in Gaza since October than have been killed in Ukraine since Russia’s invasion in 2022. He then says that he supports a two-state solution, at which point the audience interrupts again, with chants of “From the river to the sea!”
Joby Bernstein, begins his answer, “The last time I was in Israel—,” which was enough to prompt further shout-downs from the gallery, seemingly taking issue with his use of the country’s name. He continued, saying, “The last time I was in Israel, I had to go into a shelter, because Hamas, a terrorist organization—” at which point the crowd erupts in loud boos, taking issue with that designation of the jihadist group.
Peter Dixon, a Marine Corps veteran who serves as vice president of a non-profit, is next. Dixon takes a conciliatory tone, thanking the moderators “for doing a great job under difficult circumstances,” and then commends the audience for their commitment to a cause: “Thank you for caring enough to come out here and speak your mind about something you care about.”
He continues: “We all here as Americans are coming from a place of wanting to make sure that civilian lives aren’t lost on the battlefield,” prompting another round of jeers. He then tries to talk about his experience fighting wars in the Middle East, but this quickly reveals itself to be a lost cause.
Sam Liccardo, the former mayor of San José, is shouted down when he says, “We need to end the fighting.”
Evan Low, a state legislator, gets as far as saying, “There are hostages. Israel has a right to exist,” before being drowned out by shouts and jeers as he expresses his solidarity with Israel as a gay man who would be “beheaded” elsewhere in the Middle East.
Finally, Julie Lythcott-Halms, a member of the city council, doesn’t make it past her opening: “Salam. Shalom. Peace. I know that we are all in tremendous pain for different reasons, everybody in this room is feeling a lot of pain, I’m feeling it too, I imagine my colleagues up here are.”
This provoked the audience as well, though it pales in comparison to their furious response when Lythcott-Halms, shocked that she was booed for condemning Hamas, asserts that Israeli women were raped on October 7. “I did not know that that would be a controversial statement,” she says, before continuing on to condemn Benjamin Netanyahu and Israel’s campaign in Gaza.
After the candidates had fought through their answers, the forum was meant to end with closing statements. The audience, however, would not stop chanting, and the debate ended early.