America needs 'a president that stands up to warmongers': Activist

MILWAUKEE, Wisconsin

A group of protesters demanding a cease-fire in the Gaza Strip took to the streets Wednesday in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, where the Republican National Convention is underway. "We're here at the Republican Convention, just like we'll be at the Democratic Convention in Chicago, with a message saying the majority of people in this country want to live in peace. Then why are both parties always leading us into war, putting so much of our tax dollars into the military instead of spending it on people's needs?

"And that message of pro-peace resonates with a lot of people in both parties," Medea Benjamin, an activist and co-founder of the women-led peace group CODEPINK, told Anadolu.

She was speaking outside the Fiserv Forum, where the four-day Republican National Convention has been underway since Monday.

"For example, we heard a businessman, David Sacks, give a speech inside, saying: 'We need a president that stands up to the warmongers.' And we said, wow, yes, that's what we need. I don't think (Donald) Trump is that president. I don't think (Joe) Biden is that president either. But we do need a president that stands up to the warmongers," she added.

Turning to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's upcoming visit to the US, she said: "I think it's absolutely disgusting that Netanyahu, a war criminal, has been invited to address our Congress and come to Washington, D.C. and meet with Biden in the White House."

Netanyahu is expected to address a joint session of the US Congress on July 24. Some senators, including Bernie Sanders, already said they won't attend his speech.

"That (visit) sends a terrible message. It sends a message that we're okay with what Israel is doing, and that we're going to keep sending weapons and keep supporting their genocide and now their starvation of the people of Gaza," Benjamin said.

She said there will be "a huge protest" when Netanyahu arrives.

"He will be met with very, very big protests in Washington.”

Israel, flouting a UN Security Council resolution demanding an immediate cease-fire, has faced international condemnation amid its continued brutal offensive on Gaza since an Oct. 7 attack by the Palestinian group Hamas.

Nearly 38,800 Palestinians have since been killed, mostly women and children, and more than 89,100 injured, according to local health authorities.

Over nine months into the Israeli onslaught, vast tracts of Gaza lie in ruins amid a crippling blockade of food, clean water and medicine.

Israel is accused of genocide at the International Court of Justice, whose latest ruling ordered it to immediately halt its military operation in the southern city of Rafah, where more than 1 million Palestinians had sought refuge from the war before it was invaded on May 6.