A Palestinian-American activist filed a police report for assault against a Republican congressman over a confrontation Tuesday in which he appeared to hit a cellphone out of her hand.
Footage shared by the antiwar group Code Pink shows Rep. Mike Ezell (R-MS) walking in a hallway ahead of a House committee hearing in Washington, D.C., as two activists ask him about Israel’s war against Hamas in Gaza. One of the activists can be heard asking Ezell whether he thinks Israel should accept a ceasefire proposal to which Hamas had agreed or if he wants “this genocide to continue?”
Another person off-camera asks: “You want the killing of my people, my Palestinian people?”
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“Oh, why don’t you shut up?” Ezell says in response. “Knock it off!” He then appears to reach out with his hand and knock the cellphone filming him to the ground. Earlier in the footage he’d told the first activist to “get away from me.”
The Palestinian-American, identified as Sumer Mobarak, has filed an assault complaint against Ezell, according to Code Pink. U.S. Capitol Police told the Associated Press that they are looking into the incident.
A spokesperson for Ezell, a first-term congressman who was a sheriff before winning his House seat in Mississippi two years ago, said the incident took place ahead of a House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee.
“These China-backed protesters want to harass and intimidate Members of Congress into ending our support for Israel and our opposition to Hamas terrorists,” Ezell said in a statement. “I will not be harassed or intimidated by the Chinese Communist Party, Hamas, or their supporters, and I will continue standing with our Israeli allies against terrorism.”
Code Pink says on its site that “China is not our enemy.” According to a 2023 New York Times investigation, the group—which describes itself as a “feminist grassroots organization working to end U.S. warfare and imperialism, support peace and human rights initiatives”—once criticized China’s human rights record but has more recently supported Beijing’s interment of mostly Muslim Uyghurs.
The State Department in 2021 declared that the Chinese government had committed genocide and crimes against humanity through the repression of Uyghurs and other groups.
