Antiwar activist says Republican lawmaker knocked her phone from hand during protest

A GOP congressman appears to slap the phone out of an antiwar protester’s hand while in the US Capitol, footage of the incident reveals.

Representative Mike Ezell of Mississippi was walking through a US Capitol building on Tuesday as protesters from the feminist antiwar organisation Code Pink approached him about the Israel-Hamas war, according to footage posted on X.

The video shows two Code Pink members, Medea Benjamin and Sumer Mobarak, walking with Mr Ezell. The video, filmed by Ms Mobarak, shows Ms Benjamin asking Mr Ezell about the war. The video then cuts to Ms Benjamin and Ms Mobarak walking behind the congressman.

“You want the killing of my people?” asked Ms Mobarak, who is Palestinian-American.

Mr Ezell turns around to say, “Shut up, back it off.” He then appears to knock the phone out of Ms Mobarak’s hand.

Ms Benjamin told The Independent the incident came as a shock.

“This has never happened before,” she said. “And we’ve been doing this for six months.”

“The fact that Sumer is a Palestinian woman who wears a head covering makes us wonder,” Ms Benjamin continued. “Was this a race issue as well?”

When The Independent asked Mr Ezell for his reaction to the incident, he said he would continue to stand by Israel in their war with Hamas.

“These China-backed protesters want to harass and intimidate members of Congress into ending our support for Israel and our opposition to Hamas terrorists,” Mr Ezell said. “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.”

The pair later confronted Mr Ezell inside a congressional hearing.

“You are disgusting, racist,” Ms Mobarak told him. Video footage showed