"Move Over AIPAC" Interrupts Netanyahu Speech To AIPAC

Tuesday May 24, 2011 18:23 by Kevin Murphy - IMEMC and Agencies

The group “Move over AIPAC” has interrupted Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu’s talk to the American Israeli Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), reports Haaretz. Netanyahu was speaking to AIPAC, a powerful Israeli lobby in Washington, as part of his trip to the US.

Members of the group, carrying banners supporting Palestinians, interrupted the speech and denounced Israeli policies in the Occupied Territories. As the protesters were lead out Netanyahu asked “if such protests could be held in Gaza?”

The group, which is made up of over 100 civil society groups, is organised to oppose what they say is the excessive influence of AIPAC and the Israeli lobby over US foreign policy in the Middle East. They have held flash mobs and other protests in Washington to denounce American support for the Israeli military.

Netanyahu has been interrupted by protesters during international speeches before. While it has mostly been Arab protesters who have done so in the past, Heeratz reports that increasingly it is Jewish protesters who are engaged in such action.

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