‘You Are Harassing Me!’ Haley Stevens Goes Viral For Fending Off Pro-Palestinian Heckler On Capitol Hill

Rep. Haley Stevens (D-MI) went viral this week after she fended off a pro-Palestinian heckler on Capitol Hill who told her she was headed for the “gallows” and was “disgusting.”

The wild confrontation began as Haley was exiting the Capitol, and she addressed someone who was filming her as they walked.

“Did you have some questions, or who are you with?” said Stevens, who narrowly lost the contentious Michigan U.S. Senate primary to Abdul El-Sayed.

“Well, I was just wondering — how do you continue to support the bombing of children, even now, during the ceasefire?” replied the unidentified activist.

“Look, sir, I’m not going to be intimidated by you. I support a two-state solution,” Stevens replied.

“You support genocide,” shot back the activist.

“No, I don’t. There’s no genocide. There’s literally no genocide going on,” Stevens replied.

“You don’t care about ethnic cleansing,” continued the activist as Stevens repeated, “there is no genocide.” The activist continued:

You don’t care about women being raped, men being raped. You don’t care about dogs being used as weapons of warfare, raping Palestinians. Okay, what about the raping? What about the Palestinian dissension? What about West Bank violence?

“Anti-Zionism is a hate movement,” Stevens shot back.

“What you are doing right now is disgusting,” declared the activist.

“You are harassing me. I am a sitting member of Congress,” she replied, before getting the attention of someone nearby and telling them she was being harassed.

“All you care about is the Greater Israel Project — that’s all you care about. You support the Greater Israel Project, and time will show — time will show — that you are a disgusting war criminal, and you will go to the Hague one day. We will see you at the gallows. We will see you at the gallows,” continued the activist, raising his voice.

“You are in a hate movement,” Stevens replied as she got into her car to leave.

“You are a disgusting person who enables Benjamin Netanyahu, the government before that, you should be disgusted with yourself,” hit back the activist.

“I don’t need your harassment,” Stevens replied as the activist shouted, “You’re in a hate movement. You’re a Zionist. Zionism is a hate movement.”

“I’m a proud Zionist! I love Israel!” Stevens said as the car drove off.

“Zionists literally hate Holocaust survivors. Zionists hate it. You, as a Zionist, do you think that Holocaust survivors are scum? Because that’s what Zionists think. You’re disgusting,” added the activist.

Stevens followed up on the Tuesday incident in an X post.

“Earlier today, I was leaving a Science Committee hearing, standing up for science to address climate change, when I was once again followed, shouted at, and harassed by two rogue paid actors attempting to intimidate,” she wrote.

She added:

Let me be clear: I have always wanted the wars in the Middle East to end. I believe in a two-state solution that gives Israelis and Palestinians peace, security, dignity, and a home. People are free to disagree with me, challenge me, and protest my positions. That is democracy.

But disagreement is not license for intimidation or harassment.

I’m not on the ballot anymore. So, what exactly are we accomplishing by continuing to tear each other apart? There is too much at stake to spend our energy villainizing people on our own side or like me who are not coming back to Congress.

We should be putting our energy into protecting Social Security, defending voting rights, lowering costs, standing up for science, and defending the people who sent us here.

Disagreement is democracy. Intimidation isn’t.

Let’s get back to work.

The clip went viral online in the following days, and Stevens found a wide range of bipartisan support, including from many on the right.

Fox News’s Guy Benson shared the clip and added, “Insane. Slander after slander, including the insane dog rape hoax. Good for her btw.”

Neera Tanden, the head of the Center for American Progress, added, “This isn’t reporting. This is a ‘reporter’ screaming at someone. Don’t call yourself a reporting [sic] if you’re just going to call a subject names.”

Below are some more reactions:

https://twitter.com/MariamaJames13/status/210058883183769206

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