An activist with the anti-war group CodePink said she had her cellphone knocked from her hand by a Republican congressman Tuesday when she questioned him about the Israel-Hamas war.
Rep. Mike Ezell (R-Miss.) was walking in a hallway before a House committee when two people approached him. According to camera footage posted to social platform X, one woman asks Ezell if Israel should accept a peace proposal and the representative responds sharply, “Get away from me.”
The second woman, identified as Sumer Mobarak, who is Palestinian American, asks Ezell if he wants “the killing of my people, my Palestinian people?”
Ezell says “Shut up. Knock it off,” then reaches out and apparently knocks down Mobarak’s cellphone.
She said she filed a police report against him, alleging assault.
U.S. Capitol Police said they are “looking into the matter.”
Ezell, a first-term representative, said in a statement to The Hill following the incident that the protesters were backed by China.
“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 the 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 terrorist.”
His spokesperson confirmed to The Associated Press that the altercation happened before a Tuesday meeting of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee.
CodePink said on its website that “China is not our enemy,” the AP reported.