(Georgia Recorder) — In the latest Georgia town hall meeting turned heated, an event hosted by Sen. Raphael Warnock was twice disrupted by protests over a vote on weapons shipments to Israel.
The first came during a response to a question about funding for Israel.
“I have to ask you about the way we spend our money,” asked a constituent who declined to give his name. “My voice is against using our money to fund what many people would consider a genocide.”
Last month, Warnock and fellow Georgia Democratic U.S. Sen. Jon Ossoff were part of an overwhelming majority of senators who voted to reject a bid to block $8.8 billion in arms sales to Israel sponsored by Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders. Sanders said the proposal represented an effort to force Israel to take steps to protect civilians from bombing and to allow humanitarian aid into Gaza.
In November, Warnock and Ossoff joined 16 other senators in supporting a failed resolution to block some weapon sales.
Warnock told the constituent he had been working to support peace and humanitarian aid.
“I believe in the humanity of all God’s children, and that you have to center the concerns of the most marginalized,” he said. “And that’s why I was one of the first in the Senate to call for a ceasefire. In addition to that, I pressed the Biden administration, I pushed the Netanyahu administration around the ways in which humanitarian aid was not even getting into Gaza.I voted to get $10 billion in humanitarian aid to Gaza. My North Star in this conflict is a world that embraces the children on both sides of this conflict.”
During the answer, several women stood up in the crowd and began shouting things like “it’s our money” and “you’re a liar.”
For a few awkward minutes, the women berated Warnock while staff members tried to continue with the programming and members of the crowd shouted for the demonstrators to sit down.
Warnock told the protesters he would answer their questions but refused to shout over them.
“We have to decide, as somebody who is an activist myself and who comes from the activist community, you can come and express yourself, it’s a very passionate issue, or we can have a conversation, but we can’t do both of those things,” he said. “We can do one or the other.”
“As incredibly important as this issue is, and it’s a matter of life and death, there are other issues here, and these folks deserve to be heard as well,” he added.
The women left after about six minutes. Several minutes after that, a man began shouting at Warnock over his vote while another audience member who had been called on by the moderator tried to ask a question about high health insurance costs.
The man left after a brief period after being approached by Warnock staff.
Other than the demonstrators, Warnock faced a mostly friendly crowd who largely expressed concerns over actions of the Trump administration, including levying increased tariffs, cutting federal jobs and dismantling diversity, equity and inclusion programs. The senator, who is up for re-election in 2028, pledged to oppose the administration and directed constituents with specific issues to follow up with his staff.
For decades, support of Israel was a bipartisan issue, but the matter has become especially fraught for Democrats since Israel’s latest military campaign which began in October 2023 after the militant group Hamas launched a surprise attack on Israel.
According to the United Nations, as of April 22, more than 51,000 Palestinians have been killed in the conflict, including more than 8,000 women and 15,000 children. In addition, the UN finds nearly the entire population faces high levels of food insecurity as Israel has ordered a halt to all aid into Gaza, including food and medicine.
Jawahir Sharwany, one of the demonstrators who shouted at Warnock, said the demonstrations will continue until the policy changes.
“We’re not going to stop protesting and talking about it until they stop sending shipments from all these billions of dollars of weapons bills,” she said. “Warnock is signing onto the deaths of Palestinian children.”
Angry constituents have become a town hall hallmark for U.S. legislators from both parties this year.
In February, Republican Congressman Rich McCormick faced a tough crowd at a town hall in Roswell over government cuts and layoffs. In April, multiple protesters were zapped with Tasers at an Acworth meeting with Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene and Ossoff got an earful from fired federal workers who said he needed to do more to push back against the administration.
