Just a couple hours before Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu addressed Congress on Wednesday, roughly 100 Democrats crammed into a small room in the basement of the Capitol for a different show of devotion to Israel: a listening session with the family members of Israeli hostages held by Hamas.
Democrats were divided on whether they should attend Netanyahu’s address, which was, as expected, a full-throated defense of Israel’s military actions resulting in the deaths of about 40,000 Palestinians since the war in Gaza began. But as controversial as Netanyahu has become, many Democrats still wanted to signal their support for Israel — and the meeting with hostage families was meant to do just that.
Rep. Jim Clyburn came up with the idea, first suggesting the meeting to colleagues on the House floor. He then worked with the pro-Israel group J Street to get speakers from the Hostage Family Forum to speak to members.
“We are here to express our solidarity and our support, our love and our prayers,” Clyburn said at the beginning of the meeting. “Some would say it takes a village; I think it takes a bigger room.”
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Lawmakers heard firsthand accounts from the family members of hostages, filling all 50 seats in a meeting room in the Senate basement. The gathering quickly became standing-room only and spilled out into the hall, with Rep. Maxwell Frost and Sen. Tina Smith acting as ushers to jam more and more people into the space.
Democrats purposely chose to hold their counterprogramming just before the speech instead of during it. While many Democrats who attended the meeting with hostage families had no intention of attending Netanyahu’s address, other Democrats did.
“Whether you plan to attend Prime Minister Netanyahu’s speech or not, this pro-Israel event is intended to provide an opportunity for all Members to demonstrate their solidarity with the people of Israel,” Clyburn wrote in a memo to colleagues inviting them to the meeting.
It was an emotional scene.
Democrats passed around a guest book during the speeches, with pages worth of lawmakers signing their names and adding notes of thoughts and prayers to be given to the Hostage Family Forum. Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi read the poem “I Have No Other Country” by Ehud Manor.
As Maya Roman, the cousin of one of the hostages, shared the story of her cousin being held hostage and separated from her 3-year-old daughter, Rep. Rosa DeLauro wiped away tears. Rep. Jamie Raskin, at her side, put his hand on her shoulder and buried his head in his hand.
After the meeting, Raskin said he would still attend Netanyahu’s speech.
“Under Donald Trump, I went to every State of the Union address,” Raskin said. “I was here on Jan. 6, where Trump’s mob of thugs and insurrectionists tried to remove us, and I’m not running away from my workplace, I belong here. Benjamin Netanyahu should be back in Israel trying to complete a hostage deal.”
Throughout the meeting with hostage families, the focus was less on Hamas and more on Netanyahu, with members discussing what they could do to put pressure on the prime minister to focus on getting hostages out of Gaza above all else.
“Focusing on image rather than essence, Netanyahu believes it is more important to speak to the American Congress than to answer Israeli questions, which he avoids for months,” said Zahiro Shahar Mor, whose aunt and cousin were taken to Gaza.
In the room, multiple members were jotting down notes throughout the testimonials, like when Roman told the room that families of hostages had begged Netanyahu not to come to the U.S. for what they saw as a politically motivated gesture.
“Hostage families back home urged Netanyahu not to come here and give this speech now, at a time when a deal is so close, because by coming here, he runs the risk of making himself the issue, turning the humanitarian issue of the hostages into a political one, and shifting the conversation,” she said. “We are here to ask you not to let him.”
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Katherine Swartz is a NOTUS reporter and an Allbritton Journalism Institute fellow.
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