By The South Asia Times

Washington -  Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir faced a furious reception at the US Capitol on Monday, where pro-Palestinian protesters confronted the far-right official with shouts of "war criminal" and "responsible for genocide" during his official visit to Washington.

Video footage circulating on social media shows the ultranationalist minister being challenged inside the Capitol building by activists who accused him of supporting ethnic cleansing in Gaza. "You are a racist war criminal, and you are hurting my religion, my religion as a Jew," Code Pink co-founder Medea Benjamin can be heard telling Ben-Gvir in one exchange.

"You are responsible for genocide! You are a racist pig!" protesters shouted, according to reports. Other demonstrators yelled, "You killed my family in Gaza!" and "You belong in The Hague!"—a reference to the International Criminal Court, which has issued arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former defense minister Yoav Gallant.

"Between meetings, several pro-Palestinian protesters began shouting pro-Hamas and Gaza slogans at me," Ben-Gvir wrote on social media. "I responded by saying that they were supporting the murderers, just like on 9/11 - we will defeat them!" 

The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), the nation's largest Muslim civil rights organization, called for Ben-Gvir's immediate expulsion from the United States, describing him as "a racist, a war criminal and a coward who should be in The Hague, not wandering the halls of Congress and harassing Americans" .

The organization also said that Ben-Gvir directed a member of his security detail to harass Sabrene Odeh, a Palestinian-American community legal advocate who was wearing a keffiyeh while visiting Capitol Hill. According to CAIR, the security guard walked rapidly toward Odeh as if to physically assault her, forcing her to step back and hit a wall.

"If Itamar Ben-Gvir and his thugs think they can intimidate Americans visiting Congress, they are mistaken," Odeh said in a statement. "Approaching and attempting to intimidate me or anyone else for wearing a sign of Palestinian culture is a racist act of harassment that should be unacceptable in our nation." 

Ben-Gvir's visit to the United States sparked protests in multiple cities. During an event in Manhattan, a man reportedly hid in a bathroom for two hours at a steakhouse specifically to confront the minister.

Ben-Gvir, a supporter of Jewish settlements in the West Bank, is widely regarded as a racist, and pro-Palestinian groups call him a war criminal.