US congressional aides launch dissent channel to protest Israel’s war on Gaza

The website’s homepage states the channel is where aides can “safely and anonymously offer alternative or dissenting opinions to Congressional policies and action”.

Organizers said the page, called the Congressional Dissent Channel, took inspiration from the State Department’s internal dissent channel, formed in 1971 in the wake of the Vietnam War. The State Department’s channel is slightly different. It is a classified internal government system in which authors must include their names when offering dissenting views that are confidentially posted.

However, the congressional dissent channel will be public, and authors can remain anonymous, either through videos or memos.

“Despite clear and mounting objections from constituents across the country, threats that the war’s regional escalation poses to U.S. interests, and the unconscionable Palestinian civilian casualties numbering in the tens of thousands, Congress has refused to use its leverage to condition arms on curbing human rights abuses, and to compel Israel to broker an immediate ceasefire,” the group wrote on the website.

The website follows a series of moves from congressional staffers who have protested Washington’s military and financial support of Israel amid its war in Gaza. The war has killed more than 39,000 Palestinians since it began in early October.

Some staffers, mostly progressives, have repeatedly pushed for a cease-fire between Israel and Hamas, including at a demonstration in November and another in May. Several staffers, however, have stressed they fear retribution from their offices to publicly discuss their disagreement with Congress’s stance.

Last week, dozens of congressional staffers with the group behind the website — Congressional Staff for Ceasefire — walked out of their offices to protest Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s address to a joint session of Congress.

The informal group said the Israeli leader’s presence in the Capitol “disgraces the U.S. Capitol and dishonors the American values Congress has sworn to uphold”.

More than 200 anonymous staff members across 122 Democratic and Republican members signed a letter earlier this month calling for Congress to protest or boycott Netanyahu’s visit. It was organized by the Congressional Progressive Staff Association and signed by 230 House and Senate staffers.

While Congress as a whole did not boycott Netanyahu’s speech, several Democratic lawmakers did not attend in protest.