Pro-Palestinian protesters derailed a debate between congressional candidates Rep. Tom Suozzi (D–Glen Cove) and Mike LiPetri Wednesday night. Five protesters were escorted out by police after they interrupted the forum multiple times with shouts denouncing the war in the Middle East.
“Our hard-earned tax dollars are paying for bombs that are killing children,” one protester shouted from the audience at Suozzi. “Are you OK with that?”
As Suozzi was answering the second question asked that night at the Lakeville Estates Civic Association meeting, one woman stood up from the audience and began speaking to the representative. She held her phone up while she questioned Suozzi and was suspected of recording the confrontation.
“Tom Suozzi, what about the Palestinians…” the woman said before moderators began speaking over her to squash the interruption and other audience members joined in, washing out her voice to be heard.
“Let her speak,” shouted two other protesters from the audience.
After audience members’ shouts died down, the woman could be heard again shouting “shame” at Suozzi. Others yelled “Stop the genocide” and called for a ceasefire and arms embargo.
Lakeville Estates Civic Association President Bil Cutrone asked the protesters to stop interrupting and called for the police officer present to escort them out.
After four protesters were led out, the debate resumed. Some of them could still be heard yelling at the officer while they stood outside the debate room.
About 15 minutes later, one remaining protester in the audience interrupted the debate again.
“You’ve devoted yourself to bombing brown people,” the protester shouted, calling Suozzi a racist.
That protester was escorted out by the police officer and was forcibly pushed out of the room.
“It’s hard to get things done in our country with people yelling and screaming at each other,” Suozzi said after they were removed from the room. “There are a lot of good people in Congress, on the Democratic side and Republican side, that want to do the right thing. But everything is controlled by the extreme messages that you hear from politicians pandering to their base.”
Suozzi, who has been a supporter of Israel, reaffirmed that support Wednesday night.
He said he can understand why the protesters are distressed because the war is “an upsetting issue” with the death tolls, but that they are only being “fed messages with one side of the story in very manipulative ways.”
LiPetri expressed his support for Suozzi after the attacks.
“Tom and I may be on opposite sides of the aisle, but that type of conduct was ridiculous and I’m sorry that you had to endure that,” LiPetri said. “To be quite frank, that’s exactly the type of extremism. This is why we need a fresh start. This is why you can’t have that where people are trying to silence, no matter which side it is, the fact that you’re trying to silence one side is disgraceful. And we don’t tolerate that – not in the civic association, not on this island, not in this state, not in this country.”
Cutrone said the protesters had submitted questions to be asked but that they were struck because their behavior violated the forum rules. He apologized to the attendees for the disturbances.
“We’re not going to solve what’s taking place in the Middle East,” Cutrone said. “So to scream, accuse things using language that I don’t use in my own home – it’s unacceptable and we’re wasting their time.”
A truck was parked in front the of the Manhasset-Lakeville firehouse hosting the debate, which featured a picture of Suozzi with his eyes colored in red and the statement “Tom Suozzi is a genocide enabler.”
