Nearly 100 Democrats — many boycotting PM — meet with hostage families at Capitol

WASHINGTON  — Roughly 100 Democratic lawmakers, most of whom plan to boycott Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s joint address to Congress later today, are currently holding an event in the basement of the Capitol with three relatives of the hostages being held in Gaza.

“These are Israelis who came here, not to interfere in American presidential politics or to go visit Mar-a-Lago or anything like that. They are here to get the hostages home, and that’s why we’re all here,” Rep. Jamie Raskin says of the captives’ families in a slight at Netanyahu, who will be meeting with Trump in Florida on Friday.

Efrat Machikawa, whose uncle Gadi Mozes is being held by Hamas, tells the lawmakers: “Citizens should not have to actively engage in being the voice of their beloved ones who are held underground term in underground tunnels.”

“This should have been the first priority of our representatives in the Israeli government and our prime minister. The fact we have today here means something is terribly wrong,” she says as lawmakers nod along.

Former House Speaker Rep. Nancy Pelosi reads from an Israeli poem from which she has long taken inspiration during the meeting.

“I have no other country. Although my land is burning, my veins, my soul with an aching body and with a hungry heart, here is my home,” Pelosi says as she reads from Ehud Manor’s “I Have No Other Land.”

“I will not be silent. For my country has changed her face. I will not give up on her, I shall remind her and sing into her ears, until she opens her eyes,” she says, folding up the paper with the poem on it.

“Let’s hope that Netanyahu opens his eyes,” Pelosi says, thanking the hostages for their courage.