“This is a deliberate attempt to scapegoat and incite hate and retaliatory violence against our organization and views.”

CodePink on Wednesday published a recording of a vicious death threat it received after a GOP congressman’s dubious assault allegation against one of the peace group’s members resulted in her arrest outside the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee.

According to CodePink, Rep. Derrick Van Orden (R-Wis.)—a former Navy SEAL—”falsely accused” Nour Jaghama, the group’s Palestine campaign coordinator, of assault after he ran into her from behind. Jaghama was arrested and held for 15 hours in a Milwaukee jail before being released. She was charged with battery against a sitting member of Congress.

“CodePink unequivocally states that no one from our organization assaulted anyone,” the group said in a statement. “We attended the RNC to deliver a message of peace and disarmament, adhering strictly to nonviolent protest methods.”

CODEPINK’s Palestine Organizer Nour has been wrongfully arrested at the RNC after Rep. Derrick Van Orden shoved past her and accused her of “assault.”

While peacefully waiting in line to enter the event, Nour, a visibly Palestinian woman, was intentionally bumped into by this… pic.twitter.com/ZZ6y0Fkovb

— Medea Benjamin (@medeabenjamin) July 16, 2024

Van Orden took to social media Tuesday evening to claim he was “assaulted by what appeared to be a member of the pro-Hamas group CodePink” in “an incident of political violence.”

“Republicans have been intimidated and targeted for years including the attempted assassination of [former President Donald] Trump and we will no longer stand by and allow lawlessness,” the congressman added.

Van Orden has a history of aggressive behavior toward others, including profanity-laced tirades against a fellow congressman and a group of teenage Senate pages, and threatening a librarian over a book about gay rabbits.

Hours after Van Orden’s post, CodePink received the following message:

The next Palestinian protest in the street, I’m going to get my semi-truck and run over you fucking faggots and make road pancake out of you, you fucking cunt. I hope you all die, bitch.

“Mere days after a high-profile assassination attempt, [Van Orden] used the same words to describe our peace organization that the nation is using to describe the person who attempted to kill Donald Trump,” CodePink said in a statement. “This is a deliberate attempt to scapegoat and incite hate and retaliatory violence against our organization and views. In a heated political moment where people all over the United States are called to unite, Van Orden used the moment to incite hate against nonviolent activists.”

CodePink called Van Orden’s “pro-Hamas” slur “an obvious example of the racial profiling and anti-Palestinian hatred that has been stoked in this country since October 7.”

“Hateful messaging and false accusations against Palestinians led to the killing of Wadea Al Fayoume, a 6-year-old boy in Illinois, the shooting of three Palestinian young men in Vermont, and the attempted drowning of a Palestinian child in Texas,” the group added. “This incident is another incitement of violence against Palestinians. The very same rhetoric that leads our elected officials to disregard Palestinian life in Gaza is the rhetoric they use to disregard Palestinian life at home.”

Common Dream’s work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 License. Feel free to republish and share widely.

  arrest, codepink, RNC