South MS congressman accused of assaulting Palestinian protester. What his accuser says

Several members of the anti-war group CODEPINK buzzed around U.S. Rep. Mike Ezell on Tuesday morning, peppering him with questions.

Sumer Mobarak asked Ezell, her videotape shows, “Do you want the killing of my people, my Palestinian people, to continue?”” Mobarak, a South Carolina native of Palestinian descent, said she never expected what came next.

Before she even got the last word out of her mouth, videotape shows Ezell turning to strike and angrily saying, “Why don’t you shut up! Knock it off!”

The former sheriff of Jackson County hit her hand, knocking to the ground the cell phone she was using to videotape, Mobarak told the Sun Herald on Wednesday morning. She has filed a report with the Capitol Police, accusing him of assault . Mobarak said criminal investigators took the video, along with statements from her and two witnesses.

“He smacked my hand hard enough to knock my phone out of my hand and break the phone,” Mobarak told the Sun Herald on Wednesday morning. She said the phone case is cracked and the phone appears to be damaged, although the camera still works.

“No man should hit a woman, period,” Mobarak said.

In an email response to the Sun Herald’s questions on Wednesday, the Capitol Police would only say, “We are looking into the matter.”

Protest ers identify Rep. Ezell

Mobarak, who has been walking the halls of Congress for months with other CODEPINK members, is desperate to see the war end between Israel and Hamas, which is why she got involved with the nonprofit group. She’s devastated by the carnage.

Mobarak is the mother of three, a former business owner, and a microbiologist and former teacher who lives in Manasass, Virginia. Both she and her husband have relatives in Palestinian territories.

She joined CODEPINK after the Oct. 7 attack on Israel and has since devoted herself full-time to seeing the war end.

Mobarak said that she’s encountered overt racism and hostility from congressmen, many of whom ignore her, she said, because of her brown skin and hijab. They will often respond to her white counterparts, she said.

She had never met Ezell but was at the Rayborn House Office Building early Tuesday to catch members outside hearing rooms and offices. “Bird-dogging” members of Congress, they call it, as a way to keep up the pressure.

Mobarak was with CODEPINK co-founder Medea Benjamin and a third member when they saw Ezell and began questioning him. As usual, Mobarak was videotaping with her phone. Benjamin fell in line beside Ezell, who was on his way to a hearing while they questioned him.

After he knocked the cell phone from her hand, Mobarak said the women followed Ezell into the hearing room so they could get his name from his placard.

She said that Ezell entered through a back door, saw the women and realized why they were there. She said that he smugly pointed at his placard as if to say: Here’s my name. Nothing’s going to happen. Do what you wish.

No comment on assault allegation from U.S. rep’s office

Ezell’s office said in a statement published by the Associated Press that protesters want to “harass and intimidate members of Congress into ending our support for Israel and our opposition to Hamas terrorists.”

His office on Wednesday declined to specifically address Mobarak’s assault allegation. Her video was widely circulated online.

His demeanor angered Mobarak, who then called out in the hearing room, where members of the media and House were waiting for a hearing to start, “You are a disgusting racist. How shameful of you that you even work in this administration and you put your hands on a person. Shame on you! Shame on you!

“You are the violent one. Not the people that are protesting peacefully. You are the violent one.”

Nobody said a word in response, Mobarak said.

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