Pro-Palestinian protester arrested at Democratic Party gala at Disney World

ORLANDO, Fla. — A prominent Palestinian American activist from Orlando was forcibly removed and charged with trespassing after loudly protesting a Florida Democratic Party event Saturday night at Disney’s Contemporary Resort.

According to a video, parts of which were posted on Instagram, Rasha Mubarak, founder of Florida Palestine Network, stood during the Leadership Blue Gala keynote address by U.S. Sen. John Fetterman, D-Pa., and yelled, “Fetterman, you don’t care about people,” “Your legacy is genocide,” “Free Palestine,” and “Shame on you, shame on FDP.”

Fetterman, an outspoken supporter of Israel’s military actions in Gaza and critic of pro-Palestian protesters in the U.S., waved a campaign sign for President Joe Biden in response as eventgoers countered with a “Four More Years” chant during Mubarak’s protest, which lasted for about three minutes.

The state party “has refused to listen to Florida residents and has refused to listen to Palestinian voices,” Mubarak told the Orlando Sentinel in an interview Monday.

She said Fetterman as keynote speaker was “not only a spit in the face, but it continues to endorse the murder of 34,000 Palestinian people in the last seven months. … You cannot genuinely talk about gun violence, you cannot genuinely talk about reproductive rights, when we continue to arm Israel.”

Mubarak’s arrest took place as at least 2,000 pro-Palestinian protesters on college campuses have been detained by police over the past few weeks.

A report by Orange County Sheriff’s Deputy Sheldon Moore, working off-duty at the gathering, stated that event staff asked Disney security manager Jason Simpson to remove Mubarak.

“Jason stated that as a lawful representative of Disney, he wanted to press charges and testify in court,” Moore wrote.

“I was inside the ballroom when the incident occurred, and I observed Rasha screaming and ignoring the Disney employees’ requests to leave,” he wrote. “I observed Lieutenant R. Santti making contact with Rasha and informing her she was barred from the property. Rasha continued to yell ‘Free Palestine!’”

Moore wrote that he took Mubarak outside of the ballroom, where she was handcuffed, charged with trespassing on property after a warning and taken to the Orange County jail.

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