| Post from the Fox News liveblog: |
State Department Spokesperson Matthew Miller said Thursday that "something is seriously wrong" with the way anti-Israel protests are unfolding in the nation's capital.
"Something is seriously wrong when you see people marching through the streets of Washington carrying Hamas banners, literal, literal Hamas banners, carrying the Hamas flag down the streets of Washington, D.C. When you see people spray painting on fountains in Washington that Hamas is coming, when you see them displaying signs calling for the death of Jews, when you see them burning American flags, it's despicable," Miller said.
"It's hateful. It runs contrary to the values of this country, I think especially when you consider what that flag that we saw being burned yesterday stands for," he continued. "And one of the things that stands for is the right to protest, the right to make your views known, make them known peacefully."
"I would say to anyone that is burning an American flag while spray painting pro-Hamas graffiti in Washington to stop and think for a moment about what would happen if they were protesting Hamas's rule in Gaza," Miller added.
"And it's not a question that you have to look very hard for an answer, because we know, because we've seen in the past when people have protested Hamas' rule in Gaza, we've seen how Hamas has responded. They responded with brutal crackdowns, with arrests, with violent repression. Fortunately, that is not who we are in this country," he concluded. 
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