House Republicans are demanding that any federal employee who participates in a protest of American support for Israel this week be fired.

A group of federal employees calling itself Feds United for Peace is planning a “Day of Mourning” protest for January 16 in order to “urge the government to support calls for a ceasefire, and support humanitarian aid and access for Gaza,” an Instagram post by the group says. 

According to a report by AL-Monitor, the organizers of the protest expect that hundreds of federal employees across 22 federal agencies, including the defense, state, homeland security, and veterans affairs departments, will participate in the protest. 

One of the organizers told Al-Monitor that the protest “grew out of a collective desire to do what we could to influence the Biden administration’s policy on this issue.”

Now, Speaker Johnson is signaling that he and other top Republicans will be working to get any government employee who participates in the protest fired.

“Any government worker who walks off the job to protest U.S. support for our ally Israel is ignoring their responsibility and abusing the trust of taxpayers,” Mr. Johnson said in a post on X. “They deserve to be fired.”

Mr. Johnson added that “Oversight Chairman Comer and I will be working together to ensure that each federal agency initiates appropriate disciplinary proceedings against any person who walks out on their job.”

In response to Mr. Johnson’s statement, a representative for Feds United for Peace told Al-Monitor, “This is not a strike. This is a day of mourning.”

“The purpose is to provide space for ourselves to mourn and heal. We serve the American people every day and do so with conviction and pride,” the organizers said in a statement. 

The representative added that “sometimes, our leaders take actions counter to our values, and the broader values of the American people. We have a right to freedom of expression too, and our views express only those in our personal capacities.”

Some, such as the National Review’s Dominic Pino, argue that the walkout should qualify as a strike and that the American legal code holds that any federal employee who “participates in a strike, or asserts the right to strike, against the Government of the United States” may not hold a position in the government.

The punishment for participating in a strike as a federal employee could include prison time of up to a year as well as firing.

Cornell Law defines a strike as “an organized and intentional stoppage or slowdown of work by employees, intending to make the employer comply with the demands of the employees.”