Protester interrupts Netanyahu speech to Congress

A protester screaming "equal rights for Palestinians!" interrupted Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu address to Congress Tuesday before being taken out of the House gallery by Capitol Police.

Some members of Congress - who offered Netanyahu what appeared to be a number of unified standing ovations throughout his speech - booed the protester.

Netanyahu responded to the protester by saying that "I take it as a badge of honor, and so should you, that in our free societies you can have protests."

"You can't have these protests in the farcical parliaments in Tehran or in Tripoli," he continued. "This is real democracy."

"So as we share the hopes of these young people throughout the Middle East and Iran that they'll be able to do what that young woman just did - I think she's young; I couldn't see quite that far - we must also remember that those hopes could be snuffed out, as they were in Tehran in 1979," Netanyahu added.

Netanyahu was before Congress to lay out Israel's position on peace with the Palestinians and discuss militant Islam, the prospect of a nuclear Iran and Israel's role in the Middle East.

Netanyahu was also interrupted by protesters during a speech to right-leaning pro-Israel lobby AIPAC on Monday evening, though they were often drowned out by his backers, who chanted his nickname "Bibi" and gave him a standing ovation.

His speech to Congress follows a dustup between President Obama and Netanyahu last week over the president's comment that peace between Israel and a Palestinian state would be based on pre-1967 war borders, with land swaps.