Pro-Palestinian activists in the United States, Washington, gathered outside a hotel hosting the annual White House Correspondents’ Dinner and the gala event to demand an end to Israel’s war in the Gaza Strip.
US President Joe Biden, who attended Saturday’s event in Washington and gave a 10-minute speech, made no mention of the war in the Gaza Strip or the serious humanitarian crisis there, but he devoted much of his speech to mocking his chief rival in this year’s presidential race, Donald Trump.
Protests in the US capital forced Biden’s motorcade to take an alternative route from the White House to the Washington Hilton, where more than 100 protesters, some waving Palestinian flags, shouted “shame on you!” to guests rushing inside. The crowd chanted: “Western media we see you, and all the horrors that you hide,” while some protesters sprawled motionless on the pavement, next to mock-ups of bloodied flak vests with “press” insignia.
One of the few mentions of Gaza came from Kelly O’Donnell, president of the White House Correspondents’ Association (WHCA), who briefly noted that about 100 journalists have been killed in Israel’s war on Gaza.
On the eve of the event, more than two dozen Palestinian journalists published a letter urging their colleagues to boycott the gala, accusing the Biden administration of complicity in Israel’s systematic killing of media workers in the Gaza Strip.
The toll exacted on us for merely fulfilling our journalistic duties is staggering. (…) We are subjected to detentions, interrogations, and torture by the Israeli military, all for the ‘crime’ of journalistic integrity.
WHCA, which represents hundreds of journalists who cover the president, has come under accusations that it has been largely silent about the killings of Palestinian journalists since the first weeks of the war. WHCA has left the accusation without comment.
Since Israel’s war on the Gaza Strip began last October, the Israeli military has killed 142 media workers and arrested at least 40 Palestinian journalists, according to the government’s media office in the Gaza Strip. Moreover, 2023 was the deadliest year for the profession in a decade: about 75 per cent of those killed worldwide were Palestinians covering the war in the Gaza Strip, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ).
The conflict between Israel and Hamas began on 7 October and has killed over 34,000 Palestinians and wounded 77,000, according to local health authorities. About 80 per cent of the population has fled their homes and moved to other parts of the besieged coastal enclave, which experts say is on the verge of starvation.
