An election-year roast of President Joe Biden in front of journalists, celebrities, and politicians at the annual White House Correspondents’ Dinner on Saturday clashed with growing public discord over Israel’s war on Gaza, with protests outside the event condemning both Biden’s handling of the conflict and Western media coverage of it.
The war loomed over this year’s event, with hundreds of demonstrators protesting outside to raise concerns about the fighting and humanitarian crisis in Gaza and the dangers faced by journalists covering the battle.
Chants criticised American journalists for covering and misrepresenting the war. “Western media, we see you and all the horrors you hide,” the crowd chanted at one point.
Other demonstrators lay motionless on the pavement, close to mock-ups of flak jackets bearing the word “press”.
Demonstrators shouted “Free, free Palestine”. They cheered when someone inside the Washington Hilton, which has hosted the dinner for decades, unfurled a Palestinian flag from a top-floor hotel window.
With President Biden leading a long list of VIP guests, more than two dozen Palestinian journalists signed an open letter this week urging their American colleagues to boycott the dinner.
The New York-based Committee for the Protection of Journalists (CPJ) reports that at least 97 journalists, including 92 Palestinians, have been killed since 7 October. At least 16 have been wounded.
In addition to the boycott, an anti-war alliance is planning a demonstration near the Washington Hilton Hotel where the dinner will be held. For months, Biden’s every move has been followed by protesters outraged by US support for Israel’s war in Gaza.
He has been greeted with chants of ‘Genocide Joe’ and loud calls for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza.
Biden’s motorcade on Saturday took a different route from the White House to the Washington Hilton than in previous years, virtually avoiding the protests.
