President Joe Biden is scheduled to deliver an election-year address to a crowd of journalists, celebrities and politicians on Saturday night, against the backdrop of growing protests over his handling of the Israel-Hamas war. .
Biden, like many of his predecessors, has used the annual White House Correspondents' Association dinner to drum up media coverage of his administration and attack his political opponents, particularly his Republican rival Donald Trump. Ta.
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But as protesters have vowed to gather outside the dinner venue, any effort by Biden to downplay Washington's weaknesses and the pitfalls of his presidential campaign, including the war and humanitarian crisis in Gaza, and This will have to be balanced against concerns about the dangers of journalists covering the Gaza Strip. Conflict.
Criticism of the Biden administration's support for Israel's six-month military offensive in the Gaza Strip has spread to American university campuses, where students set up encampments to force universities to withdraw from Israel. Counter-protesters support Israeli attacks and call out anti-Semitism.
Biden's speech to an expected crowd of nearly 3,000 people at a Washington hotel will be followed by an appearance by Saturday Night Live entertainer Colin Jost, who will speak not only to the president but also to his opponents. I'm sure he'll say something.
We also spotlight the many journalists who have been detained or persecuted around the world for doing their jobs, including Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich, who has been imprisoned in Russia since March 2023. The light will hit it.
But many of the protests outside the lavish annual dinner in the run-up to the event were directed not at Biden but at Western news outlets.
Chants accused American journalists of covertly covering the war and misrepresenting the facts. shame on you! Protesters wearing traditional Palestinian keffiyeh scarves shouted as they chased men in suits and women in long dresses carrying clutches as guests and other protesters rushed to the venue. chased.
Other protesters lay sprawled motionless on the sidewalk next to a mock-up of a bulletproof vest with the insignia of a news organization.
Free, Free Palestine, other protesters marched toward the scene, shouting.
Before the president arrived at the Washington Hilton, where the event has been held for decades, Mr. Biden The convoy was expected to pass hundreds of people who had gathered along or near the roadside since the war began in October.
Law enforcement agencies, including the Secret Service, have put in place additional road closures and other measures to ensure what Secret Service spokesman Anthony Guglielmi called “the highest level of safety and security for participants.”
Guglielmi said authorities were working with Washington police to protect the demonstrators' right to assembly. However, we remain intolerant of any violent or destructive behavior.
More than 20 journalists in Gaza wrote a letter last week asking their colleagues in Washington to boycott the dinner entirely.
“The sacrifices made on us simply by fulfilling our journalistic duties are staggering,” the letter said. We are subjected to detention, interrogation, and torture by Israeli forces, all of which are crimes against our journalistic integrity.
One organizer complained that the White House Correspondents Association, which represents hundreds of journalists who primarily cover the president, has remained silent about the killings of Palestinian journalists since the first weeks of the war. . WHCA did not respond to requests for comment.
About 100 journalists covering the war in Gaza were killed, according to a preliminary investigation released Friday by the Committee to Protect Journalists. Israel has defended its actions, saying it was targeting extremists.
Since the beginning of the Israel-Gaza war, journalists have paid the highest price with their lives to protect the right to the truth. Every time a journalist is killed or injured, we lose a piece of that truth, CPJ program director Carlos Marnez de la Serna said in a statement.
Sandra Tamari, executive director of the Adalah Justice Project, a U.S.-based Palestinian advocacy group that helped compile the letter from journalists in Gaza, said President Biden is enabling devastation and famine in Israel, while He said it was shameful for the media to eat and laugh with President Biden. Palestinians in Gaza. ”
In addition, the Adalah Justice Project launched an email campaign targeting 12 media executives from various news organizations, including The Associated Press, who were scheduled to attend the dinner and who had signed a letter calling for protection for journalists in Gaza. It started.
