In Washington, thousands of pro-Palestinian protesters rallied around the White House on Saturday, calling on President Biden to halt all military aid to Israel and demanding an immediate ceasefire in Israel’s war on Gaza.
Protesters, most of them wearing red and carrying Palestinian flags and signs calling Biden a liar, marched through the park section where the White House is located. They spilled onto two six-lane thoroughfares, pushing past tourists whose faces ranged from confusion to anger to intrigue. Police presence was heavy, with the US Park Police using pepper spray on protesters at least once.
Biden was in France rather than the White House, joining French President Emmanuel Macron for a state dinner in Paris on Saturday night, but the dissent in the American capital highlighted the challenges he faces at home as he tries to chart a narrow path that supports Israel’s right to self-defense against Hamas while calling for an early cessation of hostilities.
Pro-Palestinian activists outside the White House sharply criticized the Biden administration’s handling of the war and urged young and non-white voters – a key part of Biden’s base – to reconsider their support for the president ahead of this fall’s election.
“There is no world in which we can confidently vote for Biden,” said Nas Issa, a spokesman for the Palestinian Youth Movement, one of the left-leaning groups that organized Saturday’s protests. If Biden “does not change course and does not hold Netanyahu and the entire Israeli government accountable, in what circumstances would it be acceptable for any person of conscience to vote for him,” she added, referring to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
On Saturday afternoon, some protesters formed a one-mile circle around the White House, holding successive rolls of red paper bearing the names of more than 36,000 Palestinians killed during the war, while others marched along the perimeter, a format intended to remind Israeli forces in Gaza of the red line that if crossed would mean Biden would withhold arms sales to Israel.
But Biden and his administration have said that a recent attack that killed dozens of Palestinians in the Gaza Strip city of Rafah falls short of his red line against Israel. White House spokesman John F. Kirby has said that a “major ground operation,” not air strikes, is needed for the United States to increase pressure on Israel.
“Biden’s Red Line was a lie!” read one picket frequently used by protesters.
Protesters who gathered on Saturday to put political pressure on Biden said their biggest demand was to freeze all arms shipments to Israel until the war ends. The United States has pledged $38 billion in military aid to Israel over the past decade.
“We’re funding it,” said Alexia Samano, a protester who traveled to Washington from Orlando, Fla. “Stop funding it.”
Police said no arrests had been made by late Saturday afternoon, after tens of thousands of protesters had finished marching around the perimeter. But a statue in Lafayette Square, north of the White House, was vandalized and scrawled with handwritten graffiti reading “Liberate Palestine.” Two angel statues were also covered in a sticky red substance thought to represent blood.
Many protesters also chanted slogans that some Jewish groups claim incite violence against Jews, including “There is only one solution: intifada, revolution” and “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free.”
But one protester said the slogans were not a call for violence against Jews, but a broader resistance to the status quo.
“We have nothing against the Jews,” said Adam Cattum, a founding member of Peoria for Palestine, who traveled 12 hours from Peoria, Illinois, to take part in the demonstration.
