(Washington) Call for boycott and demonstration: politicians and journalists participating on Saturday in the annual White House correspondents’ dinner, including President Joe Biden, will be questioned about the fate of the Palestinians in Gaza.
“You have a special responsibility to speak the truth to the powerful and uphold journalistic integrity. It is unacceptable to remain silent, out of fear or for career reasons, when journalists in Gaza continue to be detained, tortured, and killed for doing their job,” several Palestinian journalists wrote in an open letter, are calling for a boycott of this popular event.
According to the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), an association based in New York, at least 97 journalists have been killed since the start of the war on October 7 between Israel and Hamas, 92 of whom are Palestinians. At least 16 others were injured.
An event is planned near the Hilton Hotel in Washington where guests will gather for the dinner, the highlight of an entire weekend of social receptions.
One of the groups organizing the demonstration, Code Pink, said it wanted to “stop” the dinner to protest “the Biden government’s complicity in the targeting and killing of Palestinian journalists by the Israeli army,” specifying that this action would be “non-violent”.
Early Saturday afternoon, metal barriers were installed in the streets leading to the hotel and police vehicles were parked but no demonstrators were in sight, according to an AFP journalist.
For months now, every time the American president travels, demonstrators gather to protest against the support for Israel of the man they call “Joe the genocidal”, and to demand an end to hostilities in Gaza.
The gala dinner is being held as the protest movement against the war in Gaza becomes widespread on American campuses, with hundreds of arrests and the deployment of riot police.
Joe Biden will comply with the tradition – interrupted during the mandate of his predecessor Donald Trump – which wants the American president to listen, with a smile, to a comedian tearing him down in order.
This year, Colin Jost, from the show “Saturday Night Live”, will be in charge, in front of an audience in tuxedos and long dresses. His wife Scarlett Johansson was to be present.
The president, as is customary, will also deliver a speech peppered with more or less successful jokes, alternating between self-deprecation and political banderillas. The 81-year-old Democrat should not hesitate to attack his Republican rival in the November presidential election, Donald Trump.
The dinner is hosted by the White House Correspondents Association. It also gives rise to an awards ceremony and the distribution of scholarships to journalism students.
Last year, 2,600 guests attended the event.