In New York City, U.S. President Joe Biden appeared with former presidents Barack Obama and Bill Clinton at a massive campaign fundraiser at Radio City Music Hall Thursday. The star-studded event featured musical performances, and the conversation with the three presidents was moderated by “The Late Show” host Stephen Colbert.
Outside the venue, thousands of activists gathered to protest U.S. support for Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza. One of the organizers of the protest, Lamees Mohamed, told reporters: “It’s an issue of them funding and facilitating this genocide that’s carried out by Israel. They are supporting the death of over 40,000 people. And this is not the first time they’ve supported death and war. And people are sick of that. People are going hungry in this city. People don’t have a place to sleep. And all the while, we’re sending billions of dollars to Israel to kill Palestinians and to steal their land.”
Inside the event, activists repeatedly disrupted Biden’s conversation, shouting “Stop Arming Israel!”, “Let Gaza Live!” and “Shame on you!”
The event disruption was organized by a coalition including Adalah Justice Project, Palestinian Youth Movement, Jewish Voice for Peace and Sunrise Movement.
A new Gallup poll found that 55% of Americans disapprove of Israel’s military actions in Gaza, up 10 percentage points from November.
