华盛顿-一;一个选举周六，在一年一度的白宫记者晚宴上，记者、名人和政界人士对美国总统乔·拜登(Joe Biden)进行了为期一年的拷问。在这场晚宴上，公众对以色列-哈马斯战争的分歧越来越大。会外的抗议活动谴责了拜登对冲突的处理以及西方新闻媒体对冲突的报道。
在前几年，拜登和他的大多数前任一样，利用一年一度的白宫记者协会盛会来刺激媒体对他的政府的报道，并抨击政治对手，特别是共和党对手唐纳德·特朗普。
数百名抗议者在活动场外集会反对加沙战争，人们对加沙的冲突和人道主义危机以及报道冲突的记者面临的危险感到担忧，战争笼罩着今年的活动。
“不要脸!”抗议者披着传统的巴勒斯坦头巾大喊，追赶着穿着燕尾服和西装的男人，以及拿着手包的长裙女人，客人们匆忙走进餐厅用餐。
Chants指责美国记者对战争报道不足，歪曲事实。“西方媒体看到了你，以及你隐藏的所有恐怖，”人群一度高呼。
其他抗议者趴在人行道上一动不动，旁边是印有“press”标志的防弹衣模型。
集会者高呼“自由，自由的巴勒斯坦。”当华盛顿希尔顿酒店(几十年来一直在这里举办晚宴)内有人从酒店顶层窗户上展开一面巴勒斯坦国旗时，他们欢呼起来。
对拜登政府支持以色列在加沙持续六个月的军事进攻的批评已经传遍美国大学校园，学生们扎营试图迫使他们的大学从以色列撤资。反对者支持以色列的进攻并抱怨反犹太主义。
拜登的车队周六从白宫到华盛顿希尔顿酒店的路线与往年不同，基本上避开了示威人群。
预计将有近3000人观看拜登的演讲，来自《周六夜现场》的艺人科林·乔斯特紧随其后
记者协会主席凯利·安东内尔在开幕式上提醒观众记者所做的重要工作，但指出晚宴是在“我们国家的复杂时刻”和决定性的选举年举行的。
预计当晚的讲话还将引起人们对世界各地许多因工作而被拘留或受到迫害的记者的关注，其中包括《华尔街日报》记者埃文·格什科维奇(Evan Gershkovich)，他自2023年3月以来一直被监禁在俄罗斯。
包括特勤局在内的执法部门已经实施了额外的街道封锁和其他措施，以确保特勤局发言人安东尼·古列尔米所说的“与会者的最高安全和安保水平”。
古列尔米说，该机构正与华盛顿警方合作，保护示威者的集会权利。然而，“我们将对任何暴力或破坏性行为保持不容忍。”
抗议组织者表示，他们希望引起人们对自10月战争开始以来大量巴勒斯坦和其他阿拉伯记者被以色列军方杀害的关注。
二十多名加沙记者上周写了一封信，呼吁他们在华盛顿的同事一起抵制晚宴。
“仅仅是履行我们的新闻职责就要付出的代价是惊人的，”信中写道。“我们遭受以色列军方的拘留、审讯和酷刑，都是因为新闻诚信的‘罪行’。”
一名组织者抱怨说，白宫记者协会——代表报道总统的数百名记者——自战争的头几周以来对巴勒斯坦记者被杀一事基本上保持沉默。WHCA没有回应置评请求。
根据保护记者委员会周五公布的初步调查，近100名记者在报道加沙战争时遇害。以色列为自己的行动进行了辩护，称其目标是激进分子。
“自以色列-加沙战争开始以来，记者们为捍卫我们了解真相的权利付出了最高的代价——他们的生命。CPJ项目负责人卡洛斯·马丁内斯·德拉塞纳在一份声明中说:“每次有记者死亡或受伤，我们就失去了真相的一部分。”
总部位于美国的巴勒斯坦倡导组织阿达拉正义项目(Adalah Justice Project)执行主任桑德拉·塔马里(Sandra Tamari)表示，“在拜登总统让以色列破坏加沙巴勒斯坦人并让他们挨饿的时候，媒体与拜登总统一起吃饭大笑是可耻的。”
此外，公正项目启动了一项电子邮件运动，目标是包括美联社在内的各新闻媒体的12名媒体高管，他们预计将参加晚宴，此前曾在一封呼吁保护加沙记者的信中签名。
“当你在加沙的同事要求你不要去的时候，你怎么还能去呢?”一名示威者问进来的客人。“你是同谋。”
Biden will give election-year roast at annual correspondents' dinner amid protests
WASHINGTON --Anelection-year roast of President Joe Biden before journalists, celebrities and politicians at the annual White House correspondents' dinner Saturday butted up against growing public discord over the Israel-Hamas war, with protests outside the event condemning both Biden's handling of the conflict and the Western news' media coverage of it.
In previous years, Biden, like most of his predecessors, has used the glitzy annual White House Correspondents' Association gala to needle media coverage of his administration and jab at political rivals, notably Republican rival Donald Trump.
With hundreds of protesters rallying against the war in Gaza outside the event and concerns over the conflict and humanitarian crisis in Gaza and the perils for journalists covering the conflict, the war hung over this year's event.
“Shame on you!” protesters draped in the traditional Palestinian keffiyeh cloth shouted, running after men in tuxedos and suits and women in long dresses who were holding clutch purses as guests hurried inside for the dinner.
Chants accused U.S. journalists of undercovering the war and misrepresenting it. “Western media we see you, and all the horrors that you hide,” crowds chanted at one point.
Other protesters lay sprawled motionless on the pavement, next to mock-ups of flak vests with “press” insignia.
Ralliers cried “Free, free Palestine." They cheered when at one point someone inside the Washington Hilton — where the dinner has been held for decades — unfurled a Palestinian flag from a top-floor hotel window.
Criticism of the Biden administration's support for Israel's six-month-old military offensive in Gaza has spread through American college campuses, with students pitching encampments in an effort to force their universities to divest from Israel. Counterprotests back Israel's offensive and complain of antisemitism.
Biden’s motorcade Saturday took an alternate route from the White House to the Washington Hilton than in previous years, largely avoiding the crowds of demonstrators.
Biden’s speech before an expected crowd of nearly 3,000 people was being followed by entertainer Colin Jost from “Saturday Night Live."
Kelly O’Donnell, president of the correspondents’ association, opened the event by reminding the audience of the important work that journalists do but noting that the dinner is happening at “a complex moment for our nation,” and in a decisive election year.
The night's remarks also were expected to cast a spotlight on the many journalists detained and otherwise persecuted around the globe for doing their jobs, including Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich, who has been imprisoned in Russia since March 2023.
Law enforcement, including the Secret Service, have instituted extra street closures and other measures to ensure what Secret Service spokesman Anthony Guglielmi said would be the “highest levels of safety and security for attendees.”
The agency was working with Washington police to protect demonstrators’ right to assemble, Guglielmi said. However, “we will remain intolerant to any violent or destructive behavior.”
Protest organizers said they wanted to bring attention to the high numbers of Palestinian and other Arab journalists killed by Israel's military since the war began in October.
More than two dozen journalists in Gaza wrote a letter last week calling on their colleagues in Washington to boycott the dinner altogether.
“The toll exacted on us for merely fulfilling our journalistic duties is staggering," the letter states. “We are subjected to detentions, interrogations, and torture by the Israeli military, all for the ‘crime’ of journalistic integrity.”
One organizer complained that the White House Correspondents' Association — which represents the hundreds of journalists who cover the president — largely has been silent since the first weeks of the war about the killings of Palestinian journalists. WHCA did not respond to request for comment.
According to a preliminary investigation released Friday by the Committee to Protect Journalists, nearly 100 journalists have been killed covering the war in Gaza. Israel has defended its actions, saying it has been targeting militants.
“Since the Israel-Gaza war began, journalists have been paying the highest price— their lives—to defend our right to the truth. Each time a journalist dies or is injured, we lose a fragment of that truth,” CPJ Program Director Carlos Martínez de la Serna said in a statement.
Sandra Tamari, executive director of Adalah Justice Project, a U.S.-based Palestinian advocacy group that helped organize the letter from journalists in Gaza, said “it is shameful for the media to dine and laugh with President Biden while he enables the Israeli devastation and starvation of Palestinians in Gaza."
In addition, Adalah Justice Project started an email campaign targeting 12 media executives at various news outlets — including The Associated Press — expected to attend the dinner who previously signed onto a letter calling for the protection of journalists in Gaza.
“How can you still go when your colleagues in Gaza asked you not to?" a demonstrator asked guests heading in. "You are complicit.”
