Palestinian journalists call for boycott of White House correspondents dinner
More than two dozen Palestinian journalists have called for a boycott of the upcoming White House Correspondents’ Association dinner, which annually brings reporters, politicians and a glitzy array of celebrities together. With President Joe Biden heading a long list of VIP guests, Palestinian journalists penned an open letter urging their American colleagues not to attend the dinner.
“You have a unique responsibility to speak truth to power and uphold journalistic integrity,” said the letter. “It is unacceptable to stay silent out of fear or professional concern while journalists in Gaza continue to be detained, tortured, and killed for doing our jobs.”
According to the New York-based Committee for the Protection of Journalists (CPJ), at least 97 journalists – including 92 Palestinians – have been killed since October 7. At least 16 others have been wounded.
In addition to the boycott call, an antiwar coalition is planning a demonstration not far from the Washington Hilton hotel where the dinner will take place. The antiwar group Code Pink, part of the coalition, said it planned to “shut down” the dinner to protest “the complicity of the Biden administration in the targeting and killing of Palestinian journalists by the Israeli military”.
Protesters shout, ‘Shame on you’, outside White House correspondents dinner
It’s astonishing. We’ve never seen a White House correspondent’s dinner like this. 
At the Washington Hilton, the president is here to speak while being warmly applauded by the national US press core. But these VIPs are all dressed up in the evening finery, and they have to run the gauntlet of hundreds of protesters out here who are shouting, “Shame on you”.
“Shame on you” for breaking bread when there are 140 journalists dead as a result of, as far as they say, Biden’s complicity in their murder.
At least 92 Palestinian journalists have been killed since October 7, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ)
Protesters say US media outlets have failed to adequately cover Israel’s war on Gaza
‘We’re living this war in all aspects of life’
Al Jazeera’s Hind Khoudary was one of the signatories of the letter calling on US White House journalists to boycott the correspondent’s dinner. She spoke to us from Deir el-Balah in central Gaza. Here is what she said:
I don’t have the words to describe what I have been going through since October 7.
This is not something that has been ending. It has been continuous every single day for more than 200 days. We have been killed, displaced and homeless, and we’re not only reporting on this, but we’re also living it with every single detail.
We’re living this war in all aspects of life. We have not seen our families as journalists. We have not been able to eat well. We have been dehydrated.
We have been reporting in one of the harshest conditions any reporter can go through despite losing a lot of colleagues, and it hurts our souls and our hearts every single day.
We have been constantly targeted by the Israeli air strikes and shelling.
All of these daily things we have been living as journalists are overwhelming [and] exhausting, but we still continue because there have been at least 100 Palestinian journalists whom I personally know that have been killed since October 7.
If they were here today with us, they would be reporting, and they would be raising the voice of the voiceless Palestinians.
