WASHINGTON — More than 100 demonstrators gathered near the White House Monday evening to protest Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s meeting with President Donald Trump.
The rally, organized by the Palestinian Youth Movement’s (PYM) local chapter, comes after Netanyahu and Trump announced a plan to end the conflict in Gaza.
PYM chapter organizer Dina Khalil said the group does not support any peace plan without input from Palestinians. Neither the Palestinian Authority nor Hamas participated in the development of Trump and Netanyahu’s latest proposal.
Protesters waved Palestinian flags and donned kaffiyehs, the Palestinian checkered scarf. Their chants included “From the sea to the river, Palestine will live forever” and “Say it loud and say it clear, Bibi is not welcome here.”
“Satan is in town,” Khalil said of Netanyahu, whose visit was his fourth to the nation’s capital since Trump’s second term began.
International Jewish anti-Zionist organization Neturei Karta also attended the protest, leading chants.
Neturei Karta spokesman Rabbi Dovid Feldman says Netanyahu does not represent the Jewish people and called his behavior “a desecration of our religion.”
“We plead with our president to realize that this is not Judaism,” he said.
About a dozen Trump supporters also gathered at the same location. Some, like conservative activist Cam Higby, wore red “Make America Great Again” caps.
They were met with chants of “shame on you” before police separated them from the group. Throughout the rally, they played songs like the national anthem and “Y.M.C.A.”
“These people support terrorists, and I don’t want them on my streets, but unfortunately, they have the right to do what they’re doing,” Higby said. “These people hate America. I love America, so I’m playing ‘God bless the USA.’”
Pro-Palestinian protester Patti Mohr said she had “traveled a little bit” to attend the gathering, but declined to say from where. She carried a handmade sign that read “Arrest War Criminal Netanyahu Now.”
“I’m here as an American who cares about my country,” she said.
Other attendees were local. Wearing a kaffiyeh draped around his neck, Dantes Augustin said he lived “just up the street.”
Like Mohr, Augustin wasn’t part of a particular group. But he said he supported the PYM and has been attending pro-Palestine protests “since day one.”
“We’re taxpayers,” he said. “We don’t want our money to go to bomb children and women.”
