Biden forced to take detour as mob lays siege to gala dinner
PRO-PALESTINE protesters besieged a White House media gala, amid fears the disorder sweeping US campuses is spreading to Britain.
Attendees had to push past hundreds of activists screaming ‘shame on you’ to get into the annual correspondents’ dinner on Saturday evening.
They were seen cheering when someone inside the Washington Hilton, which hosted the meal, unfurled a Palestinian flag from a top-floor window.
President Biden’s motorcade was even forced to switch route to avoid the demonstrators, while the Secret Service had to shut down streets around the venue in the US capital.
While Mr Biden did not allude to the demos inside the glitzy annual White House Correspondents’ Association banquet, the protests across the Atlantic are getting to fever pitch.
Criticism of his administration’s support for Israel’s sixmonth-old military offensive in Gaza has spread through American college campuses.
Students have pitched encampments to try to force universities to sever ties with Israeli businesses and academics or commit to helping rebuild Gaza. In scenes reminiscent of the antiVietnam war protests in the late 1960s, fierce clashes between police and protesters broke out in Yale, Princeton and Texas.
Now there are fears the unrest is spreading to Britain, after Sir Jacob Rees-Mogg was chased off campus by pro-Palestine fanatics on Friday.
Protesters tried to fight past security to get at the Tory MP as he was rushed out of Cardiff University into a waiting car.
They waved the flags of Palestine and the Revolutionary Communist Party while shouting ‘ Tory c***’ and ‘shame on you’ in ugly scenes following his talk at the conservative association.
A spokesman for Cardiff University said it would ‘investigate and take appropriate action against any student’ found to have mistreated Sir Jacob.
Sir Jacob remained calm and said afterwards that it was a ‘legitimate and peaceful if noisy protest’. But there are fears activism is getting out of control.
Tents have been erected to occupy the University of Warwick with students dressed in black like those in America.
In Edinburgh, students joined a protest outside the Scottish Parliament demanding an embargo on all arms sales to Israel and the recognition of the ‘genocide of Palestinians’.
There have also been rallies at University College London with more than 100 protesters swarming the courtyard of the main campus in the centre of the capital.
‘Motorcade had to change route’