'F*** Joe Biden' Chants Outside President's New York Fundraiser

Pro-Palestinian protesters chanted "f*** Joe Biden" outside a star-studded fundraiser headlined by the president and former Presidents Barack Obama and Bill Clinton in New York City.

Hundreds of people, angry at Biden's response to Israel's war in Gaza, gathered outside Radio City Music Hall in Manhattan on Thursday, according to videos posted on social media. They demanded a ceasefire in Gaza, and many waved Palestinian flags.

The war, triggered by Hamas' October 7 attack on Israel, has killed more than 32,000 people and wounded 74,000, The Associated Press reported, citing Gaza's Health Ministry. Some 1,200 people were killed in Israel and another 250 people abducted when Hamas-led militants stormed into southern Israel on October 7.

Protesters in New York also repeatedly interrupted as The Late Show host Stephen Colbert moderated a conversation with Biden, Obama and Clinton, all seated in armchairs onstage at the iconic venue.

"Shame on you Joe Biden! Shame on you! You are funding genocide in Palestine," one protester yelled, according to a video posted on X, formerly Twitter. "You have blood on your hands!"

Despite the fundraiser hauling in a record-setting $26 million-plus for his reelection campaign, the protests underscored the electoral challenge Biden faces as he campaigns for a second term against former President Donald Trump.

The protests prompted Biden to reiterate calls for stopping the "the effort that is resulting in significant deaths of innocent civilians, particularly children" in Gaza, according to pool reporters in the room.

However, he said that Israel "is in a position where its very existence as at stake."

He also said he was working with Arab counties, including Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Egypt and Qatar, who he said are prepared to "fully recognize Israel for the first time."

"But there has to be a post-Gaza plan, and there has to be a train to a two-state solution," Biden added.

Newsweek has contacted the Biden campaign for comment via email.

Protesters also disrupted Obama as he was speaking, prompting him to respond: "No, no listen. You can't just talk and not listen. That's what the other side does."

Obama went on to say that Biden has the "moral conviction and clarity" to lead during the war.

"But he's also willing to acknowledge that the world is complicated, and that he's willing to listen to all sides in this debate and every other debate and try to see if we can find common ground," he said. "That's the kind of president I want."

Clinton also used the war to explain why Biden should be reelected.

"Because he genuinely cares about preserving the existence of Israel, which Hamas doesn't, Clinton said. "And he genuinely cares about giving the Palestinians a decent state of self-governance and the support they need for self-determination."

Jay Saper, of Jewish Voice for Peace, told Newsweek: "Our disruption of Biden's record breaking fundraiser [on Thursday] forced Gaza to the forefront of the conversation on the stage at Radio City Music Hall.

"While we pressured the president into giving lip service to grieving innocent lives lost, talk is cheap. If President Biden truly cared about the more than 32,000 Palestinians killed in Gaza, he would stop sending Israel the U.S. bombs being used right now to carry out the genocide."

Jewish Voice for Peace, which describes itself as "the largest progressive Jewish anti-Zionist organization in the world," said on X that Palestinian youth, descendants of Holocaust survivors, doctors, and climate activists were among those that disrupted the fundraiser.

"This action calling for a ceasefire in Gaza represents the views of the majority of Americans. It also speaks for the hundreds of thousands of Palestinians, Jews, and people of conscience who refuse to sit by while genocide is carried out with our tax dollars, and in our names," the group said in a post.

"The majority of Americans are demanding an end to Israel's genocidal assault on Palestinians in Gaza. President Biden should listen to his own constituents, rather than the leadership of an Israeli government that is indiscriminately bombing the people of Gaza."

Update 3/29/2024, 6:15 a.m. ET: This article has been updated with additional information.

Update 4/2/2024, 3:20 a.m. ET: This article has been updated with comment from Jay Saper.