Pro-Palestinian demonstrators hung a banner believed to be 2 miles long in front of the White House on Saturday, as part of a protest against the Biden administration’s response to the war in Gaza.
The demonstration, which brought together 75,000 people, surrounded the White House, according to the ANSWER coalition, one of the organizers of the demonstration.
The banner, dubbed the “People’s Red Line”, lists all Palestinians killed since October 1, 2017. 7, and was held by thousands of protesters, some of whom had traveled for 16 hours by bus to reach Washington DC.
Roads around the White House were blocked and saturated with protesters.
The protest took place on the same day that Israel carried out a deadly raid on the Al Nuseirat refugee camp in Gaza and rescued four Israeli hostages, according to Al Jazeera.
Along with the ANSWER Coalition, the Council on American Islamic Relations, the Party for Socialism and Liberation, and the anti-war group Code Pink helped organize the protest.
President Joe Biden previously said his “red line” for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was an invasion of Gaza’s Rafah neighborhood, which was crossed last month. Protesters are demanding that the Biden administration keep this promise and end the war in Gaza.
“Biden’s red line is nowhere to be found,” the ANSWER coalition wrote on its website promoting the protest. “We demand an immediate ceasefire, an immediate end to the siege of Gaza, the freedom of all Palestinian prisoners and an end to the occupation of Palestine.”
Before the demonstration, a wall had been erected in front of the White House by the Secret Service.