Anti-Israel protesters demonstrated outside of a campaign fundraiser held by President Joe Biden in Los Angeles on Saturday night, calling on the president to “stop funding genocide” and issue a “cease-fire now.”
The fundraiser brought together Hollywood stars such as Julia Roberts, George Clooney, Barbra Streisand, Jimmy Kimmel, and former president Barack Obama. Biden’s star-studded crew helped raise $28 million for the president, “making it the biggest fundraiser in Democratic Party history,” Biden’s campaign said this weekend.
Outside of LA’s Peacock Theatre, where Jack Black gave a special musical performance, police in riot gear worked to quell hundreds of anti-Israel protesters who attempted to block the venue’s entrance.
Jewish Voice for Peace gathered hundreds of individuals to demand that the U.S. government stop supplying its ally with military aid. Biden must “impose an arms embargo on U.S. weapons sales to Israel immediately and end the ongoing genocide against Palestinians,” protesters wrote on social media.
“We are using our bodies to stand resolute in our demand for a free Palestine. Biden and his donors must adhere to our red line. Let Gaza live,” activists said on Instagram. “We will not stop, we will not rest, until Palestine is free — from the river to the sea.”
Members of the mob, many of whom were masked, carried signs that read, “Never again for anyone,” “Your constituents are calling for ceasefire,” and, “Zionism is ethnic cleansing.”
Clooney, an attendee, reportedly had his own spat with the White House last week. The actor allegedly contacted a Biden official to complain about the president’s criticism of the International Criminal Court‘s decision to issue arrest warrants to Hamas officials and Israeli officials, a decision that Clooney’s lawyer wife, Amal, had advised. In a Democratic fundraising email, Clooney said that “Joe and Kamala’s message of hope and belief in a better future for all is one that I believe in.”
“Nothing says to struggling Americans, ‘I understand what you’re going through and am ready to help,’ like spending a night schmoozing with the ultra-relatable George Clooney, Julia Roberts and other Hollywood celebrities,” chairwoman of the California Republican Party, Jessica Millan Patterson, said in a statement. “What you likely will see at President Biden’s glitzy L.A. bash: anti-Israel protests dividing their party, excuses for why issues like inflation and illegal immigration aren’t as bad as Californians know they are, and a bevy of out-of-touch Hollywood elites who are fearful that their standard bearer isn’t up to the job.”
Although the event broke records for Democrats, former president Donald Trump had raised a whopping $50.5 million at an April fundraiser. Trump’s campaign and the Republican National Committee announced that they raked in $141 million in May following Trump’s guilty verdict in his New York hush-money trial.