Protests began Sunday night and will continue through Monday in Washington, D.C., as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is set to meet with President Donald Trump to discuss Iran and Gaza.
Left-wing feminist antiwar organization Code Pink began demonstrations outside the White House on Sunday. One protester wore a mask of Netanyahu and was dressed in a prison uniform.
Code Pink, American Muslims for Palestine, the Council on American-Islamic Relations, and the U.S. Council of Muslim Organizations held a press conference at Lafayette Square Monday morning.
“We’re so disgusted that this will be the third time since Trump is back in office that Netanyahu is here,” Code Pink co-founder Medea Benjamin said in a statement. “We hope they’re going to announce a ceasefire, but we have no faith in Israel.”
Netanyahu is landing in Washington for the THIRD time since Trump’s return and we’re OUTRAGED.
We’re outside the White House because this man should be in the Hague, not in our Congress.
He’s not here for peace. He’s here to sell genocide as diplomacy.He’s responsible for mass… pic.twitter.com/cCTwY9YTXY
— Medea Benjamin (@medeabenjamin) July 6, 2025
CAIR echoed Benjamin in its demands, putting a ceasefire at the top of the list.
Other demands included “unrestricted access to all of Gaza” for humanitarian efforts, “that the U.S. terminate all funding to the [Gaza Humanitarian Foundation] and open investigations into its role in the massacre of aid-seeking civilians,” and that peace negotiations “be defined by Palestinians, not imposed by any foreign power.”
Israel launched strikes on two of Iran’s oil depots in Tehran last month and its Iranian Defense Ministry Headquarters, among others.
TWO REASONS THE US AND IRAN LOOK SET TO FIGHT AGAIN
These attacks on Iran’s nuclear program came as the United States failed to negotiate a deal with Iran on the matter. U.S. officials had undergone several rounds of discussions with their Iranian counterparts to no avail.
Former Israeli Ambassador to the U.S. Michael Oren told the Washington Examiner that the Monday meeting is “potentially pivotal.” Should Trump be successful in his goal to negotiate a ceasefire between Israel, Iran, and Hamas, with which Israel has been in major conflict for almost two years, it could “be a victory lap [for] two allies who have just won a war,” according to Oren.