Palestinian American, Arab American and Muslim leaders refused to meet White House officials in Chicago on Thursday over the White House’s handling of the Gaza war.
“There is no point in more meetings. The White House already knows the position of the aforementioned groups and our allies across the nation,” said a letter with nearly 50 signatories that was published Thursday on the Council on American-Islamic Relations’ website.
“They know because we have made it abundantly clear, including in prior meetings with the White House, but also in press statements, letters to our elected leaders, media interviews, and enormous street action within earshot of the Oval Office,” it said.
Senior members of the White House, including Tom Perez, the White House’s director of intergovernmental affairs; Steve Benjamin, White House director of public engagement; Mazen Basrawi, White House liaison to American Muslim communities; Curtis Ried, the National Security Council chief of staff; and aides Dan Koh and Jamie Citron were set to meet with several members of the Palestinian American and Muslim communities. The majority of those who were invited from those communities declined to attend the Chicago meeting.
The rejection comes after a string of refusals across the country from Arab and Muslim groups over longstanding frustrations over the war in Gaza that has killed more than 30,000 Palestinians since the Oct. 7 Hamas attack that left roughly 1,200 Israelis dead and about 240 people taken hostage. Several members of the Palestinian American community refused to meet with Secretary of State Antony Blinken last month in Washington to discuss the humanitarian situation in Gaza. In Michigan, Arab and Muslim community leaders canceled a listening session in February with President Joe Biden’s campaign manager, Julie Chavez Rodriguez.
“We believe another meeting would only act to whitewash months of White House inaction followed by meek handouts. We are interested in serious action,” the letter said.
Palestinian American and Muslim groups that did meet with the White House called those meetings tense and unproductive. In one of those meetings, Biden aides expressed regret for not acknowledging Palestinian lives earlier on in the crisis.
Illinois is home to the largest Palestinian American community in the country, and for many in the community, the war has struck close to home. A few weeks after the fighting broke out, a 6-year-old Palestinian American boy in Plainfield, Illinois, was stabbed to death and his mother was critically injured in what has been classified as a hate crime, sending fear through the community at large. Last month, Israeli forces raided a home in Gaza and detained two young men who were born and raised in the Chicago area. The U.S. State Department has yet to provide updates on their case.
Palestinian and Muslim groups said the White House has not done enough to advocate for Gazan lives.
“That is what history will judge us by, not more token meetings when every day is of the essence,” the letter said.