1 Arrest In Demonstration At White House Correspondents Dinner: Report

WASHINGTON, DC — At least one person was arrested in a demonstration Saturday night outside the White House Correspondents' Association Dinner in the nation's capital, reports indicated.

Members of the crowd outside of the Washington Hilton shouted "Shame on you! Shame on you!" as media representatives and others entered the hotel on Connecticut Avenue for the annual event attended by journalists, celebrities, elected officials and others.

Many demonstrators encouraged guests to boycott the dinner as a statement about/opposing the Israeli/Palestinian war in Gaza, according to a reporter at the site.

One protester called President Joe Biden —expected to speak at the black-tie affair— a "genocidal liar."

"Go and talk at your x@ dinner with Genocide Joe, responsible for 30,000 Palestinians killed."

Connecticut Avenue was shut down as the protest grew to over 1,000 people, according to another report from the scene.

A report on social media indicated the Metropolitan Police Department arrested a young man at the protest. Photos show the detained person wearing a backpack and blue jacket sitting on the ground, flanked by MPD officers.

En route to the dinner, Biden's motorcade sped past a group of protesters without incident after his motorcade took an alternate route from the White House to the Washington Hilton than in previous years.

Law enforcement, including the Secret Service, instituted extra street closures and other measures to ensure what Secret Service spokesman Anthony Guglielmi said would be the "highest levels of safety and security for attendees."

The agency was working with Washington police to protect demonstrators’ right to assemble, Guglielmi said. However, "we will remain intolerant to any violent or destructive behavior."

Protest organizers said they wanted to bring attention to the high numbers of Palestinian and other Arab journalists killed by Israel’s military since the war began in October.

More than two dozen journalists in Gaza wrote a letter last week calling on their colleagues in Washington to boycott the dinner altogether.

"The toll exacted on us for merely fulfilling our journalistic duties is staggering," the letter states. "We are subjected to detentions, interrogations, and torture by the Israeli military, all for the ‘crime’ of journalistic integrity."

One organizer complained that the White House Correspondents’ Association — which represents the hundreds of journalists who cover the president — largely has been silent since the first weeks of the war about the killings of Palestinian journalists. WHCA did not respond to a request for comment.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.