In a dramatic show of the anger over American support for Israel’s war in Gaza, a farewell news conference by Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken was interrupted by two pro-Palestinian journalists who accused him of enabling “genocide.”
One shouted, “Criminal! Why aren’t you in The Hague?” as security officers carried him from the State Department briefing room.
Another reporter was ejected from the room at the start of a rare appearance there by Mr. Blinken, who had come to summarize his four-year tenure and take final questions from reporters.
At the news conference, Mr. Blinken said that, despite reports of last-minute snags, he was “confident” that the cease-fire deal reached this week by Hamas and Israel would begin to be carried out on Sunday as planned.
Mr. Blinken otherwise covered largely familiar subject matter as he fielded questions largely focused on criticism of the Biden administration’s continued supply of weapons to Israel as Palestinian casualties mounted, with Mr. Blinken noting that Hamas embedded itself among civilians. “Some people say we did too much to restrain Israel,” he said. “Others say we did too much to enable.”
But the news conference was most memorable for the outbursts that punctured Mr. Blinken’s opening remarks, the likes of which, Aaron David Miller, a former longtime diplomat, said on X he had never seen.
The man picked up from his seat and carried away by several security officers was Sam Husseini, who identifies himself online as “an independent journalist and writer who has been piercing through the establishment’s falsifications for 25 years” and is known for his confrontational questions at department briefings.
The other reporter was Max Blumenthal, a prominent left-wing journalist and fierce critic of Israeli policies, who asked Mr. Blinken, “How does it feel to have your legacy be genocide?”
Then, referring to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel, he added, “You waved the white flag before Netanyahu!”
Such invective is by now all too familiar to Mr. Blinken, who most recently was shouted down and called a war criminal by protesters during remarks he gave on Gaza at a Washington think tank this week. In each case Mr. Blinken was largely unfazed, and continued his remarks once calm had returned to the room.