Palestinian-American doctor walks out of White House meeting with Joe Biden and Kamala Harris in protest after giving president letter from orphaned girl in Gaza begging him to stop invasion of Rafah

A Palestinian-American doctor used the occasion of a White House meeting with President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris on Tuesday to protest the ongoing Israeli war in Gaza by walking out. 

Dr. Thaer Ahmad, an emergency physician from Chicago, attended a meeting with Biden and Harris which was initially planned to be an Iftar dinner to break the Ramadan fast but was changed to a meeting because attendees were uncomfortable celebrating with the president.

Ahmad detailed the meeting in an interview with CNN’s Kaitlan Collins on Tuesday evening.  

‘We were insisting that there be no food there. It made no sense for us to sort of break bread while talking about a famine taking place,’ he said.

After arriving at the meeting, Ahmad said he told Biden he needed to leave and said he was disappointed he was the only Palestinian in the room.

‘I am from a community that is reeling, we are grieving and our heart is broken from what’s been taking place from the last six month,’ he said.

Ahmad said the rhetoric coming from the White House was frustrating to listen to as the Palestinians were suffering as a result of the war.

His goal, he said, was to get Biden to understand what it was like to hear someone and have them walk away without hearing their response.

U.S. President Joe Biden continues to call for Israel to reduce the deaths of innocent civilians in Gaza while arming Israel 

Vice President Kamala Harris has called for a ceasefire in Gaza, but her demands have come up empty 

‘He actually said he understood,’ Ahmad said.

He gave the president a letter from an eight-year-old orphaned girl living in Rafah, begging Biden to stop Israel from invading Rafah.

‘I let him know out of respect for my community, I’m going to leave,’ he said he told the president, adding that his community was ‘reeling’ and ‘grieving’ as a result of the war. 

He expressed anger with the Biden administration for sending more bombs, more bullets, and more fighter jets to Israel to help them continue the war. 

‘It’s devastating and I’m so frustrated and angry to hear something like that, to hear about a fighter jet sale,’ he said.

Ahmad recalled a visit to Gaza in January where he could hear the fighter jets and the whistling of bombs being launched in the area, where he was afraid that the hospital he was in would come crashing down.

‘I mean, it’s totally unacceptable to be thinking that we’re going to continue to arm this,’ he said.