By Monica Alba, Yamiche Alcindor and Elyse Perlmutter-Gumbiner -
NBC News
Within five minutes of meeting the president, Joe Biden, a Palestinian-American doctor who has treated severely injured patients in Gaza couldn't bear to stay, so he left.
Dr. Thaer Ahmad, who specializes in Emergency Medicine, recalled being moved when talking about the many Palestinians he treated, and described the scale of death in the six months since the war began.
“The decision to leave was a personal one,” he told NBC News in a telephone interview, in which he explained that he wanted to show the White House that “
it was important to recognize the pain and mourning
that my community was in.”
Protesters outside the White House during a protest calling for a ceasefire in Gaza on April 2, 2024. Kent Nishimura/Getty Images
Ahmad stressed that he wanted to “let the Administration feel what we have felt these last six months and why we got up and left.”
The doctor was one of six American Muslim community leaders who attended a small meeting with Biden, Vice President Kamala Harris and senior administration officials at the White House on Tuesday.
Many others who had been invited to attend declined, according to multiple sources familiar with the meeting, underscoring growing tensions between the Administration and the Muslim and Arab American communities over the president's support for Israel in its bombing of Gaza. More than 30,000 people have died, according to health authorities, since the terrorist attacks carried out by Hamas in Israel on October 7. The group continues to hold more than 100 hostages captive.
Another of the doctors present seemed surprised when she showed Biden copies of photos of malnourished children and women in Gaza, to which Biden responded that he had seen those images before. The problem, the doctor explained, was that she had printed the photos from her own iPhone.
“This speaks volumes about the administration's lackadaisical nature when it comes to acting decisively to achieve a permanent ceasefire or, at the very least, a red line in the Rafah invasion,” Dr. Nahreen H. Ahmed told NBC News. .
Before leaving the meeting early, Ahmad handed the president a letter from an 8-year-old orphan from Rafah, Gaza's southernmost city.
“There is an incredible urgency around this,” Ahmad declared, expressing deep skepticism that Israel's military campaign can be done “in a sophisticated or tactical manner” that does not endanger innocent civilians.
During the 90-minute meeting, which was held behind closed doors, Biden told attendees that he will not call for a permanent ceasefire between Israel and Hamas until all remaining hostages are freed, according to two people familiar with the president's comments.
The president “listened respectfully,” said a third source informed of the meeting, and pledged to continue working to “significantly increase” humanitarian aid to Gaza.
Throughout the conversation, other doctors who have spent time in Gaza spoke of their ordeals, including the danger they have been in trying to help others, said a Muslim activist who attended the meeting. They also showed Biden and Harris photos of injured patients, including children, the activist explained.
Biden thanked leaders of the Muslim American community for attending the meeting, and acknowledged that many people had expressed concern about attending an event at the White House while so many Palestinians are suffering, these people said.
Salima Suswell, founder and executive director of the Black Muslim Leadership Council, who attended the White House meeting, said she felt that both Biden and Harris listened carefully to attendees and understood their points of view.
“I thought it was important to accept the invitation to meet today [Tuesday] with the president, the vice president and their senior Administration officials, because I have been consistent about the importance of dialogue,” Suswell said. “It was important to me to let the president know that black Americans and
black Muslim Americans are deeply hurt by what is happening in Gaza
.”
Harris also made comments that reiterated Biden's position and appeared designed to soften criticism of Biden's position on the war, such as that he values the United States' relationship with Israel more than with the Palestinians. He said Biden was “sincere” about his concerns, according to an attendee at the meeting. He told the group that he saw how much the war and the number of civilian deaths “weigh” on the president and insisted that he is “doing absolutely everything he can to end this war.”
Biden said, according to one aide, that if Israel tries to block aid from entering Gaza, the United States will apply pressure and advocate for more resources to be brought to the region.
Last Thursday, the UN's highest court ordered Israel to open more land border crossings to allow food, water, fuel and other supplies into Gaza, after it was reported that the Israeli government was preventing supplies from entering Gaza. vital supplies will reach the devastated enclave. Israeli authorities have repeatedly denied obstructing aid from entering Gaza and blame the UN for severe shortages of vital supplies in the strip, especially in the north.
The president
did not specify what the United States would do to ensure that aid can be delivered safely
, the meeting attendee added.
Just this week, an Israeli airstrike killed seven aid workers from the charity World Central Kitchen, adding to the 200 who have already died since the war began in October. The aid group stated that its convoy was hit as it left a warehouse in the Deir al-Balah area of central Gaza, where the team had unloaded more than 100 tons of food that the charity had brought to Gaza for sea that same day.
State in which one of the World Central Kitchen vehicles was hit by Israeli missiles. Associated Press
At the meeting, one of the attendees commented that it seemed that Biden and Harris had been careful not to talk about what is happening behind the scenes to negotiate a possible six-week ceasefire between Israel and Hamas.
After the meeting concluded, leaders of the American Muslim community left and a small group of Muslim employees participated in an iftar dinner with Biden, Harris and other senior officials of the Administration.
[What Latinos think about the war in Gaza and how it influences their vote for Biden: “It may be the reason he loses”]
In previous years, the White House hosted large Ramadan-related receptions, including several Eid celebrations (which marks the end of Ramadan) that were attended by hundreds of guests and included public remarks by the president.
Several Arab and Muslim American leaders have declined invitations in recent weeks, specifically citing their
discomfort with attending a celebration when so many people in Gaza face famine
, two people who received invitations told NBC News.
“President Biden and Vice President Harris know this is a very painful time for many people in the Muslim and Arab communities,” a White House official said. “President Biden made it clear that he regrets the loss of all innocent lives in this conflict.”
Senior White House officials and Biden campaign advisers have attempted to meet with key members of the Muslim and Arab American communities in recent months, but have often received frosty receptions.
“The president and vice president will continue to engage with the Muslim and Arab American communities and listen to the voices of all those affected by this conflict,” the White House official stated.
Ahmad, the doctor who left the meeting, said he
plans to return to Gaza soon
and is “legitimately concerned about the possibility of being killed in the process.”
If that were to happen, he said, “it's hard to think” it could happen because of a “2,000-pound bomb that the United States gave to Israel.”
“
I hate the idea that my government had anything to do with it
,” he said. “Those are the thoughts that go through my head.”