Biden reaches out to Gaza protesters in speech at rights icon's college

AFP | Atlanta, United States

The Daily Tribune – www.newsofbahrain.com

President Joe Biden told students yesterday at the former university of civil rights icon Martin Luther King Jr that he heard their voices over the protests against the war in Gaza that have roiled US campuses.

As one student stood with his back to Biden during the graduation ceremony at Morehouse College in Atlanta, Georgia, the president added that he was working around the clock for an immediate ceasefire and lasting regional peace.

"This is one of the hardest, most complicated problems in the world. There's nothing easy about it," said Biden, who wore a maroon and black gown in the colors of the historically Black university. "I know it angers and frustrates many of you, including my family, but most of all, I know it breaks your heart.

It breaks mine as well." Student protests, which have engulfed a string of US campuses, have caused political troubles for Biden in an election year in which he is set for a rematch with Republican former president Donald Trump.

“I support peaceful, non-violent protest. Your voices should be heard, and I promise you I hear them,” Biden told the ceremony. Biden said he wanted an “immediate ceasefire to stop the fighting, bring the hostages home” as the conflict sparked by Hamas’s October 7 attack on Israel rages.