FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contacts:
Ariel Gold, 510-599-5330 ariel@codepink.org
Activists to protest Saudi Crown Prince’s visit to Washington, DC
Tuesday, March 20th 11am in front of the White House, just before the Prince's noon meeting with Trump
Wednesday March 21st 6:30pm in front of the Kennedy Center while they hold a Saudi Arts and Cultural event
Thursday March 22nd 12pm in front of the Newseum, 555 Pennsylvania Ave NW during a private luncheon for Saudi Arabia
Thursday March 22nd 7pm in front of the Andrew W. Mellon Auditorium, 1301 Constitution Ave NW during a gala dinner for the Prince
Washington, DC - Demonstrations will take place at various venues associated with Prince Salman’s visit to Washington DC. The protesters will focus on bin Salman’s key role in the bombing of Yemen, which has created the world’s greatest humanitarian crisis. They will also debunk the notion that the Crown Prince is a reformer who is fighting corruption and bringing a new age of enlightenment to the kingdom.
“Mohammed Bin Salman employs an army of lobbyists and PR firms to sell himself as a reformer when he is really a war criminal and a power-hungry thug whose ego rivals that of Donald Trump,” says Medea Benjamin, CODEPINK cofounder and author of a book on Saudi Arabia. “It is absurd that the US is in bed with this ‘prince’ who mercilessly bombs Yemen, shakes down Saudi businessmen, captured the Lebanese prime minister, concocted a rift with Qatar and even kidnapped his own mother. The Saudi monarchy also jails and beheads dissidents, discriminates against the Shia minority, and forces women to live under a repressive male guardianship system. It is not a regime the United States should be arming and abetting.”
