The meeting, they say, should not have taken place at all, given that Netanyahu faces an International Criminal Court (ICC) arrest warrant for war crimes and crimes against humanity in Gaza.
Neither the US nor Israel is a party to the Rome Statute, which established the ICC, allowing Netanyahu to travel to Washington without risk of arrest.
The Israeli prime minister is the first foreign leader to visit Trump during his second term in office. While Trump has said he wants to work towards a lasting “peace” in the region, Netanyahu has indicated he is ready to resume the war on Gaza, which could bolster his fragile, far-right coalition government.
“President Trump has an incredible opportunity now,” said Medea Benjamin, co-founder of Code Pink, at a press conference outside the White House.
“He says he wants peace in the Middle East. Will he go the road of the warmongers, or will he listen to the voice of the people in the United States?” she asked.
“Will he listen to the voice of the international community and the slogan that we have been saying for month after month after month: ‘Netanyahu does not belong on the streets of Washington, DC. He belongs in The Hague’?”
Netanyahu has manipulated Trump before and may do so again, speakers said, citing Israel’s role in the US withdrawal from the Iran nuclear deal in 2018 and the 2020 US assassination of a top Iranian commander at Israel’s urging.
“This is a shame that has and will stain America's reputation for generations,” Nihad Awad from the Council on American-Islamic Relations (Cair) said.
“By hosting Benjamin Netanyahu, President Trump is telling us that more war could be on the way,” he added. “Trump is making it difficult for him to obtain the title that he would like: a president of peace.”
Osama Abuirshaid with American Muslims for Palestine (AMP) said giving Netanyahu the opportunity to come to the White House is a privilege the Israeli leader did not earn or deserve.
“He’s being rewarded with more military assistance. He's being rewarded by lifting the freeze on the 2,000-pound [907kg] bombs that have devastated Gaza… He's being rewarded by calls to ethnically cleanse the Gaza Strip. He's being rewarded by hinting at potentially allowing Israel to annex 60 percent of the West Bank, meaning that we're not only now talking about an apartheid state, but we're also now confirming that Israel is a genocidal state,” Abuirshaid told reporters.
Abuirshad added that Netanyahu "feared" Trump more than he feared his own far-right ministers, Ben Gvir and Belazel Smotrich.
"That's good. Yes, we want America to be respected again, as President Trump continues to say,” he said, adding that: "President Trump should take a stand on this and not promise more bribes to a client state.”
In a statement on Tuesday, the National Iranian American Council (NIAC) echoed similar sentiments, calling on Trump to stand up to Netanyahu and asserting that Joe Biden’s presidency “tanked” because he could not say no to Israel.
"Benjamin Netanyahu has played every single modern US president to act against American interests and likes to boast, 'I know America, America is a thing that can be moved easily',” NIAC said in the statement.
"Today, Trump has a rare and historic opportunity for peace – if he stands up to Bibi [Benjamin Netanyahu]. He has a chance to stabilize the Middle East and do what his predecessors tried and failed to accomplish: ending the forever wars that have bogged down the US and American troops in the region for a generation.”