A car wove between the looming black fences and concrete street barricades that stretched for blocks to reach the white tent. Beneath the canopy, it stopped so one police officer could search the trunk while another popped open the hood. A third questioned the driver while a fourth led a police dog around the vehicle.
For the hundreds of residents, guests, employees and business owners at the storied Watergate complex in D.C., this is what entering and exiting their home or place of work this week looks like. Their routines have been upended by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s stay at the Watergate Hotel and — whether it be because of political disagreements or daily inconveniences — many residents are upset the hotel allowed the embattled world leader to stay at the complex.
Resident Lisa-Joy Zgorski, who has lived at the Watergate for nine years, said the complex is no stranger to VIP guests. In fact, her neighbors used to include Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg and former Senate majority leader Robert J. Dole. She remembered President Biden coming to pay Dole a visit, but said she could not remember the complex or law enforcement ever going to this length to protect a visitor.
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Middle East conflict
Israel is sending a delegation to resume negotiations after weeks of deadlock over a cease-fire deal in Gaza, the office of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu confirmed, as a senior U.S. administration official hailed “a breakthrough on a critical impasse.”
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“The political pursuits that are embodied in the visit are on the backs of those of us thousands of Americans that live or work in or around the Watergate,” Zgorski said.
Netanyahu arrived in Washington this week and addressed a joint meeting of Congress on Wednesday as his government approaches its tenth month of war in Gaza. Dozens of lawmakers refused to attend his speech, in which he brushed off criticisms that Israel’s government has committed war crimes. His presence in Washington has been met with mass protests condemning the Israeli leader’s “genocide” against Palestinians.
In addition to assembling near Union Station and inside the rotunda of the Cannon House Office Building, demonstrators gathered outside the Watergate and some claimed to be responsible for releasing swarms of maggots, mealworms and crickets at the hotel Tuesday night.
By Wednesday evening, at least 30 police vehicles lined the streets near the complex. Both D.C. police and Secret Service officers stood guard. One passerby asked a nearby police officer which roads were closed.
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“All of them,” the officer replied. “Avoid the area at all costs.”
Among the street closures were parts of Rock Creek and Potomac Parkway, Virginia Avenue, Jamal Khashoggi Way, F Street and 27th Street, according to a D.C. police news release.
Residents received an email Thursday stating that, because of an extension to Netanyahu’s stay, the fencing and barricades will remain up until Sunday — meaning the heightened security will have lasted an entire week. Netanyahu is scheduled to be in Mar-a-Lago on Friday, and it is unclear when he is set to leave the United States.
The historic Watergate complex, best known for housing the Democratic National Committee office burglars connected to President Richard M. Nixon’s reelection campaign were caught bugging, consists of six buildings. The 10 acres include the five-star hotel, three luxury apartment buildings and two office buildings. The complex has its own restaurants, bakery, dry cleaner and salon.
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Public safety officials said some portions of the complex have remained open for businesses, residences and guests, potentially explaining how people were able to enter the hotel to release vermin and pull fire alarms in the building in protest on Tuesday.
But the area has generally been under tight security this week. Residents of the Watergate complex said U.S. Secret Service and D.C. police set up checkpoints over the weekend to vet anyone entering the property.
Zgorski took her car Sunday to pick up a prescription for her mother, who lives with her. She said she was stopped three times when trying to reenter the complex.
Since then, things have only worsened, she said. She has had to cancel her mother’s physical therapy appointments and, after hearing from a colleague whose commute tripled due to the road closures, has spent the week working from home. She said she wondered why the hundreds of Watergate residents could use Zoom to do their work but Netanyahu could not.
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She said residents of Watergate South, Zgorski’s apartment building, did not receive word from Watergate management of any heightened security until Sunday, when the barricades had already been erected.
Representatives for Watergate apartments and the hotel did not immediately respond to a request for comment for this story.
Zgorski acknowledges that living in D.C. often means tolerating street closures for motorcades or heightened security to protect foreign dignitaries.
“I don’t want to convey that we at the Watergate are a bunch of whiners, especially because these are minor inconveniences compared to everything else going on in the world.”
However, she said feels much more upset at the complex for sacrificing its residents’ peace for a polarizing figure than she did about any interruptions caused by the NATO summit earlier in the month.
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“It would have felt differently to undergo this much security for 28 world leaders engaging in peacekeeping, engaging in preserving traditions and moving forward and solving issues than it does protecting one of the world’s most controversial figures,” Zgorski said.
For other residents, the heightened security measures have posed accessibility issues. Patricia Broderick, a five-year Watergate resident, said she had to wheel her wheelchair nearly three blocks from where she parked her car to reach the security checkpoint. Even then, she said the security checkpoint was not wheelchair accessible.
Although there were only a couple of steps for officers to lift Broderick’s wheelchair down, she said “one step for a wheelchair might as well be Mount Everest.”
Broderick said she felt “captive” inside the complex. She made it clear she did not blame any of the protesters for exercising their rights. However, she said she wished she felt confident she could leave her home and be able to return without relying on others to assist her.
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“Why is their right to protest — which I fully agree they have — higher than my right to my home?” Broderick said.
Broderick said she understood the need for security but wished the complex had taken steps to mitigate disruptions to residents’ lives, especially those with health conditions.
“I understand the risk and I appreciate the measures being taken,” Broderick said. “I can live with all the noise and I can live with security but I can’t live with not being able to go home. And right now I’m afraid to leave my house.”