Protest in NYC calls for ceasefire in Gaza against pro-Israel senators

More than a dozen people were arrested Thursday evening during a peaceful pro-Palestinian protest at a Manhattan building where Senators Chuck Schumer and Kirsten Gillibrand, Democrats of New York, have offices.

The protesters wore black T-shirts that read “Cease Fire Now” and held up signs demanding that senators “stop funding genocide.” slogans and ignoring instructions to leave until police officers arrested them.

The demonstration, organized by a local chapter of Jewish Voice for Peace, a progressive activist group, was the latest in what have become almost daily protests across New York City since Hamas attacked Israel on October 7. At least 1,200 Israelis were killed in those attacks. according to Israeli officials; Israel’s subsequent military operation in Gaza killed 29,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza health officials. The rising death toll and humanitarian crisis in Gaza have led to international calls for a ceasefire.

Around 3:30 p.m. on Thursday, several hundred demonstrators had gathered at Dag Hammarskjöld Plaza, in front of the United Nations headquarters, where the United States this week cast the lone vote against a resolution calling for an immediate ceasefire in the Gaza Strip . . It was the third time the Biden administration blocked similar resolutions, signaling its continued support for Israel.

Accompanied by a heavy police presence, demonstrators marched through a light rain Thursday to the headquarters of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, a powerful lobbying group founded decades ago to advance Israel’s interests in the United States.

Organizers blamed AIPAC-backed senators for passing an aid package this month that included $14.1 billion for Israel’s war against Hamas. The bill still has to pass the House of Representatives, where its fate is uncertain.

Elena Klein, director of organizational strategy at Jewish Voice for Peace New York City, said Thursday’s demonstration was a “moral imperative” and a way to get the attention of lawmakers.

“People have done everything they can think of to convince the US government to end its complicity in Israel’s genocide against the Palestinians, from the train stations to the bridges and the halls of Congress,” she said, referring to previous demonstrations. and yet they will not listen.”

Some protesters played musical instruments, while others carried large cardboard letters spelling “Dump AIPAC” and signs with the names of elected New York officials and dollar figures representing the donations they had reportedly accepted from the group.

As demonstrators chanted from behind metal barriers on Third Avenue, State Assemblyman Zohran Kwame Mamdani, a Democrat from Queens, gave an impassioned speech encouraging the crowd to continue pushing for a ceasefire. About two dozen counter-protesters, some draped in Israeli flags, gathered across the street and chanted “no ceasefire.”

Carolina Cositore, 81, said she was at the demonstration because “I am American and Jewish.” Referring to AIPAC, she said, “They are buying our Congressmen to support Israel.”

She added that the bombing of Gaza had “gone from simply terrible to monstrous.”

Separately, a group of protesters gathered for the sit-in at 780 Third Avenue, where they were arrested around 5:30 p.m., to cheers from the crowd of protesters who had joined them after the stop at AIPAC headquarters.

Louisa Solomon, 42, a rabbinical student, said it was the job of Jewish leaders to “represent our tradition.”

“I was raised to feel deep, deep, deep in my core that when genocide happened, it was my job to stand up and fight,” she said, adding, “For many of us, it is the logical expression of Jewish values. to stand in solidarity with Palestine and to stand up to our elected officials who allow genocide.”

Ms. Solomon and May Ye, a 29-year-old rabbi from New Haven, Conn., were among those arrested Thursday.

In recent months, demonstrators in New York, many expressing support for civilians in Gaza, have gathered regularly, sometimes blocking bridges and roads as they call for an end to the conflict. In late December, Mayor Eric Adams said the New York Police Department had monitored more than 400 protests since October.

Pro-Israeli and pro-Palestinian protests have also raised tensions on college campuses as fears of anti-Semitic and Islamophobic prejudice have escalated in the city. According to police data, reported anti-Semitic hate crimes were up 82 percent in January compared to the same month last year.

While people have taken to the streets in the United States, the conflict in Gaza continues and the death toll has risen. Many of the dead are children and women, and humanitarian groups have warned of increasingly dire shortages of food and water. On Tuesday, the Israeli army ordered the evacuation of two neighborhoods in northern Gaza, where fighting between Israeli forces and Hamas fighters has hampered organizations’ ability to provide aid to an estimated 300,000 people.

International pressure against Israel’s military operations in the region has increased. South Africa on Tuesday called Israel’s policy towards Palestinians an “extreme form of apartheid” during a hearing before the UN’s highest court on the legality of Israel’s “occupation, settlement and annexation” of Palestinian-majority areas. South Africa is one of 50 countries expected to approach the court over the issue. On Wednesday, the United States reiterated its defense that Israel’s behavior in the West Bank and East Jerusalem was part of Israel’s need to defend itself.

In another case, which began in January, South Africa accused Israel of genocide. In a preliminary decision that month, the court ordered Israel to take proactive steps to ensure genocide did not occur, but did not go so far as to order an immediate ceasefire.

Israel has strongly rejected the charges, and to date, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has weathered the conviction with both verbal and financial support from the United States.

However, that steadfast support can show cracks. The New York Times reported Thursday that the Biden administration is circulating a draft resolution in the UN Security Council that would warn the Israeli military not to carry out a ground offensive in Rafah, near Egypt, where more than a million Palestinian refugees are sheltering, and that would be a temporary require a ceasefire as soon as practicable.

Liam Quigley reporting contributed.