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‘This is New York, Not Palestine, Not Gaza!’ Angry New Yorkers Confront Anti-Israel Protesters Across City
By Algemeiner
Anti-Israel protesters on Monday morning took to the streets of lower Manhattan in New York City, where they blocked access to drivers on four bridges, leading to hundreds of arrests and a miserable commute for thousands.
Hundreds of demonstrators — locking themselves together using zip ties and chanting slogans including “NYPD, KKK, IDF: They’re all the same!” — blocked traffic on the Brooklyn Bridge, Manhattan Bridge, Williamsburg Bridge, and Holland Tunnel for over two hours.
The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said 325 people were arrested, with many facing misdemeanor charges.
Protest organizers, which included the Palestinian Youth Movement and Jewish Voice for Peace, said in a statement that “the protesters created — briefly, imperfectly — a physical analogue for the situation in Gaza, where there is no getting out.”
Videos posted on social media show scenes of complete traffic gridlock across the city, along with furious commuters who confronted protesters.
A construction worker is seen in videos posted on social media rolling down his windows asking the protesters to allow him to get to work. “There are people on the street,” a protester says. “Why?” the man asks. “Because we’re protesting the genocide in Gaza. We’re sorry for doing this,” the protester replies. “Get off the f—king road,” the driver then says in response.
Another man was filmed confronting protesters in a shoving match. “You’re disrupting traffic, idiots!” he says. “You can’t do that, that’s against the law!” As protesters continued to block his vehicle, the man explained he was trying to pick his daughter up. Other motorists can be heard saying “run them over!”
Videos also show a commuter yelling at protesters from his car window: “They ruined my day … This is New York, not Palestine, not Gaza!”
#NOW "This is New York, not Palestine, not Gaza!" a man shouts as Pro-Palestine protesters are getting arrested after blocking Holland Tunnel "They ruin my day? F them!" pic.twitter.com/POF6Am5rN1
— Oliya Scootercaster 🛴 (@ScooterCasterNY) January 8, 2024
The Holland Tunnel reopened around 10:30 am, and the last of the protests dispersed shortly before 11:30 am, the NYPD said on X/Twitter.
The demonstrations came after protesters on Saturday blocked freeway traffic in Seattle for several hours.
Recent anti-Israel demonstrations in New York have also taken place outside John F. Kennedy International Airport as well as inside Grand Central Terminal.
“If the world does not stop for Gaza, we will stop the world,” a group called Writers Against the War on Gaza said in a statement on X/Twitter.
Other anti-Israel groups around the country endorsed Monday’s actions and pledged more in the future.
“Disrupt everything. Shut it all down. #FreePalestine,” said People’s City Council — Los Angeles, an activist group based in the city, on X/Twitter.
In November, People’s City Council — which describes itself as an “abolitionist, anti-capitalist & anti-imperialist collective amplifying the voice of the people through direct action” — organized a raucous protest outside the home of the president of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), the foremost pro-Israel lobbying group in the US. Protesters lit smoke bombs and called the AIPAC head a “baby killer.”
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