Destruction and Obstruction: How Pro-Palestinian Protesters Are Defending Hamas’s Massacre By Haley Strack
Masses of anti-Israel protesters have descended on cities to call for a cease-fire in Gaza in the months following Hamas’s October 7 terror attack. Here are some of the most extreme examples of protesters who have blocked major roadways, vandalized property, and broadcast antisemitic statements:
Washington, D.C.: More than 500 pro-Palestinian protesters staged a sit-in at the United States Capitol in October. The anti-Zionist movement Jewish Voice for Peace led the demonstration, in which protesters demanded a “cease-fire now.”
The protesters first gathered on the National Mall where Cori Bush (D., Mo.) and Rashida Tlaib (D., Mich.) spoke to the crowd. Tlaib repeated the lie during her remarks that the Israeli military bombed a Gaza hospital (American and Israeli intelligence confirmed that a misfired Palestinian rocket caused the blast).
New York City: Pro-Palestinian protesters blocked the Williamsburg, Brooklyn, and Manhattan Bridges and the Holland Tunnel during rush hour on the morning of January 8. Protesters calling for a “cease-fire now” refused to let commuters into the city. The protest was part of a wider campaign to “Shut It Down for Palestine,” organized by the Palestinian Youth Movement, National Students for Justice in Palestine, Answer Coalition, the People’s Forum, International Peoples’ Assembly, Al-Awda in New York, and the Palestinian American Community Center in New Jersey.
Police arrested 325 protesters, the NYPD reported, and the roads were cleared by 11:15 a.m. that morning. Many of the 325 will face misdemeanor charges with a desk appearance ticket, according to NYPD chief of patrol John Chell.
“NYPD, KKK, IDF they’re all the same,” protesters chanted.
A video of a black father trying to drive across the Williamsburg Bridge went viral. The man told protesters, “You’re disrupting traffic, idiots. You can’t do that; that’s against the law.” He then got out and shoved the masked demonstrators while telling them to “get away from my car. I have a daughter in Brooklyn.” Once the man started slowly driving his car forward, the protesters let him through.
“The goal is to peacefully protest without doing major disruption to the city; some people are not just driving to and from, across our bridges to go to their place of employment; some of them are dealing with some real emergency-type issues,” NYC Mayor Eric Adams said.
Around 1,000 protesters also swarmed New York’s Grand Central Terminal in October. “Never again for anyone,” one protester’s sign read.
San Francisco: Protesters shut down San Francisco’s Bay Bridge in November. Some drivers threw their car keys in the bay to block traffic, the Associated Press reported, and San Francisco police arrested almost 80 of the about 200 protesters and towed 29 vehicles.
“The demonstration on the Bay Bridge that snarled traffic for hours had a tremendous impact on those who were stuck on the bridge for hours and required tremendous public resources to resolve,” San Francisco district attorney Brooke Jenkins said.
The arrested protesters, who have branded themselves the “Bay Bridge 78,” started a campaign with the Oakland-based racial justice nonprofit Ella Baker Center to pressure Jenkins to drop charges.
“We do not support our tax dollars being used for genocide OR the repression of local protest movements,” the group said. “If DA Jenkins moves forward with this, it could cost the city tens of thousands of dollars per hearing. This is an unacceptable waste of public resources.”
Vital organ-transplant deliveries were delayed by about four hours due to the protest, University of California, San Francisco, transplant surgeon Garrett Roll told the San Francisco Chronicle.
Philadelphia: Pennsylvania police arrested 32 Jewish Voice for Peace–sponsored protesters who shut down the westbound lane of Philadelphia’s I-76 on the last night of Hanukkah in December, local news reported. “Business as usual cannot continue,” protester Jay Bergen said.
“I’ve been on 76 myself. I understand it could be a challenge. I also think our life needs to be disrupted, said Rabbi Linda Holtzman, who was arrested in October for staging an unsanctioned sit-in in the Capitol’s Cannon House Office Building. “I hope the people on 76 can understand that demanding a cease-fire, that calling attention in every way that we can to the horrific situation in Gaza, makes being stuck in traffic not that important.”
Earlier in November, Jewish Voice for Peace and IfNotNow held a protest with hundreds of individuals at Philadelphia’s 30th Street Station.
Boston: On one November morning, protesters blocked traffic on a bridge that goes into Cambridge while chanting “cease-fire now.” Also on the final night of Hanukkah in December, hundreds of protesters blocked off 15 lanes of traffic in Boston and caused two-hour delays.
Minneapolis: Jewish Voice for Peace protesters blocked the Franklin Avenue Bridge in Minneapolis in December.
“Hanukkah is all about the miracle of light persisting, and our strength will persist to fight for freedom and dignity for all and for the end of violence in Palestine by the Israeli government,” protest organizer Leah Soule said.
Also in December, Minnesota state troopers arrested protesters who were blocking I-94 traffic.
“Freeways are used by everyone and are an artery for emergency vehicles. It is illegal to walk on the freeway, and blocking traffic is dangerous for everyone involved or impacted,” state troopers said.
Los Angeles: Anti-Israel protesters, one of whom held a sign that read “Zionist = Nazi,” vandalized a Los Angeles war veterans’ cemetery in January to “mark three months of the genocide in Gaza, which has taken the lives of 22,000 plus souls in 92 days,” one masked demonstrator said. The cemetery is a burial ground for more than 80,000 U.S. veterans.
Pro-Palestinian protesters also blocked the 110 freeway in L.A. in December and halted the city’s notorious morning rush traffic.
“We cannot allow business as usual to continue, as Palestinians are murdered with impunity,” the protest’s organizer, IfNotNow, said. “So we have closed the freeway.”
Chicago: Hundreds of protesters gathered at the Ogilvie Transportation Center in November. Protesters weren’t targeting the station, but the Israeli consulate, which is located above Ogilvie.
Jewish Voice for Peace and IfNotNow activists blocked traffic for almost an hour on Ida B. Wells Drive in October, and a caravan of pro-Palestinian protesters also shut down Chicago’s I-190 in December. Chicago health-care workers held a protest outside the American Medical Association in December to call for a cease-fire.
Miscellaneous: Protesters have blocked traffic and entrances to major airports such as the Los Angeles International Airport, the John F. Kennedy International Airport, and the O’Hare International Airport. Pro-Palestinians in London blocked Westminster bridge outside of Parliament in January, and pro-Palestinian protesters in Canada blocked a bridge in Toronto’s largest Jewish community (a Canadian police officer was spotted delivering coffee to the protesters). Demonstrators have also protested and graffitied Starbucks stores after the coffee company sued its union for posting an anti-Israel message in October that depicted a Hamas-run bulldozer tearing down the fence on the Gaza–Israel border. “Solidarity with Palestine,” the union’s post read.
Comments are closed.
