'Let Gaza Live': Jewish anti-war demonstrators arrested in NY
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Hundreds of protesters were arrested during the Jewish Passover holiday for their solidarity with Palestine.
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Police arrest protesters as they block traffic during a pro-Palestinian demonstration demanding a permanent cease-fire in Gaza, near the home of Sen. Chuck Schumer in the Brooklyn borough of New York, on April 23, 2024. (AP)
During a Passover seder in New York, hundreds of Jewish anti-war demonstrators were arrested as they transformed the event into a protest. Blocking a major street, they prayed for a ceasefire and called on Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer to halt US military aid to "Israel".
Around 300 arrests occurred on Tuesday night at Grand Army Plaza, located near Schumer's Brooklyn residence. Thousands of predominantly Jewish New Yorkers had gathered for the seder, an event marking the second night of the holiday, celebrated globally by Jews as a festival "symbolizing freedom".
The seder came just before the US Senate approved a military package, which includes $26 billion allocated for "Israel".
The demonstrators urged Schumer, who is one of the few Democrats to have recently criticized Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, to cease the provision of arms to the Israeli occupation military. “We as American Jews will not be used, we will not be complicit and we will not be silent. Judaism is a beautiful, thousands-year-old tradition, and Israel is a 76-year-old colonial apartheid state,” Morgan Bassichis, an organizer with Jewish Voice for Peace, told the crowd.
“This is the Passover that we take our exodus from Zionism. Not in our name. Let Gaza live.”
Arrest campaign against anti-war Jews
The mass arrests were carried out after the seder rituals. Speakers at the event included journalist and author Naomi Klein, Palestinian activist Linda Sarsour, and several Jewish students who had been suspended from Columbia University and Barnard College due to their participation in recent protests that have shaken campuses across the United States.
“This Passover is not like other Passovers,” said Klein. “So many are not with their families but this movement is our family,” she added, referring to political disagreements that have divided Jewish families since the start of the war.
Read next: 'Not in our name': The Jewish movement for Palestine
Organizers said that Tuesday’s protest was inspired by the 1969 Freedom Seder, organized by Arthur Waskow on the anniversary of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr’s death.
One protester, a 31-year-old Jewish woman who preferred not to disclose her name for security reasons, expressed, "Passover is about liberation. In our family, Palestinians have always been part of our celebration and mourning. The call for liberation is more important now than ever... as Americans, the allocation of billions of our tax dollars in the Israeli military bill is outrageous and horrifying."
Since October 7, Jewish groups in the US have organized several anti-war demonstrations, effectively closing down sites ranging from the Capitol to the Statue of Liberty. In another act of solidarity, Jewish activists hosted a seder on Monday, the first night of Passover, at Columbia University's protest encampment.
