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A messy morning commute in NYC as pro-Palestinian protests shut down East River bridges and Holland Tunnel
(New York Jewish Week) — Commuters faced major delays Monday morning as several pro-Palestinian protests shut down traffic on the Brooklyn, Manhattan and Williamsburg bridges on the East River as well as the Holland Tunnel under the Hudson River linking New Jersey to Manhattan.
Organizers said that the goal of the coordinated protests was to escalate disruption and send a message to the city about Israel’s war with Hamas in Gaza. “Particularly with blocking main arteries of transit, the idea is to confront New Yorkers — just for a brief hour or two hours — with the kind of reality of what it’s like to not be able to move, to not be able to freely travel where you’re trying to go,” Nas Issa, an organizer with the Palestinian Youth Movement, told the New York Jewish Week.
“Take this inconvenience and imagine what it’s like for the 2.7 million Palestinians in Gaza who have nowhere to go and have no safe place to hide,” added Issa, who said she was on the Williamsburg Bridge Monday morning with a “few hundred” others.
In videos posted to social media, protestors at the different locations can be heard chanting “NYPD, KKK, IDF, they’re all the same”; “Shut it down”; “Free Palestine”; “Palestine will never die” and “From Haiti to Palestine, occupation is a crime” while planting themselves on the pavement and linking themselves together with cement-filled tires.
NOW: Pro-Palestine supporters chant “NYPD KKK, IDF they’re all the same” after lines of protesters arrested and cuffed at Holland Tunnel. pic.twitter.com/VJHhGuDqLN
— BreakThrough News (@BTnewsroom) January 8, 2024
Along with the Palestinian Youth Movement, the actions were organized and attended by members of the New York chapter of Democratic Socialists of America, the New York chapter of Jewish Voice for Peace, Palestinian Youth Movement and Writers Against the War on Gaza, Jews for Racial and Economic Justice, Critical Resistance, Party for Socialism and Liberation and Al-Awda: The Palestine Right to Return Coalition.
The New York Police Department issued a traffic advisory just before 10 a.m. Monday morning. At 11:30, the NYPD tweeted that all the protests had been dispersed.
The protests drew ire from commuting New Yorkers and some government officials.
In a statement posted to X, New York City council member Robert Holden called the protests “terrorism,” deeming it “unacceptable” and describing the protesters as “anarchists.”
“We must allow this terrorism to continue,” he said. “Swift and decisive action is needed. Arrest and prosecute them now!”
“It’s absolutely ridiculous and helping nobody,” East Village resident Mia Kratchman told the New York Daily News while stuck in an Uber outside the Holland Tunnel. “As a person who takes this route every single day, I’ve never seen anything like this in my life.”
Several New Yorkers worried about the hindrance the blockade might have caused to emergency vehicles. “There are approximately 70 life-threatening emergencies that EMS responds to in New York City every hour. The Pro-Hamas crowd is proud to harm New Yorkers by shutting down the means for Ambulances to take people to the hospital,” David Greenfield, the CEO of the Met Council on Jewish Poverty and an adjunct professor at Brooklyn Law, posted on Twitter. “Arrest. Them. All.”
Greenfield’s remarks were reposted by Yehiel Kalish, the CEO of Hatzalah, the Jewish volunteer ambulance service. “You are correct,” Kalish wrote in response to Greenfield. “Thankfully, agencies like ours are notified about these events immediately, and we are forced to make contingency plans.”
Protestors were not deterred. “At the end of the day, there’s always people who are going to be upset by any disruption,” Issa said. “Historically, if you look at anti-war protest movements, in the moment, they’re not very popular because they’re disruptive.”
“The broader message is trying to keep Palestine at the top of people’s minds,” she added. “Another aspect of it is escalating the disruption and escalating the drain on the New York Police Department’s resources and, in that way, putting pressure on decision makers within the city.”
Over 300 people on the bridges and at the Holland Tunnel were arrested, according to the NYPD Chief of Patrol Chief John Chell. Many will face misdemeanor charges.
Monday’s actions were the latest in string of pro-Palestinian protests in recent weeks, including one that shut down the Belt Parkway leading to JFK Airport on New Year’s Day and as well as rallies that disrupted the Rockefeller Center Christmas tree lighting ceremony and the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade.
CBS New York reported that nearly 500 protests have occurred in New York City since the war between Israel and Hamas began.
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Report: IDF Probes Whether Houthis Used Iranian Cluster Bomb-Bearing Missile
Houthi leader Abdul-Malik al-Houthi addresses followers via a video link at the al-Shaab Mosque, formerly al-Saleh Mosque, in Sanaa, Yemen, Feb. 6, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Khaled Abdullah
i24 News – The Israeli military said Saturday it launched a probe into the failure of its defenses to fully intercept a missile launched by Yemen’s Houthi jihadists, parts of which struck not far from the Ben Gurion airport on Friday night.
According to the Ynet website, one of the hypotheses being examined is that the projectile contained cluster munitions, similar to those used by Iran to fire at Israeli cities during the 12-day war in June. Cluster munitions pose a challenge to interceptors as they disperse smaller explosives over a wide area.
In June, Iran fired several missiles carrying scattered small bombs with the aim of increasing civilian casualties.
The IDF said on Saturday that its initial review suggests the ballistic missile from Yemen likely fragmented in mid-air. Five interceptors from various systems engaged with the missile, including THAAD, Arrow, David Sling & Iron Dome.
Authorities said that shrapnel impacted a house in the central Israeli moshav of Ginaton, yet no one was hurt, with the fragment landing in the house’s backyard.
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Iran Forces Kill Six Militants, IRNA Reports, Israel Link Seen
The Iranian flag is seen flying over a street in Tehran, Iran, Feb. 3, 2023. Photo: Majid Asgaripour/WANA (West Asia News Agency) via REUTERS
Iranian security forces shot dead six militants in a clash in southeastern Iran on Saturday, a day after armed rebels killed five police officers in the restive region, the official news agency IRNA reported.
IRNA said evidence showed the group was linked to Israel and may have been trained by Israel‘s Mossad spy agency. There was no immediate Israeli reaction to the allegation.
Another two members of the militant group were arrested, the report said. All but one of the militants were foreign, it added, without giving their nationality.
Iranian police said this month they had arrested as many as 21,000 suspects during the 12-day war with Israel in June.
Iran’s southeast has been the scene of sporadic clashes between security forces and armed groups, including Sunni militants and separatists who say they are fighting for greater rights and autonomy.
Tehran says some of them have ties to foreign powers and are involved in cross-border smuggling and insurgency.
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Benny Gantz Urges Time-Limited National Unity Government to Further Chances of Hostage Deal
Israeli Defence Minister Benny Gantz attends his party’s meeting at the Knesset, Israeli parliament in Jerusalem, June 27, 2022. REUTERS/Ronen Zvulun
i24 News – Blue and White Party leader Benny Gantz on Saturday called on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and opposition politicians to form a temporary national unity government to further the chances of bringing home the hostages held in Gaza.
Addressing Netanyahu, Yair Lapid and Avigdor Liberman, Gantz said that the proposed government’s two supreme priorities would be the release of Israeli hostages held by the jihadists of Hamas and instituting universal conscription in Israel by ending the exemption from military service enjoyed by the ultra-Orthodox.
Upon attainment of the goals, the government would dissolve and call an election.
“The government’s term will begin with a hostage deal that brings everyone home,” Gantz said in a video address. “Within weeks, we will formulate an enlistment outline that would see our ultra-Orthodox brethren drafted to the military and ease the burden on those already serving. Finally, we will announce an agreed-upon election date in the spring of 2026 and pass a law to dissolve the Knesset [Israeli parliament] accordingly. This is what’s right for Israel.”