At least 100 anti-Israel protesters — many of them Jewish — were arrested outside of the New York City home of Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer Tuesday night.
On the second night of Passover, hundreds if not thousands of self-identified Jews converged on Schumer’s Brooklyn neighborhood for a protest event that they called “Seder in the Streets,” the New York Post reported.
Protesters at Grand Army Plaza demanded the U.S. stop offering military aid to Israel as the country fights the radical Islamic terror group Hamas for a seventh consecutive month in response to the horrifying Gaza-based terror attacks that killed over 1,200 Israelis last October.
According to numerous clips circulating on the social media platform X, the organized protest began around 5:30 p.m. on Tuesday.
Demonstrators wore shirts that read “CEASEFIRE NOW” while some held signs that read “STOP FUNDING GENOCIDE.”
A banner on the ground at the event also read, “JEWS SAY STOP ARMING ISREAL – NO ONE IS FREE UNTIL EVERYONE IS FREE.”
#NYC Today at 5:30pm in Grand Army Plaza in Brooklyn, JVP is hosting an emergency “Sedar In the Streets”, where Jewish people for ceasefire are hosting a Sedar to demand the U.S stop arming Israel with bombs pic.twitter.com/lHWH18wMO7
— Spyder Monkey (@SpyderMonkey0_0) April 23, 2024
Eventually, the protesters began blocking traffic, the Post reported, leading police to move in and intervene.
Do these agitators need more significant punishments to deter them?
A video posted online showed that as officers began to make arrests, a chant of “Ceasefire now!” broke out.
#NOW Hundreds gathered for “Seder in the Streets” outside of Senator Schumer’s home, shutting down Brooklyn street and risking arrests for Gaza and demanding to “Stop Arming Israel”. pic.twitter.com/xmFaBB1ck5
— Oliya Scootercaster 🛴 (@ScooterCasterNY) April 23, 2024
Others were recorded shouting, “Let Gaza live!”
At least 100 still sit in the roadway as police swiftly move in to make arrests. Protestors chanting “ceasefire now” pic.twitter.com/7TO6Mpb5lr
— Liam Quigley (@_elkue) April 24, 2024
As of early Wednesday, the NYPD had not said exactly how many arrests were made, but the Post reported at least 100 people were taken into custody.
Jewish Voice for Peace NYC, the group that reportedly planned the protest of Schumer’s home, said in a lengthy thread on X that the demonstration was a response to the Senate’s passage of a $95 billion foreign aid package earlier in the day.
This Passover protest comes as the Senate prepares to send an additional $14.1 billion in weapons to the Israeli military, ushering through a slushfund to the Israeli military just after a mass grave of 300+ Palestinians was uncovered at the Nasser Medical Complex in Khan Younis.
— Jewish Voice for Peace NYC (@jvpliveNY) April 23, 2024
Today marks 200 days of the Israeli government carrying out a genocide, armed and funded by the US. Israeli forces have killed over 33,000 Palestinians, including 14,000 children, and rendered almost 2 million homeless and over 1 million starving.
— Jewish Voice for Peace NYC (@jvpliveNY) April 23, 2024
Of the funds appropriated for Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan, $26 billion in total will go to help the Israeli military and Palestinians in Gaza, CNN reported. In total about $17 billion will go to Israel.
President Joe Biden vowed to sign the bill — which was a combination of bills that had passed in the House last Saturday — on Wednesday morning.
Biden said in a statement, “This critical legislation will make our nation and world more secure as we support our friends who are defending themselves against terrorists like Hamas and tyrants like Putin.”
