BY: USMAN CHOHAN
The conflict between Hamas and Israel is in its fourth week, and last weekend brought a wave of protests and calls for a cease-fire across New York City.
Palestinian casualties from massive air strikes and bombing raids are now in the thousands. Now Israel has begun a ground offensive inside the Gaza Strip. As of this writing the casualty total in Gaza stands at 8,805, a number expected to increase as the war continues.
On Friday evening, hundreds of protesters organized by Jewish Voice of Peace gathered in a “sit in” at Grand Central Terminal to demand an immediate ceasefire between Israel and Hamas. The main lobby reverberated with loud Chants of “Ceasefire Now,” “ Not in Our Name,” and “Let Gaza Live.” The large demonstration brought out progressive Jewish New Yorkers and progressive politicians, including state Assemblyman Zohran K Mamdani of Astoria, Queens, who stood shoulder-to-shoulder with protesters. He chastised the Biden Administration for not encouraging a de-escalation in the conflict and for not pursuing a ceasefire.
“All we have as the response from our White House Administration is the attempt to brand words as de-escalation, ceasefire as illegitimate and the encouragement of any action that the Israeli military wants to take, even when it means the murdering of close to 3,000 children in about 19 days,” Mandani said.
Friday’s protest caused a temporary suspension of the evening commute on Metro North Railroad Service, with the NYPD Strategic Response Group (SRG) working with MTA Police to arrest some 200-to-300 protesters into the night. Police needed special lifting equipment and harnesses to take into custody a group of protesters who climbed to the top of the schedule board with banners.
In a statement released to the public this Monday, JVP claimed the action was needed as a response to the attacks on Gaza. “We’re watching a genocide unfold in real time. In just three weeks, the Israeli military has killed over 8,000 Palestinians in Gaza, among them over 3,000 children. That’s more than the annual number of children killed in conflicts across the globe since 2019,” JVP’s statement read.
The next day, thousands of New Yorkers took part in “Flood Brooklyn For Gaza,” marching from the Brooklyn Museum across the Brooklyn Bridge to Union Square in Manhattan. “Within Our Lifetime,” a pro-Palestinian advocacy group that led the march, also urged a ceasefire.
Demonstrators carried large banners, including Palestinian flags. In contrast with the JVP sit-in, there were no reports of arrests.
Shireen, a Palestinian-American who came from New Jersey to join Saturday’s march, believes that social media attention to the plight of Palestinians shows that many Americans have shifted their opinions on the complex conflict.
“I thank God for Tik Tok, not the media we see on TV but Tik Tok and other platforms that spread the truth,” Shireen said. “A lot of Americans and a lot of non-Arabs are starting to get more educated about the topic, and thank God for that, we need that.”
Not all New Yorkers agreed with the marchers. Along Atlantic Avenue in Brooklyn, police kept a small contingent of pro-Israel counter demonstrators separate from pro-Palestinian protesters to avoid potential scuffles. Eli, a pro-Israel protester from Indiana, got into an argument with a pro-Palestinian flag waver.
“In war there is inevitably always going to be civilian deaths, and my heart breaks for the people who are genuinely innocent in this,” Eli said. “I will say Hamas is in their twentieth year of a four-year term. People need an uprising against Hamas.” He added that he believes Hamas has been hoarding aid and that Israel has to put an end to what he saw as terror from the Hamas- controlled Gaza Strip.
With no end to the conflict in sight, and fears of a humanitarian catastrophe rising, many New Yorkers are planning more protests and actions in the coming week.