Protesters with the #ShutItDown4Palestine movement took the streets of New York City once again on February 4 to demand an end to all US funding of Israel and a permanent ceasefire
New York City police cracked down on pro-Palestine activists with the #ShutItDown4Palestine movement for the third week in a row and arrested several protesters, including march organizers. The crackdown comes as Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza completes four months. Israeli forces have killed over 27,000 Palestinians in the enclave including over 11,000 children.
People across the United States have mobilized week after week to demand an end to US complicity in Israel’s war on the people of Palestine and an immediate ceasefire. Major public opinion polls show that a majority of US voters from both parties support a ceasefire, yet the Biden administration has refused to call for one.
Organizers have vowed to continue protesting, in spite of the crackdown, until there is a ceasefire and Palestine is free.
Protesters block the Holland Tunnel on Monday, January 8, in New York City to call for a cease-fire in Gaza. (Photo credit: Alexa Wilkinson)
“We are trying to show how it feels to be trapped in a city you can’t leave,” one participant said.
Protesters blocked the Holland Tunnel and three major New York City bridges during Monday’s rush hour to call for a cease-fire in Gaza as Israel’s deadly assault on the besieged enclave enters its fourth month.
Organizers said that they chose to block traffic in order to create a “physical analogue” to the experience of people in Gaza, “where there is no getting out.”
“We are trying to show how it feels to be trapped in a city you can’t leave,” 30-year-old participant Mon Mohapatra told The New York Times.
“We salute the brave individuals and organizations who across the country and the world are taking action to disrupt the flow of capital, by blocking ports and traffic arteries.”
Organizers said in a statement that a thousand people blocked traffic Monday morning for more than two hours at the Holland Tunnel and Manhattan, Brooklyn, and Williamsburg bridges. The action was coordinated by a coalition of groups including the Palestinian Youth Movement (PYM), Al-Awda: The Palestine Right to Return Coalition, Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network, Democratic Socialists of America (DSA), Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP), the Party for Socialism and Liberation (PSL), Critical Resistance, and Writers Against the War on Gaza (WAWOG).
The action at the Holland Tunnel began around 9:30 am ET, the Port Authority Police Department toldCBS News. The department arrested 120 people for blocking the outbound lane. The New York Police Department’s chief of patrol toldWABC that 325 people were arrested across all four locations.
The organizers said that their actions snarled traffic in SoHo, Tribeca, Hudson Square, the Financial District, and the Lower East Side. Traffic began moving again around the Holland Tunnel by 10:30 am, over the Brooklyn Bridge a little before 11:00 am, and over the Williamsburg and Manhattan bridges a little before 11:30 am, WABC reported.
Brooklyn Bridge, Manhattan Bridge, Holland Tunnel, and Williamsburg Bridge were all SHUT DOWN by a coalition of organizers, bringing New York City traffic to a halt.
The People demand a ceasefire now, an end to US “aid” to Israel, and an immediate lifting of the siege on Gaza! pic.twitter.com/0ksv3nE57x
— Palestinian Youth Movement (@palyouthmvmt) January 8, 2024
“In Gaza, of course, people have limited mobility, no freedom of movement, they cannot leave, even if they want to, they move place to place, then those places are bombed,” Rachel Himes, who was arrested at the Holland Tunnel, told The New York Times. “We wanted to create that condition temporarily in Manhattan.”
The action was planned to coincide with the start of the fourth month of Israel’s attack on Gaza, which has killed more than 23,000 people and injured nearly 59,000 since October 7, according to Monday figures from the Gaza Health Ministry.
Demonstrators at all four Manhattan locations dropped banners listing the five demands of the Palestinian Youth Movement:
An immediate cease-fire;
An end to the siege on Gaza;
The release of all Palestinian prisoners;
An end to the occupation of Palestine; and
An end to U.S. aid to Israel.
Ceasefire is the beginning. These are our demands, as set forth by the @palyouthmvmt. Lift the siege. Free all the Palestinian prisoners. End the occupation. NOW!!! pic.twitter.com/bWyLe2Vg1u
— Writers Against the War on Gaza (@wawog_now) January 8, 2024
Demonstrators at the Williamsburg and Manhattan bridges used piping and chains to bolster their blockades, which police had to saw through to clear the protesters, according to The New York Times and CBS. Police “violently assaulted” one participant at the Williamsburg Bridge, according to a video shared by WAWOG on social media.
Cops violently assaulted a pro-Palestine protester at the blockade of the Williamsburg Bridge earlier today. This is what we mean when we say NYPD, KKK, IDF: THEY’RE ALL THE SAME!
— Writers Against the War on Gaza (@wawog_now) January 8, 2024
Monday’s protest builds on months of direct actions both in New York and across the country as protesters have blocked traffic, sat in at train stations, disrupted political events, and blocked ports to call on President Joe Biden to end U.S. support for Israel’s bombardment and invasion of Gaza.
On Saturday, a group of protesters blocked traffic on Seattle’s I-5 highway for more than four hours.
“These direct actions that we are seeing now are tools of protest that intend to disrupt the flow of capital and hit the political and economic elites where it hurts, in order to force an end to the ongoing genocide of Palestinians and siege on Gaza,” Bissan Barghouti of Samidoun Seattle, who helped organize a rally in solidarity with the highway blockade, told Common Dreams. “As Palestinians and those in solidarity with our struggle, we condemn the government and corporate complicity in the massacre of our loved ones in Gaza and across occupied Palestine.”
Barghouti added, “We salute the brave individuals and organizations who across the country and the world are taking action to disrupt the flow of capital, by blocking ports and traffic arteries.”
In addition to more recent protests, Monday’s New York action took its inspiration from a 1995 ACT UP protest that was the first to block two bridges and two tunnels in New York at the same time.
“We urge other coalitions, collectives, and autonomous organizations to take meaningful action against the genocidal state, its collaborators, its benefactors, and profiteers,” the group behind Monday’s New York protest said in a statement. “Protests and demonstrations across the so-called U.S. must escalate in their willingness to shut down business as usual and arrest the flow of capital in order to end this occupation once and for all. Our skills and goals must be aligned towards an immediate and permanent cease-fire, the end of Zionism, and a free Palestine in our lifetimes.”
“One week ago, 75,000 people inundated New York City streets to demand the president end fossil fuels,” said one campaigner. “Now, climate-fueled rains are submerging those same streets.”
“This is the climate crisis,” said youth-led grassroots organization Sunrise Movement on Friday as photos and videos of flooded streets and subway stations in the largest city in the United States went viral across social media.
The group shared a video of cars struggling to drive through water that was up to pedestrians’ knees in Brooklyn, saying the image starkly illustrated the need to both prepare U.S. cities and infrastructure for fossil-fueled extreme weather events and to rapidly draw down planet-heating greenhouse gas emissions that have been linked to stronger hurricanes, rising sea levels, and other destructive changes.
“We need an all-out mobilization of our government and society to stop [the climate crisis] right now,” said the group.
New York is underwater.
THIS is the climate crisis. We need an all-out mobilization of our government and society to stop it right now. https://t.co/An3yS7UYh4
New York Gov. Kathy Hochul called the rainstorm that caused the flash flooding a “life-threatening rainfall event” and noted that there have been reports of some school buildings flooding, prompting administrators to move children to higher floors or close the buildings.
“No children are in danger as far as we know,” said Hochul, adding that many New York City children use public transportation to get home from school. “We want to make sure we get the subways, the trains, our communication system, our transportation system working.”
According to Richard Davis, president of Local 100 of the Transport Workers Union, some bus passengers on Friday were forced to stand on their seats as drivers navigated through high flood waters that seeped into buses.
Maintenance workers were using pumps to remove water from subway stations, and the Metropolitan Transportation Authority announced “extremely limited subway service,” with many lines suspended or rerouted.
Right now: NYC is essentially shut down because of heavy rainfall flooding the subways. https://t.co/PkD6D4kXCb
New York City Councilmember Chi Ossé criticized Mayor Eric Adams for failing to address the public until the crisis was well underway and said the flooding shows the city is “severely underprepared for the climate crisis.”
This was @NYCMayor’s statement 3 months before he took office.
What is this administration’s climate resiliency plan for North and Central Brooklyn?
I know he doesn’t control the weather, but what safety measures/ investments have been put into Brooklyn to prepare for this? https://t.co/7tM2ZRBMxo
Earlier this month Adams announced a new initiative aimed at mobilizing business owners to comply with Local Law 97, which will take effect in 2024 and would reduce carbon emissions from buildings.
According toGothamist, “environmental experts say the new plan will weaken the law’s enforcement powers by giving qualified building owners an extra three years to meet carbon reduction deadlines.”
The climate crisis: heavier storms and major flooding b/c hotter air holds more moisture. It tends to pour harder.
Pols like Eric Adams talk like they care, but he’s attacking NYC’s landmark climate/jobs law right now. Making the crisis worse. https://t.co/Jw1LWoo2Vt
Jean Su, energy justice director at the Center for Biological Diversity, took aim at the offshore drilling plan proposed by President Joe Biden on Friday over the objections of scientists and climate advocates. The five-year plan includes three new offshore gas leases in the Gulf of Mexico despite Biden’s campaign promise to end offshore gas and oil drilling.
“We are in the climate emergency,” said Su. “Yet the president is continuing to drill for oil and gas. He has to stop to give us a chance at a livable planet.”
One week ago, 75,000 ppl inundated NYC streets to demand @POTUS#EndFossilFuels. Now, climate-fueled rains are submerging those same streets.
Earlier this month, noted Su, some of the same streets that were inundated with rainwater on Friday had been filled with tens of thousands of people demanding that Biden declare a climate emergency and take decisive action to speed the transition toward renewable energy.
“A week ago, we were hitting the streets of New York for Climate Week NYC,” said grassroots group Rising Tide North America. “We shut down Citibank’s headquarters and blockaded the New York Federal Reserve.”
“[The New York Police Department] arrested lots of our friends,” the group added. “Maybe they should have been arresting those bankers and bureaucrats who are responsible for this disaster.”
