NEW YORK: About 200 demonstrators protesting Israel’s war in Gaza were arrested in a sit-in outside the New York Stock Exchange on Monday, police said.
The protesters chanted “Let Gaza live!” and “Up up with liberation, down down with occupation!” in front of the stock exchange’s landmark building in lower Manhattan.
“The reason we’re here is to demand that the US government stop sending bombs to Israel and stop profiting off of Israel’s genocide against Palestinians in Gaza,” said Beth Miller, political director of Jewish Voice for Peace, the group that organized the demonstration. “Because what’s been happening for the last year is that Israel is using US bombs to massacre communities in Gaza while simultaneously weapons manufacturers on Wall Street are seeing their stock prices skyrocket.”
A handful of counterprotesters waved Israeli flags and tried to shout down the pro-Palestinian chants.
None of the pro-Palestinian protesters got inside the exchange, but at least 200 made it inside a security fence on Broad Street, where they sat down and waited to be taken into custody.
A spokesperson for the exchange declined to comment on the protest.
Police arrested the protesters one by one, cuffing their hands behind their backs with plastic ties and leading them to vans. Some demonstrators went limp and were carried by three or four officers.
A police spokesperson said there were about 200 arrests. She did not have details on the charges they faced.
The protest happened a week after the world marked the anniversary of Hamas’ surprise Oct. 7 attack on Israel and the start of Israel’s retaliatory campaign in Gaza, which has since spread to Lebanon and beyond.
The Lebanese Red Cross said an Israeli airstrike hit an apartment building in northern Lebanon on Monday, killing at least 21 people.
There was no immediate comment from the Israeli military and it was not clear what the target was.