More than 40 arrested at protest against Gaza war at Trump hotel in New York | New York

More than 40 people protesting against the war and aggravating the humanitarian crisis in Gaza were arrested outside the Trump International Hotel in New York on Monday evening.

The demonstration, organized by IFNOTNOW, a Jewish-American anti-occupation group, had started earlier in the evening at the Columbus Circle. Hundreds of people gathered under the banner “Trump: the Jews do not say more” to demand the end of the war in Gaza and that the Trump Pressure Administration on Israel to allow greater humanitarian aid to enter the territory, while health officials continue to report the deaths of famine and malnutrition.

“Let’s not chop the words, the Israeli government’s Gaza blocking is an ethnic cleaning policy through forced mass famine,” said Morriah Kaplan, acting executive director of Ifnotnow, during her speech to the crowd. “It is an unbearable, unspeakable and unfathomable affront to our shared humanity and those who realize it and deploy our Jewish symbols, our languages and traditions to defend and justify it, which is why I am encouraged to see these Jewish and Jewish atrocities

“We need the American government to use its considerable lever effect to end these horrors,” she added.

The demonstrators held panels that read “Stop ethnic cleaning”, “Never Again is now” “Stop Gaza Hémé” and “Not in our name” and the speakers included Ruth Messrger, Rabbi Jill Jacobs, T’ruah CEO, and Brad Lander, New York controller.

“Yesterday was the Jewish festival of Tisha B’AV in which the Jews cry the destruction of the people of Israel,” said Lander, “and what we are currently witnessing is the destruction caused by the State of Israel.”

“It has been happening for several months,” he added. “But to attend forced mass famine, emaciated children and the hunger of families, in addition to all bombing, destruction and displacement, it is necessary that the Jews cry louder, to make more organization to ensure that we stop sending offensive weapons and bombs and firearms that we demand an end to what Israel does to Gaza. This is why we are here tonight. ”.

Lily Greenberg Call, a former special assistant to the chief of staff to the American department of the interior The Biden-Harris administration which publicly resigned to protest in May 2024 for the treatment of war administration in Gaza.

“I was the first, and unfortunately the only official official official to resign publicly to protest against the unconditional support of the administration in Israel during the war in Gaza,” Greenberg Call said in an interview with Guardian.

Greenberg Call said that she noticed new people among the Protestant crowd against the War of Israel in Gaza.

“There is something that changes,” she said. “Presenting yourself is really important, and our role as Imprèricans in particular – our government and our taxes finance this.”

“We have the obligation, in particular as American Jews, to oppose what is happening in our name,” added Greenberg Call.

The Palestinian photojournalist, Motaz Azaiza, was also in the crowd and made brief remarks.

Just after 8 p.m., the group started heading for Trump International Hotel. They gathered in front of the hotel, sitting in the street, singing and singing.

Around 8:15 p.m., the officers of the New York police department began to arrest the demonstrators for blocked the street. It was not clear at 9 p.m., he said, how many people were arrested, but the Guardian counted at least more than 40 people. The people arrested were loaded in police vans and the crowd dispersed shortly after.

In a press release published after the arrests, IFNOTNOW declared that this mobilization marked “the widest coalition of tents in the Jewish community against the atrocities of Gaza in the last two years, representing the vast majority of American Jews who are indignant by the actions of the Israeli government in Gaza”.