Hundreds of Jewish protesters demanding an end to the Gaza war blocked traffic outside Trump International Hotel Monday evening, resulting in more than 40 arrests as police worked to clear the street.
Around 8 p.m., the crowd marched from Columbus Circle to the Trump International Hotel, where demonstrators held signs reading “stop ethnic cleansing” and “never again is now.” Organizations backing the protest included T’ruah, Jews for Economic and Racial Justice, IfNotNow, and Israelis for Peace.
“Let’s not mince words, the Israeli government’s blockade of Gaza is a policy of ethnic cleansing by way of forced mass starvation,” said Morriah Kaplan, IfNotNow’s interim executive director.
“It is an unbearable, unspeakable, unfathomable affront to our shared humanity and those who are carrying it out and are deploying our Jewish symbols, language and traditions to defend and justify it. We need the US government to use its considerable leverage to end these horrors.”
Speakers at the Columbus Circle rally included Ruth Messinger, Rabbi Jill Jacobs who serves as T’ruah CEO, and Brad Lander, New York City’s comptroller. Also in attendance was Lily Greenberg Call, a former special assistant to the chief of staff at the US Department of the Interior under the Biden-Harris administration who publicly resigned in May 2024 over the administration’s handling of the Gaza war.
“I was the first, and unfortunately the only official Jewish official to publicly resign in protest of the administration’s unconditional support for Israel during the war in Gaza,” Greenberg Call tells The Guardian.
“There is something shifting. Showing up is really important, and our role as Americans especially – our government and our tax dollars are funding this. We have an obligation, specifically as American Jews, to stand up against what’s happening in our name.”
By 9 p.m., police had loaded at least 40 arrestees into police vans, and the remaining demonstrators dispersed. Officers charged those arrested with blocking the street, though exact numbers and specific charges were not immediately available from the NYPD.
In a press release issued after the arrests, IfNotNow described the mobilization as “the broadest tent coalition in the Jewish community against the atrocities in Gaza in the last two years, representing the vast majority of US Jews who are outraged by the actions of the Israeli government in Gaza.”
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