As Senator Chuck Schumer of New York prepared for a final vote to approve an aid package that would provide $26 billion to Israel and billions more to Ukraine and Taiwan, it appeared that at least 100 protesters were arrested after blocking the traffic in their Brooklyn neighborhood on the second night of Passover to call for an end to US military support for Israel.
Although Schumer, the Democratic majority leader, was in Washington, protesters gathered Tuesday at Grand Army Plaza, a block from his home in Brooklyn, a common site of protests since the start of the war between Israel and Hamas. As the sun set, hundreds of people gathered around a circular banner depicting a Seder plate, which included the words “Jews say stop arming Israel” along with images of the food consumed during the Seder meal. .
“This will not be a Seder as usual. These are not usual times,” Morgan Bassichis, a member of the progressive group Jewish Voice for Peace, told attendees.
After a series of speakers addressed the rally, a large portion of the crowd moved to the street between the north end of Prospect Park and the Soldiers and Sailors Memorial Arch, blocking the flow of traffic and inciting protesters. drivers to honk their horns. Police officers who had been monitoring the event warned protesters that they would be arrested if they did not move; When they stood still, officers with zipped handcuffs entered and began making arrests. Amid the frenzy, it was unclear exactly how many were arrested before the crowd dispersed. But it appeared that at least 100 protesters, some wearing reflective vests over black T-shirts reading “Jews Say Ceasefire Now,” were led away in pairs.
The protest, organized by pro-Palestinian Jewish groups, marked what has been a markedly different Passover celebration for Jewish people in New York City and beyond, as college campuses and family tables feel the effects of the war between Israel and Hamas.
Stefanie Fox, executive director of Jewish Voice for Peace, said the protest was held during Passover to send a message to Schumer as the Senate moved toward a final vote on aid to Israel, Ukraine and Taiwan. About $9 billion of that $95 billion package is dedicated to “global humanitarian aid,” including for civilians in Gaza. (The package was later approved in a vote of 79 to 18.)
“Everything in our tradition requires us to do everything we can to stop these historic atrocities that are committed in our name and with our tax dollars,” Fox said in an interview Monday.
Schumer, the highest-ranking Jewish elected official in the United States, recently called for elections to replace Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister, once the war ends. His rebuke of the Jewish state’s leader last month – in a speech in which he also spoke of his love for the State of Israel and his horror at the Hamas attacks of October 7 – exposed the growing rift between Israel and the United States, its most important ally, analysts said.
“Very recently, Senator Schumer spoke very harshly about Prime Minister Netanyahu on the Senate floor,” Beth Miller, political director of Jewish Voice for Peace, said at Tuesday’s protest. “For him to do that on the one hand and then on the other hand reward Prime Minister Netanyahu by pushing this military funding package, he shows that he is not serious about changing American policy to push for change.”
One attendee, Calvin Harrison, 29, a community organizer who lives in Manhattan, said he was at Grand Army Plaza “because I’m Jewish and I was raised to believe that Judaism is about justice.”
“Easter is a celebration of liberation for the future,” he continued. “We cannot celebrate liberation by ourselves while oppressing the Palestinians.”