Jewish Voice for Peace shuts down Wall Street demanding an immediate halt of arms to Israel and accuses the US of serving its own imperialist interests in the region.
Over 500 anti-Zionist Jews and supporters shut down the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) on Monday morning by chaining themselves to the fence and doors demanding that the United States stop arming Israel instantly amid its ongoing genocide on the besieged Gaza Strip.
“Let Gaza live, stop arming Israel,” the protesters chanted according to footage posted on the Jewish Voice for Peace X account.
“Gaza burns, Wall Street booms! Arms embargo now!” the protesters were heard repeating in another footage.
The demonstrators were dressed in red t-shirts that read ‘Not in Our Name’ and ‘Stop Arming Israel’.
In another post, they emphasized that they “refuse to leave the epicenter of global capital to call out the US’s true motives in arming Israeli military”, which they said come to serve “its own financial and imperial interests in the Middle East region.
HAPPENING NOW: Police are arresting hundreds of Jewish protesters, dragging them out of a sit-in on Wall Street by their arms and legs. It's almost like the US funding and arming Israel is not about protecting Jews, but about something else…🤔 pic.twitter.com/05wV2yf4v4
— Jewish Voice for Peace NYC (@jvpliveNY) October 14, 2024
The group stressed that US President Joe Biden wants to believe that “his $18 billion slush fund this year for the Israeli government is for Jewish safety.”
“As Jews, we reject this myth with every fiber of our beings. We refuse to let our traditions, histories, and identities be used to massacre Palestinians,” the Jewish Voice for Peace continued.
NBC News stated citing a spokesperson for the New York Police Department (NYPD) that the protest started before NYSE’s opening hour at 9:30 in the morning, MEMO reported.
NBC reported that the NYPD arrested several protesters although the number remained unknown.
The group posted photos of NYPD officers dragging the Jewish protesters by arms and legs during the arrests that took place to force them to leave Wall Street.
Jewish Voice for Peace stressed that “there can be no business as usual while the US arms Israel and profits from genocide.”
Prominent Voice for Palestine
Throughout the one-year-old genocide on Gaza, the Jewish Voice for Peace have staged various protests and played a pivotal role in the student movement and encampments across US campuses.
Pro-Palestinian protests attract students and faculty from different backgrounds. Organizers of the protests include Students for Justice in Palestine and Jewish Voice for Peace.
The universities’ camps feature prayers and musical performances, as well as a variety of teaching programs.
Hundreds of Jewish New Yorkers and friends are shutting down business as usual at the New York Stock Exchange right now to demand the US stop arming Israel. pic.twitter.com/mX9tNtBHud
— Jewish Voice for Peace NYC (@jvpliveNY) October 14, 2024
Organizers denied responsibility for the violence against pro-Israel protesters, but some Jewish students claimed to have felt ‘unsafe’ on campus and worried about chants they described as anti-Semitic.
The chants include “free Palestine” and “from the river to the sea, Palestine will be free.”
University administrators and some local leaders allege that activists from outside the campus have participated in or organized some of the protests. For example, the University of Texas at Austin said 45 of the 79 detainees on its campus on April 29 had no connection to the university.
Gaza Genocide Continues
Flouting a UN Security Council resolution demanding an immediate ceasefire, Israel has faced international condemnation amid its continued brutal offensive on Gaza.
Currently on trial before the International Court of Justice for genocide against Palestinians, Israel has been waging a devastating war on Gaza since October 7.
According to Gaza’s Ministry of Health, 42,289 Palestinians have been killed, and 98,684 wounded in Israel’s ongoing genocide in Gaza starting on October 7, 2023.
Moreover, at least 11,000 people are unaccounted for, presumed dead under the rubble of their homes throughout the Strip.
Israel says that 1,200 soldiers and civilians were killed during the Al-Aqsa Flood Operation on October 7. Israeli media published reports suggesting that many Israelis were killed on that day by ‘friendly fire’.
Palestinian and international organizations say that the majority of those killed and wounded are women and children.
The Israeli war has resulted in an acute famine, mostly in northern Gaza, resulting in the death of many Palestinians, mostly children.
The Israeli aggression has also resulted in the forceful displacement of nearly two million people from all over the Gaza Strip, with the vast majority of the displaced forced into the densely crowded southern city of Rafah near the border with Egypt – in what has become Palestine’s largest mass exodus since the 1948 Nakba.
Later in the war, hundreds of thousands of Palestinians began moving from the south to central Gaza in a constant search for safety.
(PC, MEMO)
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