The New York Police Department said that 200 persons, predominantly Jews, were detained during a big rally on Friday after taking over the main hall of Grand Central Station in protest of Israel’s attack of Gaza.
Protest organizers, on the other hand, estimated the figure at more over 300.
Long lines of young people stood in handcuffs, wearing black sweatshirts with the inscriptions ‘Not In Our Name’ and ‘Cease Fire Now’ emblazoned in white.
The massive sit-in was called by the group Jewish Voice for Peace-New York City, which said thousands of its members had attended the protest, blocking the main concourse of the city’s central rail station.ch
Organisers called the peaceful sit-in “the largest civil disobedience New York City has seen in 20 years.”
Rabbis launched the event by lighting Shabbat candles and reciting the Jewish prayer for the dead, known as the kaddish.
“While Shabbat is typically a day of rest, we cannot afford to rest while genocide is unfolding in our names,” said Rabbi May Ye, in a statement released by organisers.
“The lives of Palestinians and Israelis are intertwined, and safety can only come from justice, equality, and freedom for all,” the rabbi said.
Israel launched its bombardment of Gaza after Hamas gunmen stormed across the border on October 7, killing 1,400 people, mostly civilians, and kidnapping over 220 others, according to Israeli officials.
The Hamas-run health ministry said Friday that Israeli strikes on Gaza had now killed 7,326 people, more than 3,000 of them children.
