After several months of ongoing protest in the streets of New York, pro-Palestine demonstrators are experiencing a new wave of police repression and vigilante violence.
On January 20, the New York Police Department arrested more than 10 protesters at a march in Washington Heights, a largely working-class neighborhood in Upper Manhattan, many targeted due to their use of amplified sound. Several leaders of the Shut it Down for Palestine coalition, including Claudia de la Cruz from the Party for Socialism and Liberation and Layan Fuleihan and Manolo De Los Santos of the People’s Forum were arrested, allegedly for breaking New York City Administrative Code around sound reproduction devices.
Multiple arrests in NYC of organizers of an Uptown march in solidarity with Gaza. NYPD has been snatching people using megaphones and says assembly of 20+ people in a park requires a permit. The march is continuing, and protesters call the arrests unconstitutional https://t.co/Y5JYpQe3NJ
— BreakThrough News (@BTnewsroom) January 20, 2024
Several other activists would later be arrested at the demonstration, which later joined with a pro-Palestine car caravan. One protester in the car caravan was arrested after chanting through a speaker placed on the sunroof of his car. His vehicle was also seized by the NYPD.
“The political nature of the crackdown is evident in the police’s selective enforcement—all across the city people use amplified sound and assemble but are undisturbed when it’s for commercial, religious and other purposes. But when people peacefully rally, as is their right under the First Amendment, they are treated as criminals,” read a statement later jointly released by the Palestinian Youth Movement, the People’s Forum, the ANSWER Coalition, Al-Awda NY-NJ, National Students for Justice in Palestine, and the Party for Socialism and Liberation.
“The NYPD arrested us today for the simple act of protesting in defense of the people of Palestine,” said De Los Santos upon release from jail. “They thought that this punishment of theirs, that this intimidation of theirs would be enough to shut us up. We are coming out with an even stronger desire to shut it down for Palestine.”
“We are going to keep building our movement. We know we are on the right side of history, we are not going to stay silent, and we are not going to slow down as long as the occupation of the Palestinian people continues,” said Fuleihan upon release.
Activists have been experiencing heightened levels of repression at several protests now. At a march on Martin Luther King Jr. Day, several demonstrators were brutally arrested, some reportedly for minor infractions such as sitting on a mailbox. Some protesters were targeted by the NYPD allegedly for telling officers to “shut the f-ck up.”
Here’s video showing exactly why NYPD brutally arrested a protester outside Gracie Mansion yesterday on #MLKDay.
Look at this thread to see more videos of how cops started all this just b/c some kids climbed a traffic light pole. https://t.co/9T5YAVYqfM
— Ash J (@AshAgony) January 16, 2024
During a January 19 protest organized on the campus of Columbia University, student protesters were violently attacked with chemical weapons by Israeli soldiers who are also students at the school. According to Columbia Students for Justice in Palestine, the Israeli Occupation Force soldiers sprayed students with “Skunk”, a crowd-control weapon developed by the IOF to use against Palestinian protesters.
“Students at @Columbia University have suffered potential damage to the lining of their eyes & are going to Urgent Care after Israeli soldier students sprayed them on campus with a chemical weapon. The NYPD was there only to monitor and racialize the protestors,” tweeted Columbia SJP, a student group which has been suspended by the university administration.
“72 hours since i was sprayed w/ skunk on campus: zero appetite, keep on throwing up, and i feel terrible. very fatigued and having trouble sleeping. skunk has not come out of my hair after 11 showers,” reported Layla, a Palestinian Columbia student who attended the protest, from her Twitter account.
While the NYPD and vigilantes crack down on protesters, one notable hate crime perpetrator has avoided jail time after hurling anti-Arab slurs and threats at a local food vendor. Stuart Seldowitz, former State Department official who served for four years as deputy director/senior political officer in the Office of Israel and Palestinian Affairs, was arrested for stalking and harassing a young halal cart worker. His harassment was caught on video on multiple occasions, in which he told the vendor that 4,000 dead Palestinian children “wasn’t enough” and threatened to report the worker’s family to the Egyptian secret police. Seldowitz has agreed to complete an anti-bias course, after which hate crime and stalking charges will be dropped.
