On February 15, Pro-Palestine activists staged a day-long picket outside of Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer’s office in midtown Manhattan. Schumer is one of the chief supporters of Israel in the US government, which itself is the single largest funder of the Zionist state. Schumer has been spearheading the effort in the Senate to pass massive military aid to Israel, and was recently behind a successful effort to pass a USD 95 billion foreign aid bill for Ukraine, Israel, and Taiwan. This bill included USD 14 billion for the state of Israel. The bill is now set to be voted on by the House of Representatives.
“We’re here to make it clear that we… completely reject all US aid to Israel,” Layan Fuleihan of the People’s Forum told Peoples Dispatch. “This additional 14 billion dollars is now just literally paying Israel to commit genocide.”
‼️ GOING STRONG!! The mass death, destruction and suffering being inflicted on the people of Palestine by the Zionist entity would not be possible without the backing of powerful U.S. politicians like Chuck Schumer!
We will continue to confront Schumer and every politician who… pic.twitter.com/uyBiUd1Vws
— The People's Forum (@PeoplesForumNYC) February 15, 2024
Activists in New York City have been targeting Schumer’s home in Brooklyn, as well as his Manhattan office, for months. For the past two weeks, rallies of hundreds have marched through Schumer’s Park Slope neighborhood in protest of his unconditional support for Israel.
“Chuck Schumer is one of the pillars of this genocide that we’re seeing today against Palestinians,” Munir Marwan of the Palestinian Youth Movement told Peoples Dispatch. Schumer has indeed used his positionality as the highest-ranked Jewish elected official in the United States to provide cover for Israeli crimes by referencing anti-semitism. Some of these accusations of anti-semitism are just misunderstood pro-Palestine rhetoric, such as Schumer’s common accusation that the chant “from the river to the sea” is anti-semitic.
Jewish-led groups across the US and the world have rejected this framing of anti-semitism and since Israel began its genocidal war, have led countless pro-Palestine actions. Anti-occupation group If Not Now led a rally outside of Schumer’s Manhattan office to reject his role in providing Israel with more military aid as recently as February 12.
TONIGHT: American Jews & allies just rallied outside of @SenSchumer’s office in NYC to protest him leading the charge to send $14 billion in weapons funding to Israel.
We projected our message on a nearby building to make it crystal clear: #CeasefireNOW. All eyes on Rafah. pic.twitter.com/VBMTpeBs49
— IfNotNow🔥✡️ (@IfNotNowOrg) February 13, 2024
