Statue of Liberty Shut Down by Protesters Calling for Gaza Cease-fire

skhayfa@lemmy.world to News@lemmy.world – 339 points –
nymag.com

Dressed uniformly in black, the protesters with Jewish Voice for Peace gathered on the pedestal shortly before 1 p.m. when they dropped massive banners with calls for a cease-fire and other slogans, such as “The Whole World Is Watching” and “Never Again for Anyone.” The group sang “Cease-fire now” and occupied the national monument for about 20 minutes before dispersing. The protest, which the group said included more than 500 people, continued on a ferry headed back to Manhattan.

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“We came to the Statue of Liberty today because we are inspired by the words of our Jewish ancestor, Emma Lazarus, that are etched into the monument,” said Jay Saper, an JVP organizer. “Those words compel us to take action to support the Palestinians of Gaza yearning to be free. And we will continue to take action until we bring about a cease-fire and until Palestinians are free.”

"This is one of the greatest symbols of New York City and our supposed commitments to universal values of liberty and freedom and respite,” he said. “And yet what we’ve seen is our country allowing for a genocide to take place.”

Cutting Israel from SWIFT, stop exportation/importation, freeze assets, stop providing weapons/ammunition, put in "technical" quarantine any co-israeli officers/white collars in our countries.

For a country like Israel, I think it might be a little bit more effective. At least, let's see, they never got "punished", they are like spoiled kids, so a bit of education, you know.

Person super ignorant about the situation here:

When they say the Palestinians "want to be free" do they mean from the war, or were they not previously?

They not previously.

People who fled previous wars are not allowed to come back. People who are in west bank can't move easily due to many many checkpoints. People who became Israeli are not allowed the same right as "European Jew". People who are living in Isreal are bing "legally" kicked out from there homes if a jewsh family claim the area as there own. People who are Yemenian or Ethiopian Jew got their kids missing in the past, they took their kids and most likely these kids died and never documented. Occupiers,"called settlers", get free arms, ( claimed to protect themselves) but they go around to humiliate other plastenian in villages while the Israel, "security", is watching.

Everything I mentioned can be easily verified by a google search.

I think this is self-preservation and humanitarian at this point. Racists don't care if you are Zionist or Jewish, just like they don't care if you are an innocent civilian or Hamas. Hamas and Zionists are on the same page of terror. Needs to end before innocent Jews who have nothing to do with this are attacked and killed, and of course, people trying to just get away from US-funded bombs.

Or maybe it's just basic human decency not wanting babies to be killed.

I feel like it would be more effective to shut down a large street and for more than 20 minutes but it's better than nothing

That's been working well for climate activists everywhere...

Singing kumbaya and asking nicely it is then.

If another 10000 people blow upwe break out the celebrities singing Imagine

This is the best argument for stopping the war. I can't handle the cringe from another Imagine

All that accomplishes is pissing people off and making them less empathic to your cause. Not to mention it has killed people by blocking emergency services.

I guess someone should tell the Black Panthers, Stonewall and every successful worker right movement they did it all wrong and they shouldn't have inconvenienced anyone.

Also Rosa Parks should have just sat down, why be such a bother, everyone is on the same bus.

This protest is aimed at the government, not US society. While not the most radical, its important to show just how many people care about this cause.

A cease fire just means more dead Israelis. At least according to the Palestinians the other day when interviewed. The leadership is openly saying they intend on doing 10/7 style attacks again and again....so what country could possibly go ahead with a ceasefire?

At least according to the Palestinians the other day when interviewed.

I think you mean to say Hamas, who are not supported by the majority of Palestinians.

A cease fire just means more dead Israelis

A cease fire means no more dead anyone. A lack of a cease fire means you just want more dead Palestinians.

Israel is perfectly capable of defending itself without committing genocide

a cease fire means no more dead anyone

On 6/10 there was a cease fire - that didn't prevent Israelis from being slaughtered. Hamas showed no* indication of stopping their massacares. In fact, they did the opposite - they only talk about how glad they are with the massacare and how they intend to do that again.

Israel is perfectly capable of defending itself without comitting genocide

Then what was the 7/10 attack? Even with oppressing the region they can't defend against such terror acts without their air force.

On 6/10 there was a cease fire - that didn't prevent Israelis from being slaughtered. Hamas showed no* indication of stopping their massacares. In fact, they did the opposite - they only talk about how glad they are with the massacare and how they intend to do that again.

You talk about Hamas but Israel mainly kills innocent civilians. Weird.

I don't like war generally but go ahead, kill Hamas. The problem is all the other people that are killed.

And also, before the conflict there had already been more Palestinians killed in the west bank in 2023 than any year since 2005. So did Israel respect this "cease fire"?

Obviously when people say cease fire they mean a real one.

Then what was the 7/10 attack? Even with oppressing the region they can't defend against such terror acts without their air force.

A failure. That doesn't justify genocide of people who didn't do anything wrong and most of whom won't even remember the last election.

Israel mainly kills innocent civilians

You mean during this war or before? If during, then yeah probably (although Hamas won't release the numbers of terrorists/civilians killed) But again, that's just war, and war is horrible. We can all agree on that.

And about 2023 being the deadliest one - it's so much more nuanced than this - it's indeed the Israeli government's fault that things escalated since it's one of the most right-wing governments Israel has ever seen - and their lack of competence should and is blamed for the escalation and for allowing such a major attack to happen. Israel's government has a lot to answer after this war, to a lot of people - especially to Israelis.

That is to say, the escalation in violence was in the west bank, not in Gaza. Gaza was a relatively quiet area for months up until the attack (except for disturbenceses on the fence which Israel stupidly disregarded)

obviously when people say cease fire they mean a real one

Then by that standard there have been 0 cease fires in Gaza since Hamas took over. Rockets are fired from Gaza at least once a year - is that peace in your eyes? Calling for it now after all those years is just ridiculous. Maybe a pause for humanitarian aid, but ceasefire? Basically giving Gaza back to Hamas? What sane Israeli would live in one of the slaughtered Kibutz while Hamas is still in power?

A failure. That doesn't justify genocide of people

War != Genocide. They both have massive civilian deaths - but it's an important distinction. The 7/10 attack does indeed justify entering a war - where sadly lots of civilians are killed. Poor Gazans have both Israel and Hamas to blame for allowing this war to happen.

You mean during this war or before? If during, then yeah probably (although Hamas won't release the numbers of terrorists/civilians killed) But again, that's just war, and war is horrible. We can all agree on that.

Absolutely! I meant during this outbreak but I don't think it matters. It's always the same.

That is to say, the escalation in violence was in the west bank, not in Gaza. Gaza was a relatively quiet area for months up until the attack (except for disturbenceses on the fence which Israel stupidly disregarded)

This is true but obviously it's related.

Then by that standard there have been 0 cease fires in Gaza since Hamas took over. Rockets are fired from Gaza at least once a year - is that peace in your eyes? Calling for it now after all those years is just ridiculous. Maybe a pause for humanitarian aid, but ceasefire? Basically giving Gaza back to Hamas? What sane Israeli would live in one of the slaughtered Kibutz while Hamas is still in power?

No it is not peace. Plus with the iron dome the rockets are pointless and stupid. But Israel has been blockading Gaza for 16 years, it's an open air prison. A cease fire would be to help the civilians trapped. You ask what sane Israeli would live in one of the slaughtered Kibutz: imagine if you couldn't leave because a superior power is keeping you by force. It fucking sucks. But nobody will help you because we aren't sure if your neighbour is a secret terrorist, so we may have to bomb your house. Sorry.

The only way to actually achieve peace is for Israel to recognize the human rights of Palestinians and allow a Palestinian state to exist. If you oppress people you can't be surprised if they rise up, and acting like the victim is misleading at best.

War != Genocide. They both have massive civilian deaths - but it's an important distinction. The 7/10 attack does indeed justify entering a war - where sadly lots of civilians are killed. Poor Gazans have both Israel and Hamas to blame for allowing this war to happen.

I will just quote the UN

genocide means any of the following acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group, as such:

Killing members of the group;

Causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group;

Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part;

Imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group;

Forcibly transferring children of the group to another group.

Israel has undoubtedly done the first three. Only one is required. You might argue intent but this doesn't fly in my opinion. They have told people to leave to the south to be safe, then bombed the roads south and bombed the actual south. Cut off water. Bombed densely populated civilian areas. The hospitals cannot function now. I refuse to believe this is not intentional killing, and this is not a regular case of war where "sadly lots of civilians are killed." The only monsters worse than Hamas are Israel and the IDF. We will look back on what's happening here with horror.

Reading your replies to this guy, and man, I thought neo-Nazi's online would be the last time I saw genocide denials. Instead it's pro-Israel accounts. The world really did flip in 2016 didn't it?

It's absolutely wild. I really hope people start to see what is happening here.

Harambe was the beginning of the end, it's true.

Bunch of clowns

How exactly is not wanting genocide a bad thing?

Generally when you make yourself look like an idiot in the process

"Love your neighbor as yourself ... unless it makes yourself look like an idiot, then genocide your neighbour" — Jesus

Because you can't close down a National Monument and achieve anything.

If their goal was to make the news. Then they achieved it.

If their goal was to spread a message. Then they achieved it.

I could go on, but I fear you don’t care for facts.

Political stunts are the same as changing your Facebook profile picture these days, it does and means nothing.

How is this a political “stunt”? Our constitution grants us the ability to demonstrate for very good reasons. You like not working weekends, that was changed because of protests. Women enjoying the right to vote, demonstrations made this happen. The civil rights movement, was one of the largest protests in our nations history. But I guess they should have just “changed their Facebook photo” instead.

Protests work best when the alternative is violence or the threat there of.

We got the worker rights by killing owners, gay rights by riot, civil rights by armed minorities, etc.

So protesting is useless?

Only if there is no impact. Protests must disrupt enough people to be effective.

Ideally. Yes. But not always. Sometimes just changing enough people's minds, or educating those who witness the protest can be enough.

You’re right.

Armed resurrection it is.

Ok, I know what you meant, but is armed resurrection regrowing a severed limb or coming back to life with a couple of AKs?

Hahaha, fuck that’s a dog pants sort of question now isn’t it.

Maybe it’s when you have just an arm left and the rest of you grows back from that arm?

lol

Disrupt the means of production, transportation, and sales of goods. Protest by stopping rail lines, air ports, and highways. Violence won't solve anything, but messing up the flow of goods is going to put the biggest spotlight on your cause.

Violence won't solve anything, but starving people (specifically poor people) will?