Pro-Palestine protesters put Grand Central Station on lockdown Monday afternoon before marching around Midtown in a continued demand for a Middle East ceasefire.
The bustling transportation hub at the heart of the Big Apple was brought to a grinding halt at around 2:30 p.m. on Dec. 18 after a band of demonstrators calling for an end to the Israel-Hamas war unfurled banners and waved flags while chanting “Free Palestine.”
The commotion drew a legion of cops who blocked off several entrance ways with metal barriers, also preventing commuters from accessing trains. Dubbed the “Global Strike” protest, the clear intention was to garner attention by causing disruption.
“We must stand up and not be silent to this injustice,” Rabbi Yisroel Dovid Weiss told amNewYork Metro. “We hurt and cry with the people who are dying and suffering under the stranglehold of the Zionist occupation. We want the world to know that we hurt because we are Jews, we will not be silent because we are Jews.”
From Grand Central Station, a group of hundreds marched toward Port Authority Bus Terminal where they publicly cursed at the New York Times building located at 243 West 41st Street. The group also hammered on the windows of a Starbucks at the same location as patrons sipped their coffee.
“I don’t speak English, I don’t know what is going on,” one man typed into Google translate on his phone before holding it up to the glass for protesters to read.
Continuing to pound on the glass, a brief skirmish ensued between protesters and police as cops shoved them away from the restaurant.
Next, the group turned their sights to Penn Station, where they attempted to cause disruption inside of the busy walkways. Following their brief visit to the transportation hub, the protesters made their way to Macy’s in an effort to impede holiday shopping.
Several arrests were reportedly made towards the end of the evening after police clashed with protesters.
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