(UnitedVoice.com) – Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) is one of just nine Jewish senators in the US Congress and the highest-ranking one in public office. He was also responsible for bringing the newly passed $95 billion foreign aid package to the floor and getting it passed. While he was worrying about that in the nation’s capital, Jewish demonstrators descended on the lawmaker’s neighborhood.
On April 23, the second night of Passover, hundreds of protesters gathered at Grand Army Plaza, about a block away from Schumer’s Brooklyn home. Demonstrators have regularly used the plaza as a site for protests since the Israeli war on Hamas began last year.
Thousands of Jewish people gathered at the plaza for Passover Seder. Demonstrators passed around a circular banner that was supposed to represent a seder plate. Some of the protesters were wearing shirts that had messages scrawled across them that included: “Jews Say Stop Arming Israel,” “We Pay The Price For Genocide In Palestine,” and “Cease Fire Now.”
Morgan Bassichis, a member of the group Jewish Voice for Peace, told demonstrators that it wasn’t going to “be a Seder as usual” because they weren’t living in “usual times.” The group’s executive director, Stefanie Fox, told The New York Times they held the protest during Passover to send a message to Schumer because he was moving forward with aid to Israel. She said the Jewish culture compels them to do everything they can to stop the “historic atrocities” being committed by Israel with American tax dollars.
Hundreds of the protesters blocked the road, causing drivers to honk in frustration. Law enforcement officers told them to move. When the protesters refused, the police moved in and began arresting the demonstrators. Reports vary on the number of people taken into custody but it was between 200 to 300 people.
The protest in the senator’s neighborhood was one of many demonstrations sweeping college campuses and cities across the nation.
Copyright 2024, UnitedVoice.com
