Click here to read the full article in Haaretz
By Etan Nechin
Forty-one people were arrested on Monday during a protest of Jews in New York calling for the Trump administration to pressure Israel to halt its war in Gaza and allow humanitarian aid into the Strip.
The New York Police Department said all arrested protesters have since been released.
The demonstration, titled "Jews Say: No More," was organized by T'ruah, Jews for Economic and Racial Justice, IfNotNow, New Jewish Narrative and Israelis for Peace. According to organizers, around 1,000 people attended the protest.
"We need to keep up the pressure and get more food and aid into Gaza now before more Palestinians die of starvation," T'ruah said in a statement.
"I say with one voice that we oppose these atrocities, not in spite of our Judaism, but for many of us because of it," Morriah Kaplan, interim director of IfNotNow, told the protest.
New York City Comptroller Brad Lander, the city's highest-ranking Jewish elected official, said at the protest, "Yesterday we commemorated Tisha B'Av, mourning the destruction done to the Jewish people. Today, we are standing to call out the destruction being carried out by the Jewish state."
Also in attendance was Motaz Azaiza, a 26-year-old photojournalist from Gaza, whose popularity skyrocketed as he documented the war in Gaza until he left the Strip in 2024. Azaiza said, "The people of Gaza just want to live in peace, not to fear walking the street to get food, not to be treated by the violence of occupation. I just want protection for my people. This madness must end."
Azaiza posted videos of the protest to his 16 million Instagram followers, writing in Hebrew on his Instagram story: "This is the first time I am surrounded by this number of Jews, and I am not afraid."
As part of the protest, activists erected a tent in memory of Awdah Hathaleen, a teacher and activist from the West Bank who was killed by a settler last week. Hathaleen had worked closely with Jewish communities in the U.S.
The tent will move to different locations across New York throughout the week, echoing a parallel campaign in Israel in solidarity with his village, Umm al-Khair. Israeli settler Yinon Levi, suspected of fatally shooting Hathaleen, was released from house arrest on Friday. The IDF still holds Hathaleen's body.