New York police arrest dozens demanding end to US military support for Israel

Police in New York City have detained dozens of protesters who were demonstrating against US arms sales to Israel and calling for an end to Washington’s military support for Tel Aviv and its war with Iran.

Some 90 demonstrators, including whistle-blower Chelsea Manning, a former US Army soldier and WikiLeaks source, were arrested on Monday, said anti-war group Jewish Voice for Peace, which was one of the groups that participated in the protest rally in New York City.

The New York City Police Department, however, said “multiple” arrests were made and refused to provide an exact figure of those detained.

Footage from the protests showed a crowd gathering near the offices of US Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and his Democratic colleague, Senator Kirsten Gillibrand, as the US Senate plans once again to curb war powers of American President Donald Trump in an attempt to halt his unprovoked war of aggression against Iran.

Protesters chanted slogans like “stop the bombs”, “end the killings” and “free Palestine” while voicing their strong opposition to the US-Israeli strikes on Iran, Israel’s ongoing deadly attacks in south Lebanon and Israel’s aggression on the besieged Gaza Strip.

The demonstrators also chanted “let Gaza live”, “let Iran live” and “let Lebanon live.”

The US and Israel initiated a large-scale and unprovoked war of aggression against Iran on February 28, assassinating Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei and several high-ranking military commanders as well as hundreds of civilians.

Washington’s costly war on Iran, which soon turned into a regional conflict, has already consumed tens of billions of dollars and raised concerns about the strain on US weapons stockpiles, large parts of which are also shipped to Israel to be used either against Iran or against Palestine and Lebanon.

Since the onset of the imposed and illegal war on Iran, the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) has launched over 100 waves of missile and drone operations against key US and Israeli targets.

The retaliatory attacks, carried out as part of Operation True Promise 4, forced hundreds of US troops out of the region and inflicted billions of dollars in damage to US assets in the Persian Gulf countries.

Forty days into the war, a Pakistan-brokered ceasefire went into effect but Washington-Tehran negotiations in Islamabad failed to reach a deal due to the American delegation’s excessive demands and shifting goalposts.

To complicate matters further, the US said it started a naval blockade against Iranian ports in the Persian Gulf and the Gulf of Oman on Monday. The IRGC has already vowed to respond firmly to the provocative measure.

The Trump administration has so far cracked down on anti-war and anti-Israel protests by attempting to deport foreign students, threatening to freeze funding for universities where rallies were held and ordering screening of immigrants’ online comments. The crackdown has faced judicial obstacles.

New York City was at the heart of pro-Palestinian protests in 2024, when Israel waged its genocidal war against Palestinians in Gaza. The US-backed war killed over 75,000 people, triggered a hunger crisis and internally displaced Gaza’s entire population.

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