JVP took over the Statue of Liberty to demand a ceasefire.
Yesterday, hundreds of Jews and allies took over the Statue of Liberty with a clear demand: Ceasefire now.
The action marked a sharp escalation, one month into Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza. Over 10,000 Palestinians have now been killed, among them over 4,000 children.
The takeover on Liberty Island was led by JVP-NYC. Hundreds of us — young people and elders, rabbis, descendants of Holocaust survivors, elected officials — sang “Ceasefire now” and carried banners that read “The world is watching”, “Palestinians should be free”, and “Never again for anyone.”
“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.”
The world really is watching: our action was on the front page of the New York Times.
In cities across the country, people of conscience are mobilizing to demand a ceasefire. Our protests are shifting and evolving tactically: shutting down highways, ports, train stations, and Congressional offices.
- On Thursday, November 2, over 500 faith leaders and organizers from JVP-Philly staged a sit-in inside Philadelphia’s 30th Street Station. Over 300 people were arrested, and trains were shut down for hours. Philly commuters received this alert:
- In Durham, North Carolina, JVP-Triangle organizers blocked traffic on the main highway for three hours. Congresswoman Foushee called for a “humanitarian pause” during a town hall that same evening.
- On Friday, dozens of JVP-Seattle organizers led a lockdown outside the office of Senator Patty Murray.
- Also on Friday, protesters from the Arab Resource and Organizing Center (AROC) and JVP-Bay Area locked themselves to a U.S. military supply ship at the Port of Oakland, delaying it for hours, as part of AROC’s #BlocktheBoat campaign.
- On Saturday, hundreds of thousands of people marched in Washington, D.C. in the largest pro-Palestine demonstration in U.S. history.
- On Monday, hundreds of protesters at Tacoma Port in Washington blocked a U.S. military supply ship loaded with weapons bound for Israel.
- Also on Monday, organizers locked arms and blocked the entrances to a Boeing plant in St. Charles, Louisiana that manufactures the weapons used to kill Palestinians in Gaza.
We’re building power towards a ceasefire across the country, and our opposition is panicking. So they’re working twice as hard to attack the movement for Palestinian liberation.
We’re witnessing a wave of attacks on Palestinians and their allies, fueled by false accusations of antisemitism, anti-Arab racism, and Islamophobia.
And proving how out of touch they are from the majority of their constituents, who support an immediate ceasefire, our elected officials are once again choosing instead to dogpile on Rashida Tlaib, the only Palestinian American member of Congress, because she defended the pro-Palestinian slogan “from the river to the sea, Palestine will be free.”
Let’s be clear: “From the river to the sea” is a call for Palestinian freedom and for the equal rights of all the people who live between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea — Palestinians and Jews. As our sibling organization, JVP Action, puts it:
As Jews for Palestinian freedom, we won’t waver in our belief that every life is precious. We know that these false accusations of antisemitism are a cynical distraction from Israeli atrocities, and that diluting the meaning of “antisemitism” puts Jews in greater danger. We know that there is no justice in arming an apartheid state — only in solidarity with each other.
Keep up the pressure on Congress.
Use this tool developed by our sibling organization, JVP Action, to call your members of Congress and demand that they support a ceasefire. You can’t call too many times.
Power Hours: Collective action every day.
Every day, JVP hosts Power Half-Hours for Gaza. Join us to channel your rage and despair into collective action to end the genocide of Palestinians.
The same link will work every day, Monday through Friday, at 3pm ET/12pm PT.
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