Hundreds of pro-Palestinian demonstrators gathered in Union Square in Manhattan on Thursday evening, then flooded a subway platform and rode a train to the financial district, where they condemned U.S. military aid to Israel and took aim at Gov. Kathy Hochul of New York as she delivered remarks at a Wall Street restaurant.
The protest, organized by the activist group Within Our Lifetime, began with a 6 p.m. rally in Union Square that drew about 400 people, many wearing kaffiyehs and carrying Palestinian flags. Protesters then surged into the Union Square subway station and rode a No. 5 train en masse to Wall Street, chanting and placing stickers with slogans on the car’s walls.
They disembarked and marched toward Cipriani Wall Street, where Ms. Hochul was scheduled to appear. Finding a police barricade outside the restaurant, they circled the area repeatedly, at times clashing with the police.
The demonstration was the latest of hundreds of protests throughout New York City since Hamas attacked Israel on Oct. 7. Those attacks killed at least 1,200 Israelis, according to Israeli officials; Israel’s subsequent military operation in Gaza has killed 29,000 Palestinians, according to Gazan health officials. The mounting death toll and humanitarian crisis in Gaza have prompted international calls for a cease-fire.
Near Cipriani on Thursday, at least one demonstrator was arrested by police officers. At least half a dozen people were arrested during a scuffle with officers at the intersection of Broadway and Vesey Street. In the chaos, a few protesters fell to the ground. Others were slammed onto the street by officers, their wrists were zip-tied, and they were taken to a waiting N.Y.P.D. van.
The police had taken a forceful approach to countering demonstrators on the block surrounding the restaurant. At one point, about 50 officers, many clad in riot gear, followed the demonstrators through the streets, demanding that they stay on the sidewalks and warning of possible arrests.
Nerdeen Kiswani, an organizer with Within Our Lifetime, told the crowd outside Cipriani that the group had chosen to target Ms. Hochul over her statements about the war, referring to remarks the governor made in February implying that Israel would be justified in destroying Gaza. (Ms. Hochul later apologized for the remarks.)
“Kathy Hochul, you can’t hide, you support genocide,” the marchers chanted outside the restaurant.
Earlier, at the Union Square rally, demonstrators condemned Israeli attacks on Palestinians and directed anger at President Biden, chanting, “Genocide Joe has got to go.”
Addressing the crowd, Ms. Kiswani emphasized the growing hunger crisis in Gaza, calling attention to the deaths of more than a hundred Palestinians there on Thursday when a crowd gathered near aid trucks and Israeli forces opened fire. The United Nations recently warned that at least a quarter of Gaza’s population is “one step away from famine.” Rally organizers on Thursday threw flour on the ground, to highlight the ease of food access in the United States, compared with the scarcity of provisions in Gaza.
“Children are beginning to die — they have been dying from the bombs and bullets dropped on them by Israel — but now they are dying of starvation,” Ms. Kiswani said.
The self-immolation of Aaron Bushnell, a U.S. airman, outside the Israeli embassy in Washington, D.C., earlier in the week loomed over the demonstration as well. One protester held a sign that read “RIP Aaron Bushnell.”
“Some may see his act of self-immolation as an extreme political act,” Ms. Kiswani said. “But he said himself it’s not extreme at all compared to what the people of Gaza have had to endure.”
After the arrests on Thursday evening, the march drifted toward Foley Square and dissipated around 9:30 p.m.
In recent months, protesters in New York, many calling for a cease-fire in Gaza, have gathered almost daily, sometimes blocking bridges and roadways. Some have targeted elected officials who have expressed support for Israel in the war and have accepted donations from pro-Israel groups.
Last week, demonstrators marched from the United Nations headquarters in Manhattan to the headquarters of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, a lobbying group, and then to a building where Senators Chuck Schumer and Kirsten Gillibrand have offices; some were arrested in the building’s lobby while calling on the senators to support a cease-fire.
