200 pro-Pakistani protesters arrested outside New York Stock Exchange

Police arrested more than 200 pro-Palestinian protesters who were at a sit-in outside the New York Stock Exchange on Monday, demanding that the United States end its support for Israel. Many of the protesters were from the Jewish Voice for Peace, a well-known anti-Israel action group. They chanted slogans such as “Keep Gaza alive” and “Stop funding genocide” outside the stock exchange. Jewish groups involved in the protest said about 500 demonstrators took part in the protest. No demonstrators entered the stock exchange, but about 200 people crossed the security fence set up outside the main police building and sat in protest awaiting arrest. As police carried out the arrests, some demonstrators deliberately collapsed to the ground and were carried away by three or four police officers. A police spokesman said they arrested a total of 206 people, but did not provide details. The stock exchange did not immediately comment. Demonstrators expressed their anger at American weapons manufacturers and also chanted slogans against Israel’s attacks in Lebanon. “At this very moment, the Israeli army is waging a war of extermination in northern Gaza, slaughtering family after family. Therefore, hundreds of Jews and friends are shutting down the New York Stock Exchange to demand that the United States stop supplying weapons to Israel and profiting from genocide,” said Jewish Voice for Peace on X. Jewish Voice for Peace is an anti-Zionist Jewish left-wing activist group in the United States. Israel has denied genocide charges in the International Court of Justice and said its military operations in Gaza are targeting Hamas terrorists. According to the Israeli e-Defense Forces, they have killed 17,000 terrorists in the past year of fighting. There were also a small number of pro-Israel counter-protesters at the protest on Monday, who held Israeli flags. The protest took place a week before the world mourned the anniversary of October 7, 2023. According to Israeli statistics, Hamas killed more than 1,200 Israelis and took 251 hostages in the cross-border raid on October 7, 2023. Israel then declared war on Hamas and launched a ground operation in Gaza. Now, the fighting has spread to Lebanon and beyond, with Israel clashing with multiple Iranian-backed militias that call themselves the “Axis of Resistance,” which includes Lebanon’s Hezbollah, Yemen’s Houthi movement and multiple armed groups in Iraq. The ensuing Israeli military assault on Gaza has killed nearly 42,000 Palestinians and displaced large numbers of the population, according to Gaza health officials.