Pro-Palestinian demonstrators plan to risk mass arrest by closing down the Brooklyn street where US Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer resides, a coalition of Jewish groups opposing Israel’s actions in Gaza said.
The protest is one of a dozen to be held in cities around the country, including Portland, Oregon, and Seattle.
There have been a spate of major demonstrations on college campuses from California to Massachusetts over the past week. On many of the campuses, protesters have set up unauthorised encampments of tents to press their demands.
In Brooklyn, protesters will urge Schumer, the highest elected Jewish American, to support an end to providing US weapons for Israel’s war in Gaza, organizers said in a statement.
“Hundreds will risk arrest while demanding Senator Schumer, who has recently spoken sharply against Netanyahu, take the next step and stop arming Israel,” the statement said, referring to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Since Friday, hundreds of students and others were arrested at Columbia, Yale and New York University, while critics, including prominent Republican members of the US Congress, have stepped up accusations of antisemitism and harassment by at least some protesters.
The White House said it was monitoring the situation at college campuses closely, saying people have the right to publicly protest but not physical intimidation or calls for violence, citing some ‘alarming rhetoric’.
At Columbia in New York City, the university cancelled in-person classes on Monday in a bid to defuse tensions on campus. New York City police arrested more than 120 protesters on New York University’s campus.