NEW YORK: Pro-Palestinian protesters airport entry roads were briefly blocked new York And Los Angeles Wednesday, forcing some travelers to leave on foot to bypass the congested roadway.
As U.S. airlines faced a rush of holiday travel, protests clogged traffic on the outskirts of New York’s John F. Kennedy International Airport and Los Angeles International Airport.
In New York, activists shook arms and held banners demanding an end to the war between Israel and Hamas and expanded rights for Palestinians, halting traffic on the highway leading to the airport for about 20 minutes .
Video posted on social media showed passengers, some carrying suitcases, leaving vehicles behind and crossing barriers in the highway’s central reservation. One woman could be heard saying she was “sorry about what’s happening in another country” but had to go to work, using obscenities.
Twenty-six people were arrested on the road, said Steve Brule, spokesperson for the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey. The agency also dispatched two buses “offering rides to travelers involved in the reinforcement to allow them to reach the airport in complete safety”. Burns said.
Around the same time as the New York protest, a major thoroughfare leading to the Los Angeles airport was closed by another group of pro-Palestinian demonstrators, who dragged traffic cones, trash cans, scooters and debris in the tracks, according to a press helicopter. pictures.
The group appeared to flee when police arrived, although Los Angeles police said traffic around the airport remained disrupted about two hours after the protest was declared illegal.
The number of arrests in Los Angeles was not immediately known. About 215,000 passengers and 87,000 vehicles are expected to pass through the Los Angeles airport on Wednesday, according to holiday travel forecasts.
Since the war between Israel and Hamas broke out on October 7, almost nightly protests have broken out in cities across the United States. In New York, organizers responded to the rising death toll in Gaza by stepping up actions aimed at disrupting some of the city’s best-known events, including the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade and the annual tree lighting ceremony at the Rockefeller Center.
At a press conference Tuesday, New York City Mayor Eric Adams criticized some tactics of the protest organizers and suggested that the police might need to step up their response.
“I don’t believe people should be able to just take over our streets and march through our streets,” he said. “I don’t believe people should be able to take over our bridges. I just don’t believe you can manage such a complex city where people can do whatever they want.”
As U.S. airlines faced a rush of holiday travel, protests clogged traffic on the outskirts of New York’s John F. Kennedy International Airport and Los Angeles International Airport.
In New York, activists shook arms and held banners demanding an end to the war between Israel and Hamas and expanded rights for Palestinians, halting traffic on the highway leading to the airport for about 20 minutes .
Video posted on social media showed passengers, some carrying suitcases, leaving vehicles behind and crossing barriers in the highway’s central reservation. One woman could be heard saying she was “sorry about what’s happening in another country” but had to go to work, using obscenities.
Twenty-six people were arrested on the road, said Steve Brule, spokesperson for the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey. The agency also dispatched two buses “offering rides to travelers involved in the reinforcement to allow them to reach the airport in complete safety”. Burns said.
Around the same time as the New York protest, a major thoroughfare leading to the Los Angeles airport was closed by another group of pro-Palestinian demonstrators, who dragged traffic cones, trash cans, scooters and debris in the tracks, according to a press helicopter. pictures.
The group appeared to flee when police arrived, although Los Angeles police said traffic around the airport remained disrupted about two hours after the protest was declared illegal.
The number of arrests in Los Angeles was not immediately known. About 215,000 passengers and 87,000 vehicles are expected to pass through the Los Angeles airport on Wednesday, according to holiday travel forecasts.
Since the war between Israel and Hamas broke out on October 7, almost nightly protests have broken out in cities across the United States. In New York, organizers responded to the rising death toll in Gaza by stepping up actions aimed at disrupting some of the city’s best-known events, including the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade and the annual tree lighting ceremony at the Rockefeller Center.
At a press conference Tuesday, New York City Mayor Eric Adams criticized some tactics of the protest organizers and suggested that the police might need to step up their response.
“I don’t believe people should be able to just take over our streets and march through our streets,” he said. “I don’t believe people should be able to take over our bridges. I just don’t believe you can manage such a complex city where people can do whatever they want.”
