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Pro-Palestinian protesters raged across America Thursday, swarm train station in Philly, and streets of NYC

November 3, 2023 | | Print Article

Pro-Palestinian protests raged across America Thursday, with protesters commandeering both a train station in Philly and the streets of New York City.

Over in Philadelphia, 300+ pro-Palestinian protesters took over an Amtrak train station and blocked the train entrances to call for a ceasefire in Gaza.

“The train station provides connections to Amtrak trains and the Southern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority (SEPTA) lines. At around 6 p.m., SEPTA announced the main entrances to the station were closed due to the protest and told passengers to use the side entrances to the building,” The Messenger reported.

The protest reportedly included activists from Jewish Voice for Peace, If Not Now, and the Philly Palestine Coalition.

“We are part of a growing powerful movement of Jews, of Americans, of Israelis, calling for a ceasefire. … We’re being told this [the bombing of Gaza] is done on behalf of the safety of the Jews everywhere and this is what makes us feel unsafe. We do not believe death will make us safe in this world,” Rabbi Ari Lev Fornari of the Kol Tzedek Synagogue said to local station WPVI.

“[We are] demanding that the US government, President Biden, and the Congress use its power and its privilege and its money to insist that Israel has a ceasefire with Gaza and save the innocent civilian lives,” he added.

Local residents Moriel Rothman-Zecher and Keziah Ridgeway also had something to say.

“Everyone deserves to live in freedom and equality and justice, and what is happening right now is harming the potential for my security and my family’s security,” Rothman-Zecher told WPVI.

“I think it’s really important that people see we’re all here — Muslim, Jews, Christians, no denomination, Black, white, different ethnicities and races — we just want a stop to the current bombing that is happening right now,” Ridgeway added.

Originally the protesters reportedly stood outside holding “ceasefire now” placards and chanting for peace. They later made it inside and continued their chanting.

Then “[a]round 7 p.m., some protesters started blocking train entrances,” according to WPVI. That angered commuters, who took to X to blast the protesters.

“Yeah they are doing a lot closing down a train station in Philadelphia. [A]ll they are doing is causing people to be late from getting home or getting to work,” one critic tweeted.

See more criticism below:

Over in NYC meanwhile, protesters were spotted on the streets reportedly burning the Israeli flag and ripping down posters of kidnapped Israelis.

“One of the protesters proceeded light an Israeli flag on fire before an individual is seen picking the flag up off the ground and carrying it away, but not before being kicked while he was on the ground by someone with their face fully covered by a Keffiyeh,” Fox News reported.

A Keffiyeh is “an Arab headdress consisting of a square of cloth folded to form a triangle and held on by a cord,” according to the Merriam-Webster dictionary.

Watch (*Graphic content):

Vivek Saxena
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