What started as a weekday sit-in attempt at the Manhattan offices of Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer and Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand turned into a large-scale arrest scene on Monday, with nearly 100 demonstrators taken into custody after a tense standoff with police.
The protest, led by Jewish Voice for Peace, zeroed in on a pending U.S. sale of thousands of bombs to Israel. Organizers said participants staged the action to pressure the New York senators to support efforts in Congress to block the transfer. Among those arrested, organizers said, were whistleblower Chelsea Manning, actor Hari Nef and New York City Councilmember Alexa Avilés.
Inside and outside the Midtown building, protesters tried to mount a sit-in, chanting "fund people, not bombs" as officers moved in to clear the lobby and the adjacent street. Demonstrators who could not reach the offices turned their attention to the street outside, drawing a heavy police response.
According to WFTV, building security stopped protesters from entering the senators' offices, after which the crowd blocked traffic. Officers eventually took about 90 people into custody and loaded detainees onto three buses. The outlet reported that Jewish Voice for Peace led the action and that the sit-in centered on joint resolutions in Congress intended to halt the weapons sale. Inquiries to Schumer and Gillibrand were not immediately returned, the report added.
"This is the moment when Schumer and Gillibrand must listen to their constituents," Sonya Meyerson-Knox, communications director for Jewish Voice for Peace, said during the demonstration, according to WFTV. Organizers said their sense of urgency has spiked in light of Israel's operations in southern Lebanon and the broader U.S.-Israeli campaign touching Iran. Protesters banged pots, held banners aloft and tried to refocus attention on what they described as urgent humanitarian needs.
What protesters are pushing
At the center of Monday's action was a major weapons package that critics say is moving too quickly. In March, Sen. Bernie Sanders filed three joint resolutions aimed at blocking a proposed sale of nearly $659 million in munitions to Israel. The package, according to Sanders' office, would include thousands of 250-, 500- and 1,000-pound bombs.
The senator's release breaks down the sale's components and describes what his office says is an expedited process the White House is using to advance the transfer, according to Sen. Bernie Sanders' office. Monday's demonstrators lined up behind those resolutions, casting their civil disobedience as a last-ditch attempt to slow or stop the deal.
How lawmakers could respond
Congress does have tools to challenge arms sales, although they are rarely decisive. Under the Foreign Assistance Act, sponsors can force a motion to bring a joint resolution of disapproval to the floor after a committee review. In practice, however, such measures seldom become law, Roll Call reports.
Sanders and his co-sponsors have framed their resolutions as an attempt to reassert congressional oversight after the administration invoked emergency authority to bypass the usual review process, according to the outlet. That tension over who gets the final say on weapons deals is exactly what protesters outside Schumer and Gillibrand's offices were trying to spotlight.
New York's political scene has already seen a string of sit-ins and arrests tied to Israel-related policies, and this latest action fits that pattern. A similar takeover of the same Midtown building last August ended with dozens of arrests, according to amNewYork. That history helps explain why organizers again zeroed in on Schumer and Gillibrand's shared office space as their protest stage.
With votes on the Sanders-led resolutions expected this week, organizers said they plan to keep up civil disobedience until lawmakers act. For now, the latest round of arrests sends a pointed message from Midtown: the protest movement has shifted from broad street rallies to direct pressure at senators' doorsteps, and it has no plans to quietly stand down.
