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Thousands of Pro-Palestine protesters gathered on the foot of the Manhattan Bridge in NYC on Sunday, November 26, and blocked traffic as they demanded a ceasefire in Gaza, in relation to the ongoing Israel-Hamas conflict.
Around 3:30 pm, the NYPD posted on X and informed the public that the Manhattan Bridge was closed from both directions due to a demonstration, advising everyone to use alternative routes. Later, at around 5:45 pm, the NYPD updated that the transportation reopened on both ends, but alerted travelers that they should expect traffic as well as residual delays on the bridge and areas adjacent to it.
Users on social media, however, were visibly angered and annoyed by the demonstrators blocking the roads leading to the Manhattan Bridge and not letting any vehicles pass. One X user commented on @rawsalerts' post on the same and called the obstruction of traffic a crime.
Pro-Palestine demonstration blocking traffic on Manhattan Bridge infuriates netizens
Even though a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas has been put into effect since Friday, several chants recited by the demonstrators at Sunday’s protest included calls for a ceasefire and denouncing genocide. They also addressed Joe Biden and asked him to pick a side. Some even chanted:
“US out of the Middle East! End the war on Gaza.”
The demonstration was reportedly organized by the human rights organization, Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP). It issued a statement explaining that a lot of protestors were prepared to be apprehended.
Social media users criticized the massive protest on a busy route, such as the Manhattan Bridge, that blocked traffic and caused inconvenience to a lot of people on the road. Some said that protesting is fine but condemned how it impacts the regular flow of life.
Many expressed their concern for ambulances or emergency vehicles stuck in that traffic and said that protests like this can cost a life if a critical patient is stuck in that traffic, trying to get to the hospital. Several people demanded the mass arrest of all these protestors. A few others wrote that those protestors were probably paid to be there.
As per the New York Post, the NYPD arrested two men and one woman among the protestors on the Manhattan Bridge.
