Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade Delayed by Pro-Palestine Protest, 21 Arrested

Demonstrators were seen holding anti-genocide signs and Palestine flags while chanting “free Palestine”

Macy's Thanksgiving Parade protesters (Getty Images)
Macy's Thanksgiving Parade protesters (Getty Images)

A group of pro-Palestine protesters briefly delayed the annual Macy’s Thanksgiving parade in New York City on Thursday, leading to delays and 21 arrests.

Protestors started blocking the parade after entering past the barriers on W. 55th St. and 6th Ave. A little over a dozen demonstrators can be seen in footage sitting down with a large sign that read, “Don’t celebrate genocide,” “free Palestine,” “land back” among other messages.

Pro-Palestine protests have sparked up in the nation in the midst of the ongoing Gaza Strip war between Israel and Hamas, which launched on Oct. 7, 2023 after Hamas attacked. Per ABC News, more than 41,000 people have been killed and more than 96,700 have been injured to date.

Over the summer, protestors took up college campuses across the country, including University of California, Los Angeles’ (UCLA) Westwood campus, Emory University, Northwestern University, Cornell University and more.

On Tuesday, President Joe Biden announced that the prime minsters of Israel and Lebanon agreed to a cease-fire. However, Israeli airstrikes continued to drop in Beirut before the agreement took effect Wednesday morning.

“Under the deal reached today, effective at 4:00 a.m. tomorrow, local time, the fighting across the Lebanese/Israeli border will end,” Biden said. “This is designed to be a permanent cessation of hostilities … What is left of Hezbollah and other terrorist organizations will not be allowed, I emphasize, will not be allowed, to threaten the security of Israel again.”

Biden continued: “Over the next 60 days, the Lebanese army and state security forces will deploy and take control of their own territory. And over the next 60 days, Israel will gradually withdraw its remaining forces.”

In addition, Biden called out Hamas for refusing to negotiate in their own good faith cease-fired, saying the Israel/Hezbollah proposal, the U.S. and other countries would make another attempt at a cease-fire between Israel and Hamas “over the coming days.”

Comments