Dozens of pro-Palestine protesters gathered at US senator Chuck Schumer’s New York City office on Friday, leading to mass arrests. Elected officials, including New York City council member Tiffany Caban and state representative Claire Valdez, were among those detained. Demonstrators banged pots and pans in a noise protest outside the Midtown office.
The protest at Schumer’s office was one of several demonstrations in major US cities on Friday. In New York City, activists also targeted the Egyptian Consulate, with at least five people detained after chaining themselves to the Egyptian Mission to the United Nations. The Palestinian Assembly for Liberation, which organised that protest, demanded Egypt end its collaboration with Israel and stop what it called a “manufactured famine” in Gaza.
In Los Angeles, activists held a pots and pans protest, with the group Koreatown for Palestine stating: “Families face famine and children are dying of malnutrition. We will make the people of Koreatown hear the sound of starvation in Gaza.” Further protests were planned for the evening in cities including Arlington, Texas; Newark, New Jersey; Houston, Texas; Boise, Idaho; Portland, Oregon; West Hartford, Connecticut; Baltimore, Maryland; and San Jose, California.
On Thursday, protesters targeted the New York Times headquarters in Manhattan, writing “NYT lies, Gaza dies” on the building and smearing red paint over the Times logo. The demonstrations are part of a sustained campaign across US cities calling for a ceasefire in Gaza, nearly two years after Israel launched its military campaign in response to Hamas’s 7 October 2023 attack.
The campus-based movement in support of Gaza has led to disciplinary actions at Columbia University, where over 80 students faced expulsions, suspensions, or revoked degrees. Columbia recently struck a deal with the Trump administration to pay more than $220m to release frozen funding, a move criticised by historian Rashid Khalidi, who cancelled his autumn 2025 lecture course, calling the deal “the antithesis of academic freedom”.
