From Anti-Israel demonstrators block airport access roads in New York and Los Angeles
NEW YORK — Pro-Palestinian protesters briefly block entrance roads to airports in New York and Los Angeles while demonstrating against Israel, forcing some travelers to set off on foot to bypass the jammed roadway.
As US airlines contend with a rush of holiday travel, the demonstrations snarl traffic on the outskirts of New York’s John F. Kennedy International Airport and Los Angeles International Airport.
In New York, activists lock arms and hold banners with slogans such as “divest from genocide” and “right to return,” bringing traffic to a standstill on the expressway leading up to the airport for about 20 minutes.
The demonstrators chant “from the river to the sea, Palestine will free,” a slogan used by Hamas and others calling for Israel’s destruction.
Video posted to social media shows passengers, some carrying suitcases, leaving vehicles behind and stepping over barriers onto the highway median. One woman can be heard saying that she was “sorry for what’s going on in another country,” but she had to get to work, using an obscenity.
#NYC 26 Protesters are Arrested after blocking the road to JFK demanding to "Free Palestine" and "Permanent Ceasefire"
People were seen going through the banners and around the group with their luggage as they left their ride and rushed to make their flight.
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— Oliya Scootercaster ???? (@ScooterCasterNY) December 27, 2023
Twenty-six people were arrested on the roadway, says Steve Burns, a spokesperson for the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey. The agency also dispatched two buses “offering rides to travelers involved in the backup to allow them to reach the airport safely,” Burns says.
Around the same time as the New York protest, a major thoroughfare leading to the Los Angeles airport is shut down by another group of pro-Palestinian protesters, who drag traffic cones, trash bins, scooters and debris into the lanes, according to news helicopter footage.
The group appears to flee when police arrive, though the Los Angeles Police Department says traffic around the airport remains impacted roughly two hours after the demonstration was declared unlawful.
The number of arrests in Los Angeles is not immediately known. An estimated 215,000 passengers and 87,000 vehicles are expected to pass through the Los Angeles airport today, according to a holiday travel forecast.
