Here in New York, hundreds of people shut down multiple streets across midtown Manhattan Thursday for another round of protests demanding a ceasefire in Gaza and an end to the Israeli occupation of Palestine. Hundreds of public school students joined walkouts.
Meanwhile, a large group of media workers led a march to The New York Times and later occupied the paper’s building entrance for over an hour, denouncing what demonstrators called biased reporting toward Israel. Protesters read the names of the at least 36 journalists killed by Israeli fire in Gaza and distributed mock newspapers with the words “The New York Crimes,” accusing the Times with “complicity in laundering genocide.” This is Palestinian writer and poet Mohammed El-Kurd.
Mohammed El-Kurd: “It is incredible to see hundreds of writers and journalists take part of this — in this action, because it’s telling us that journalistic malpractice, such as omitting facts and passive voice and denying war crimes and treating the lives of Palestinians as though they are less than, and demonizing and vilifying and dehumanizing Palestinians and Palestinian resistance, is completely unacceptable, if we are going to be truthful and if we are going to be loyal to the rules of this profession we call our own.”