AMY GOODMAN: I’m Amy Goodman. This is Democracy Now! We’re standing outside the offices of New York Senators Kirsten Gillibrand and Chuck Schumer. Jewish Voice for Peace has shut down this office building. A number of people are getting arrested. Inside, others are about to be arrested, among them New York State Assemblymember Claire Valdez of Queens and New York City Councilmember Tiffany Cabán. Also protesting are the actor Sara Ramírez of Sex and the City and other TV shows, as well as well over a hundred people, Jews and their supporters. Their T-shirts say “Stop arming Israel” and “Stop starving Gaza.”

PROTESTERS: Not in our name! Not on our dime! No more money for Israel’s crimes! Not in our name! Not on our dime! No more money for Israel’s crimes! We want justice! You say “how?” End the siege on Gaza now! We want justice! You say “how?” End the siege on Gaza now!

TIFFANY CABÁN: My name is Tiffany Cabán. I’m councilmember of the 22nd District in Queens.

AMY GOODMAN: Are you getting arrested?

TIFFANY CABÁN: We’re going to stay here until they take us out.

AMY GOODMAN: Why?

TIFFANY CABÁN: Because we have to end the humanitarian crisis in Gaza right now. It hasn’t been two weeks, two months. It has been far, far too long. And our government is funding this genocide.

AMY GOODMAN: What can you do as a New York City councilmember?

TIFFANY CABÁN: Stand with my constituents who are demanding an end to the siege in Gaza, who are demanding aid to be let in to help to feed the folks who are starving in Gaza right now.

PROTESTERS: Stop starving Gaza! Let Gaza live! Stop starving Gaza!

REP. CLAIRE VALDEZ: I’m here because it’s unconscionable for anyone to stand by while a genocide is perpetrated on innocent people. We’re seeing a human-made famine unfold in Gaza that we’ve been warning about for years and months now. We need to let aid in as soon as possible. We need to stop funding [inaudible] in Gaza. The senators in New York state are complicit in that. They do not stand up against it. That’s why I’m here.

PROTESTERS: Stop starving Gaza! Let Gaza live! Stop starving Gaza! Let Gaza live!

KAREN ZELERMYER: My name is Karen Zelermyer. And the question isn’t: Why am I here? The question is: Why isn’t everybody here? How do — how do people wake up in the morning and go through the day like this horror isn’t happening? I just don’t understand it.

PROTESTERS: Schumer, Gillibrand, you can’t hide! You’re supporting genocide!

SECURITY: Outside! Outside!

PROTESTERS: Free, free Palestine! Stop the genocide! Free, free Palestine!

MORGAN BASSICHIS: My name is Morgan Bassichis. I’m a member of Jewish Voice for Peace. And we are here as Jewish New Yorkers shutting down the offices of Senators Schumer and Gillibrand, demanding that they stop starving Gaza. People are getting arrested right now, because we are outraged, we are horrified, witnessing these scenes of starvation, of Israel’s incredible violence against the people of Gaza. And just two days ago, both Schumer and Gillibrand voted for more weapons to Israel. So, we, as Jewish New Yorkers, are outraged. We say, “Not in our name, and not on our dime.”

PROTESTERS: We will not comply! Gaza, we are by your side!

ROSALIND PETCHESKY: My name is Ros Petchesky. I’m here because I must be with my people. And my people are Jewish Voice for Peace, who have been fighting this genocide relentlessly for three years.

AMY GOODMAN: You got arrested at Grand Central.

ROSALIND PETCHESKY: Yeah, you interviewed me. We were on the floor. We shut down Grand Central Station almost two years ago. We shut down the Statue of Liberty. We shut down the Manhattan Bridge. We have raised our voices. We have fought the corporations and the Zionists. And I’m a Jew, but I am an anti-Zionist Jew. And it means that I do not believe that a Jewish state is a valid entity, because it’s based on the exclusion and the extermination of a whole other people. They did that to us, and now we do that to another people? No.

PROTESTERS: We will not comply! Gaza, we are by your side! We will not comply! Gaza, we are by your side!

NAS ISSA: I’m Nas Issa with the Palestinian Youth Movement, and we’re here to protest the unconscionable vote by Gillibrand and Schumer against blocking arms shipments to Israel. The time has gone far beyond words. It’s time for actions. And now these senators are on the record supporting, you know, continued arms flow to a country that’s committing a genocide. And we’re here to say that that’s unacceptable.

AMY GOODMAN: What do you think of these mainly Jews who are getting arrested?

NAS ISSA: I think it’s a great sign of — you know, that the movement against a genocide, that the support for the Palestinian right to life is a cause that mobilizes all people. It mobilizes people across religion, across race, across class. And I think, you know, when I look at the crowd today, I just see that reflected back so clearly.

AMY GOODMAN: Outside New York Senators Gillibrand and Schumer’s offices, the last of the protesters are getting arrested, including New York City Councilmember Tiffany Cabán and Claire Valdez, New York state assemblymember.

PROTESTERS: Stop starving Gaza! Let Gaza live! Stop starving Gaza! Let Gaza live! Stop starving Gaza! Let Gaza live!

AMY GOODMAN: Tiffany, why are you getting arrested?

TIFFANY CABÁN: We’re here to stand in solidarity with Palestinians in Gaza who are being starved to death right now. It needs to stop. We’re using U.S.A. dollars to help them do it, and it has to end.