In New York, hundreds of protesters gathered outside the Hilton Midtown hotel in Manhattan Thursday evening to disrupt a pro-Israel, so-called real estate expo that promotes the sale of illegal Israeli settlements in Jerusalem. Activists have described the sales as “part of an initiative to bolster the pipeline of Americans settling on stolen Palestinian land.” Jerusalem Mayor Moshe Lion reportedly attended the event. This is Rosa Martinez, an activist with the Global Sumud Flotilla who just returned to New York after being abducted by Israeli forces in international waters.

Rosa Martinez: “I just arrived from the Gaza flotilla about four days ago. I had been missing a lot of these illegal land sales. But to me, just coming back and entering this space, it just kind of goes to show how interconnected and how global our work is. I mean, you know, we were detained by the Israeli occupation forces last week, and, you know, that is a military that trains the NYPD. The NYPD has a bureau in Tel Aviv, and you know, a lot of the tactics that the Israelis use on us are just the amplified tactics that the NYPD uses on, like, Brown, Black and immigrant communities here in New York City.”