Some 500 protestors affiliated with Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP), including artists Nan Goldin and Molly Crabapple, gathered at the pedestal of the Statue of Liberty in New York Harbor on Monday in protest of the bombardment of Gaza by Israel.
Demonstrators at the National Park Service–managed statue—one of the most highly-trafficked monuments in the United States—called for an immediate end to the violence in Gaza, which has nearly 10,000 people, per statistics shared this week by the local Ministry of Health.
Israel launched its military campaign in retaliation for the October 7 attack by Hamas that involved killing 1,400 citizens, wounding 3,500 more, and taking some 200 hostages. Some of those hostages have since been released.
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In a statement posted on X, Jewish Voice for Peace said, “Hundreds of Jews and allies are holding an emergency sit-in, taking over the island to demand a ceasefire in Gaza. We refuse to allow a genocide to be carried out in our names.”
Demonstrators dressed in matching shirts that read “Not in Our Name” and “Ceasefire Now,” and brandished large banners featured the messages “Never Again For Anyone”, “The Whole World Is Watching”, and “Palestinians Should Be Free.”
“As long as the people of Gaza are screaming, we need to yell louder,” Goldin said at the event, which followed a similar action at Manhattan’s Grand Central Terminal. That protest was reportedly the largest demonstration the historic train station had ever seen.
A spokesperson for Jewish Voice for Peace said there had been no damage to the statue and the surrounding park, and that no arrests were made during the protest.
Liberty Island is home to Frédéric Auguste Bartholdi’s iconic Liberty Enlightening the World (1886), as well as the $100 million Statue of Liberty Museum, which opened in 2019.