(NEW YORK) — Pro-Palestinian protesters were arrested for blocking the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade in New York City on Thursday.
For the second year in a row, the demonstrators jumped the barriers and ran into West 55th Street just before 9:30 a.m.
The exact charges the protesters will be facing are still pending.
The protesters sat on the ground, locking arms and chanting, “Free, free Palestine!”
Others held a banner behind them that said: “Don’t celebrate genocide! Arms embargo now.”
The brief interruption had spectators booing and then cheering as NYPD officers intervened.
The parade was delayed for about five minutes as the 21 protesters were removed from the road.
There have been international calls for a ceasefire in Gaza, but numerous efforts to reach an agreement to end fighting have not succeeded. More than 40,000 people have been killed in Gaza since the war started on Oct. 7, 2023.
The first Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade took place in 1927. It’s been a holiday tradition ever since.
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