A caravan of pro-Palestinian demonstrators driving around John F. Kennedy (JFK) International Airport in New York City on New Year’s Day and releasing balloons, caused 60 flights to be delayed and created chaos on one of the busiest travel days of the year.
Vehicles festooned with radical slogans such as “One solution: revolution,” “Long live the resistance,” and “F*ck Israel,” circled the roadways leading to the airport, preventing passengers as well as airline crews from reaching their terminals on time.
NEW YORK, NEW YORK – JANUARY 1: New York Police Department officers pull over a vehicle as supporters of Palestine drive in convoy near JFK Airport as they targeted the airport with protests on January 1, 2024 in New York City. More than 21,600 people have been killed in Gaza, the majority women and children. (Photo by Adam Gray/Getty Images)
Some of the slogans and chants by passengers in the cars combined anti-Israel rhetoric with anti-police rhetoric familiar from the Black Lives Matter movement, which sparked riots in nearly every major city in the U.S. from 2014 through 2020.
The New York Post reported on the travel “nightmare” caused by the pro-Palestinian, anti-Israel protest, which was illegal and led to seven arrests:
Hateful anti-Israel protesters yelling inflammatory chants snarled traffic and caused chaos as they descended upon John F. Kennedy International Airport Monday – creating a nightmare on one of the busiest travel days of the year.
The Belt Parkway — a major thoroughfare used by vehicles to travel to the airport — was temporarily blocked off by police near Exit 20 as they tried to stem the flow of the “Flood JFK For Gaza” protest, which was planned by Within Our Lifetime, a Palestinian-led activist group.
“NYPD, KKK, IDF you’re all the same,” protesters inside an SUV screeched through a megaphone, according to video posted to X.
Protesters also let balloons go near the airport in an apparent attempt to threaten and halt air traffic, as seen on social media:
BREAKING:
Anti-Israel protesters launch a large balloon in front of JFK Airport, trying to shut down the airport.
They launched the ballon as planes were landing and taking off.
They were clearly willing to gamble with the lives of hundreds of people. pic.twitter.com/V0O8LvnG9q
— Visegrád 24 (@visegrad24) January 1, 2024
The New Year’s Day protest was just the latest effort by pro-Palestinian protesters to disrupt travel at major airports in the U.S. Other protests have targeted JFK, LAX in Los Angeles, and O’Hare in Chicago.
Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). He is the author of the 2021 e-book, “The Zionist Conspiracy (and how to join it),” now updated with a new foreword. He is also the author of the recent e-book, Neither Free nor Fair: The 2020 U.S. Presidential Election. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.
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