Some 500 Jews and their supporters protested Monday morning while blocking the entrance to the New York Stock Exchange, calling for an end to what they call an Israeli genocide in Gaza and Lebanon. Some protesters chained themselves to the doors; more than 200 of them were arrested, according to the New York Police Department.
Among them were artist-activists Molly Crabapple and Nan Goldin, both of whom were arrested for criminal trespass as protesters chanted “Endless war, profits soar” and carried signs reading “Jews say divest from Israel.”
The action was organized by Jewish Voices for Peace. Organizers draped a vest printed with the message “Stop arming Israel” over the famed “Fearless Girl” sculpture that faces the Stock Exchange. Banners held aloft were emblazoned “Gaza bombed, Wall Street booms” and “Fund FEMA not genocide.”
Photo: Sophie Hurwitz. Courtesy Jewish Voices for Peace.
“I’ve been working with Jewish Voices for Peace since the beginning,” said Goldin in a phone interview. “I’m very gratified to be working with Jews on this because for a long time I was going to Palestinian protests by myself. Since last year, there’s such a strong coming together among Jews about this and it’s very meaningful. It means a lot to Palestinians to see Jews putting their bodies on the line for them. It’s the least I can do. Things have been ratcheted up to an unbearable point, so I want to do anything I can to amplify the message.”
“Israel is committing genocide in Gaza and going on a murder spree in Lebanon,” said Crabapple in a phone interview. “They’re doing it with our money as American taxpayers and they’re claiming to represent Jewish people like me. Many of my loved ones are Palestinian and Lebanese. I’ve spent a lot of time in Beirut and been blessed to visit Palestine and Gaza. The least I can do as a human is to say ‘not in my name.’”
“A lot of corporations, like Lockheed Martin, for example, are traded on the stock market and are providing the weapons and funds for the genocide,” said Crabapple. Wall Street is, she said, “one of the sites of the war machine.”
Officers from New York Police Department detain protesters at the pro-Palestinian demonstration outside New York Stock Exchange building in New York, on October 14, 2024. Photo: Fatih Aktas / Anadolu via Getty Images.
In addition to being an iconic artist, lately signed to mega gallery Gagosian, Goldin has made a name for herself as an activist as she protested against pharmaceutical company Purdue Pharma and the Sackler family over the many deaths caused by the company’s massively profitable painkillers. In 2017, she founded P.A.I.N. (Prescription Addiction Intervention Now) after becoming addicted to Oxycontin. The group’s pressure on arts organizations has resulted in their removing the family’s name from prominent museum wings and declining future contributions.
For her part, Crabapple is an activist with two previous protest-related arrests behind her. She participated in the Occupy Wall Street movement after the 2008 stock market crash and has reported from conflict zones and scenes of political unrest including Ukraine, and historic locales like the courtrooms of Guantanamo Bay. She also once famously evaded security to pose questions to Donald Trump about his scandalously low wages for workers at his Dubai property.
“I love Jewish Voices for Peace,” said Crabapple. “I’ve been going to their protests for years. We also protested last October, when the genocide began, and we took over the Statue of Liberty. Jewish Voices for Peace is a light in this very dark time.”
Molly Crabapple, under arrest. Photo: Rafael Shimunov.
Israel has launched powerful military campaigns since October 7, 2023, when the militant group Hamas, operating out of Gaza, staged an incursion into Israel, killing an estimated 1,200 people, including Israeli civilians and foreign nationals as well as Israeli security forces. They also took 251 people hostage.
Israel’s military quickly entered into Gaza with the stated mission of destroying Hamas. More than 40,000 Palestinians are known to have been killed, according to health authorities. More than half are women, children, and elderly, according to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Human Affairs. The military campaign is ongoing, and ceasefire talks have been to no avail.
Protesters at the Pro-Palestinian demonstration outside New York Stock Exchange building in New York, on October 14, 2024. Photo: Fatih Aktas / Anadolu via Getty Images.
Also since October 7, Israel has been trading attacks with militant group Hezbollah, based in Lebanon. Israel escalated its attacks in September with explosives embedded in the communication devices of Hezbollah members, resulting in numerous civilian casualties, followed by what the New York Times calls “the most intense air raids in modern warfare.” Lebanon’s Health Ministry reports hundreds of civilian deaths.
The conflict is poised to expand even further since Iran launched some 200 ballistic missiles against Israel on October 1. Israel has promised to respond, and the United States sent an advanced anti-missile system to Israel, accompanied by U.S. troops.