Several hundred demonstrators gathered in Manhattan on Saturday to protest Israeli actions against Hamas in Gaza, 1010 WINS reported.
The protesters began organizing near Columbus Circle, and planned to march to the United Nations headquarters.
Zouleikha Ban, who was born in Algeria and lives in Staten Island, said protesters feel they are all Palestinians because “there is no justice” in Gaza.
The protesters called for an end to U.S. aid to Israel.
Many demonstrators told 1010 WINS it’s no longer just about the firing across the border, it’s about Israel’s blockade of Gaza.
Some protesters said they don’t believe Israel has the right to exist as a Jewish state.
“Israel has the power, Israel has political power, Israel has the money, Israel has everything, everything is at their resource. But the only option they think they have is to kill,” one protester said, according to 1010 WINS.
“Our tax dollars are going to Israel in support of this genocide,” Rula Yousef said. “Innocent children in Gaza have been slaughtered, bombs are being thrown at their houses as we speak and American stands by Israel.”
Some of the demonstrators chanted: "Free, free Palestine! Occupation is a crime!", according to The Associated Press (AP).
Mostafa Asadi, an engineer from Philadelphia who came to New York for the protest, said the current violence in the Middle East started more than six decades ago.
"The Zionists took Palestinian land and expelled them in 1948, and now Israel is trying to control the area," said Asadi, an Iran native who hoisted a sign that said: "Stop the U.S.-Israeli blockade of Gaza."
"The Israelis are racist," he told AP.
Throughout the operation in Gaza, there have been anti-Israel protests throughout the world, especially in Europe where these protests sometimes turned violent.
One protest in Paris saw hundreds of Muslim extremists attacking a major synagogue in Paris, provoking clashes with Jewish youths who rushed to defend the site and worshippers trapped inside.
In Berlin, footage of one such protest showed hundreds of demonstrators chanting in German, “Jew, Jew, cowardly pig, come on out and fight on your own”.
Last Saturday, thousands of protesters rallied outside the White House to call for peace and an end to the fighting in Gaza.
The crowd, young and old from across the United States, including scores of children on parents' shoulders, chanted "End U.S. Aid to Israel" and "Israel out of Palestine."