Hundreds of people assembled in Manhattan on Monday afternoon to march uptown to the Met Gala in protest of Israel’s ongoing war on Gaza. Police made multiple arrests as the rally splintered into smaller groups, with protesters moving through Central Park and down heavily-police-barricaded streets adjacent to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, skirting close to the main event but failing to disrupt the Gala directly.
Protesters assembled at Hunter College for what Within our Lifetime, a pro-Palestinian group, had characterized as a “Citywide Day of Rage For Gaza,” masked up, carrying drums, and toting picket signs, including one that read “No Met Gala While Bombs Drop in Gaza.”
As the largest group of protesters made its way up Fifth Avenue, drawing near to the museum’s red carpet, they circumvented and broke through police barricades. Later, pink and green smoke bombs were set off by protesters on Park Avenue, as well as at least one flare, drawing cheers from Upper East Siders filming on the sidelines.
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Both the New York Daily News and the New York Post reported that a group of protesters burned an American flag at a World War I memorial in Central Park. Several protesters spray-painted tags like “Gaza” and “Free Palestine” on the base of the bronze statue.
Uptown, The Daily Beast observed protesters being arrested by the NYPD at the intersection of Madison Avenue and 85th Street, as onlookers screamed for police to “let them go!” A few blocks south, a group of men in baseball caps yelled obscenities at three pro-Palestine demonstrators who were walking and talking amongst themselves: “Fuck you! Go fuck yourselves!”
A spokesperson for the New York Police Department confirmed to The Daily Beast that multiple people had been arrested. They said they had no further details to share on the arrests. Local station Fox 5 NY reported, citing unnamed authorities, that 25 people had been arrested and charged with disorderly conduct.
It was unclear how close the protesters aimed to get to the Met and the scores of celebrities there. The NYPD maintained a heavy police presence on the streets surrounding the museum throughout the evening. At 8 p.m., The Daily Beast observed officers laden with zip ties fanning out on 85th and Madison, despite the fact that protesters were nowhere nearby. At least one helicopter could be seen hovering over Park Avenue and another group of protesters.
Within Our Lifetime said that it had closed out its march around 9 p.m., approximately four hours after the call to assemble. The group encouraged supporters to continue taking “autonomous action” outside the Met. “Disrupt business as usual as Rafah continues to get carpet bombed and our people continue to resist genocide by any means necessary!” they tweeted.
By 10 p.m., protesters had mostly moved off the scene. Police officers lingered, inspecting the vandalism at the bronze memorial and unsuccessfully attempting to remove a Palestinian flag that had been draped on it. An independent journalist reported that the officers were forced to call in an Emergency Service Unit to take the flag down.
The 2021 Met Gala was similarly threatened with disruption by protesters, though the action was related to the Black Lives Matter movement. Nine demonstrators were arrested and released, according to reports at the time. Last year, several climate protesters chanting “tax the rich” gathered outside the gala and briefly blocked a van carrying Paris Hilton.
The Israeli onslaught on Gaza continued on Monday after Hamas said it would accept the terms of a potential ceasefire deal brought by mediators from Egypt and Qatar. Israeli authorities said that the proposal was “far from meeting” its “core demands,” but that officials would continue to engage in negotiations.
Earlier on Monday, the Israel Defence Forces ordered more than 100,000 people to evacuate eastern neighborhoods of Rafah, Gaza’s southernmost city, where more than 1 million displaced Palestinians have fled since Israel invaded in response to the Oct. 7 attacks. Soon after, the Associated Press reported, Israeli tanks entered Rafah.
The official death toll in Gaza surpassed 30,000 in late February, though the figure is suspected to be an undercount.
