Gaza protesters shut down L.A. freeway, angry drivers lash out: 'Just hurting working people'
In the middle of morning rush hour on one of the most notoriously congested thoroughfares in Los Angeles, dozens of protesters sat in a row stretching from one edge of the southbound 110 Freeway to the other.
Calling for a cease-fire in the Gaza Strip, they chanted, sang in Hebrew and erected a 7-foot menorah in the middle of the freeway in downtown L.A. on Wednesday. Behind them, those at the vanguard of a miles-long traffic jam grew heated.
Videos from news helicopters and social media showed angry motorists exiting their vehicles and skirmishing with the demonstrators south of the interchange with the 101 Freeway. In aerial footage from KCAL News, a man is seen pinning a protester up against the hood of a car while others yell.
Some in the crowd grabbed and shoved demonstrators, throwing a traffic cone and protest signs across the freeway. A motorcyclist behind the protest line revved his engine repeatedly.
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"You idiots are just hurting working people," someone is heard shouting in a video posted to X by freelance journalist Jon Peltz.
Off the freeway, a mother with her daughter in the backseat sat at a red light near the 3rd Street onramp. She threw her hands up and shouted, "Is it over? I'm in support of a cease-fire but we're late."
Another woman hung out the passenger window of an SUV with a Palestinian flag shouting, "Free Palestine."
Ysidro Palacios idled in his pickup truck on Beaudry Avenue. He was supposed to drive to South Los Angeles at 10 a.m. for a painting job but he was about an hour late. "I turned around and got a coffee when I saw the traffic earlier," he said in Spanish. "I hope they reopen soon."
The California Highway Patrol was notified shortly after 9 a.m. that the freeway was blocked, and by 10 a.m. officers were detaining protesters, leading them over to two dozen police cruisers. A tow truck was called to remove protesters' vehicles that were left blocking traffic. By around 10:30 a.m., the last protester had been led away, and the freeway was fully reopened by 11:30 a.m.
Authorities arrested 75 protesters on suspicion of failing to comply with a dispersal order, according to the CHP. The agency will investigate any reports of physical altercations, Officer Roberto Gomez said.
Organizers with IfNotNow, the progressive Jewish group behind the protest, apologized to drivers but said they felt there was no other way to make their voices heard to stop the killing and mass displacement in the Middle East.
“We have tried everything else. We have called, we have marched, we have sung, we have prayed. We have written letters and visited offices,” Noa Kattler-Kupetz, spokesperson for IfNotNow, said in a statement. “Yet politicians like President Biden continue to stonewall, and Israel continues to slaughter innocent Gazans by the thousands. Enough. We cannot wait another day.”
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The protesters sang "cease-fire now" and lighted a 7-foot menorah, marking the seventh night of Hanukkah on Wednesday, as cars waited helplessly behind them. They also sang the folk song "Lo Yisa Goy" in both Hebrew and English, whose lyrics roughly translate to “nation shall not lift sword against nation, neither shall they learn war anymore,” according to the protest group.
A protester with his arms bound behind his back said "Free Palestine" when asked for comment as officers led him away.
In a statement to the media, IfNotNow wrote that its members "demand an end to the financial support of Israel’s occupation and documented war crimes."
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About 100 people were involved in putting together the protest, Kattler-Kupetz said.
"Our action is grounded in our nonviolent philosophy and doing what we can with our bodies and voices" to bring attention to elected officials, Kattler-Kupetz said.
The group's action was meant to honor the lives of Israelis and Palestinians who have died in the war, according to organizers with IfNotNow. Hamas militants killed about 1,200 and took more than 200 hostages in the Oct. 7 attack on Israel, and Israeli forces have killed at least 18,400 in Gaza in the two months since, according to local health authorities.
Another protest organized by IfNotNow shut down a Hollywood intersection in mid-November, and during President Biden's visit to Los Angeles last week, over 1,000 pro-Palestinian protesters gathered at Holmby Park, across from the site of a fundraiser.
This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
