Protesters Block Midtown Traffic to Oppose U.S. Arms Sales to Israel

About 90 protesters sat in the middle of Third Avenue on Monday, halting Midtown traffic for about an hour outside the Manhattan offices of Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer and Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand. The crowd, led by Jewish Voice for Peace, first tried to stage a sit-in inside the building but was stopped by security before moving into the street and blocking one of Manhattan’s busiest arteries.

The action was designed as a pressure-point protest: organizers said they were targeting the senators because Congress still has leverage over major weapons transfers, and because Schumer and Gillibrand had voted against Bernie Sanders-backed resolutions last month that sought to block roughly $675.7 million in weapons sales to Israel. The group’s strategy was plain in the location and the message. By bringing the demonstration to Schumer’s Midtown office building and stopping traffic on Third Avenue, activists aimed to turn public disruption into federal policy pressure on two of New York’s most influential Democrats.

Police detained about 90 people, and protesters were later loaded onto three buses. Participants included Jewish, Palestinian, Iranian and Lebanese New Yorkers, along with U.S. military veterans, underscoring the coalition activists are trying to build around U.S. support for Israel and the transfer of American arms. Police and the senators’ offices did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

The protest followed a new round of legislative maneuvering in Washington. Sanders filed three joint resolutions of disapproval on March 19, 2026, to block nearly $658.8 million in offensive U.S. weaponry to Israel. Sanders said the Trump administration had notified lawmakers earlier in March that it intended to declare an emergency and bypass Congress to sell more than 20,000 bombs to Israel. That fight built on a Senate vote in July 2025, when lawmakers rejected Sanders-led efforts to block about $675.7 million in weapons sales. CAIR-NY said that vote marked the first time a majority of the Senate Democratic Caucus supported stopping offensive arms transfers to Israel.

The Midtown blockade showed how the movement is trying to widen that break inside the Democratic Party. Rather than limiting the dispute to Capitol Hill, protesters brought it to a major Manhattan corridor and the doorstep of two senators whose votes help shape whether Democratic resistance to weapons transfers becomes a sustained political force or a symbolic protest line.