Hundreds of Pro-Palestinian protesters targeted Black Friday shoppers at Macy’s in New York City a day after disrupting its annual Thanksgiving Day Parade.
The crowd of demonstrators gathered right outside the department store’s flagship location on 34th Street on Friday. They held signs that read, ‘Free Palestine!’ and ‘Palestine will be free’ and waved the Middle Eastern country’s flag.
‘Why are you shopping? Bombs are dropping!’ they chanted toward the store, from behind barricades.
Then then switched to chanting, ‘Shame on you!’
A video shared by Timcast News showed Macy’s filled with people inside for the annual discounted shopping day, and then the street outside with the large gathering of protesters and bystanders on the sidewalk recording the action with their phones.
Protesters unraveled a massive Palestine flag and shut down 34th Street and 6th Avenue temporarily.
It was one of multiple pro-Palestinian protests across the city. Demonstrators also shouted outside the PUMA flagship store to bring ‘attention to the brand’s sponsorship of Israel’s football association’, the Daily Mail reported.
The Black Friday protests broke out a day after a few dozen pro-Palestinian activists cut into Macy’s 97th Thanksgiving parade on Thursday. Some of the protesters glued themselves to the pavement on Sixth Avenue, forcing the parade to continue around them. Police arrested 34 protesters on the parade route.
Protests also erupted outside The New York Times office with people chanting, ‘Every time media lies, a neighborhood in Gaza dies,’ and outside the public library at Bryant Park.
The protests on Black Friday unfolded the same day that the first hostages were freed from Gaza as part of a four-day truce between Israel and Hamas that took effect in the morning.
Thirteen Israelis were released on Friday, including four children and their mothers and five elderly women. In addition, 11 Thai and Filipino hostages who were kidnapped and taken by Hamas on October 7 were set free.
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