By Joseph Mogul
This article was originally published by Truthout
The Senate is poised to vote on resolutions that would block over $650 million in weapons sales to Israel.
On Monday, April 13, the scene in front of Senators Chuck Schumer’s and Kirsten Gillibrand’s offices in Midtown, Manhattan was too quiet, the couple hundred New Yorkers inconspicuously gathered in hoodies and jackets dressed too warm for the mild spring weather. Even the uninitiated had an inkling that something was afoot — a staffer returning from a coffee run cried out: “What the fuck, is this a protest?”
That it was.
On cue, the uncanny hush erupted into an emphatic chant: “Stop the bombs, end the killing / fight like hell for the living.” The people in the crowd unveiled their matching undershirts, which read: “Fund people, not bombs.”
In a few days, the Senate will likely vote on Sen. Bernie Sanders’s joint resolutions of disapproval (JRDs) that would block more than $650 million in U.S. weapons sales to Israel amid ongoing genocide of Palestinians and the U.S.-Israeli wars on Iran and Lebanon.
The JRDs come after reporting that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s persistent lobbying was a major motivator in dragging the United States into war with the intention of destabilizing Iran and bolstering Israel’s regional hegemony. Forty-five days after the war started, Iran appears to have thwarted these imperialist objectives, but the U.S. and Israel continue their devastating bombardment, which has already killed more than 3,000 people in Iran and more than 2,000 in Lebanon.
In the face of President Donald Trump’s erratic foreign policy and apparent insulation from the demands of the general public, a feeling of helplessness pervades the U.S. left. The horrors rage on, the imperialist mask is off, yet the robust antiwar movement that the moment requires is nowhere to be seen.
However, if a prevailing sense of impotence defines the current state of the movement, it was absent from Monday’s action in New York City. A diverse coalition of 18 organizations — perhaps an indication of a growing antiwar tent — including the Palestinian Youth Movement (PYM) and Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP) are loud and clear about where the antiwar movement must be found: in the streets.
A few minutes after commencing, roughly 200 protesters sat in front of the building entrance, blocking the doors. Office workers were denied entry and stormed off with exasperated expressions. Thirty New York City Police Department (NYPD) officers watched from the side of the road. Over shouts of “Fund groceries / not war,” JVP Political Director Beth Miller told Truthout, “So many of us feel helpless but the truth is that the majority are with us; anyone who feels helpless isn’t alone.”
Taher Dahleh, a PYM organizer, believes that this helplessness is a deliberate strategy by the Trump administration. “They are indicating to American citizens that there is nothing you can do about this; that your opinions don’t matter … A requirement of executing a genocide is the destruction of democracy,” he said. “The antidote is to bring people into avenues of engagement and organizing that are responsive to our political context.”
The exuberance of the crowd piqued the interest of passersby, including a mother and her young daughter who joined the chanting. Later, on the periphery, I overheard the mother explaining to her daughter why people are making so much noise. Before the pair departed, an organizer approached them to exchange contact information.
“Right now, the situation is that most of our officials are not listening to what their constituents are demanding,” said Miller. “Our job is to organize those constituents. Because that is when our politicians will start to pay attention, when they realize that constituents don’t just feel a certain way, but will act based on how they feel.”
Despite the war’s stark unpopularity and the growing disapproval of Israel, Senators Schumer and Gillibrand have proven themselves obdurate. “New York City and the world need to be reminded that Schumer and Gillibrand are willing to trade an AIPAC check for the blood of the people of Palestine, Lebanon, and Iran,” said Dahleh, who pointed out that 80 percent of Democrats and left-leaning independent voters have an unfavorable view of Israel. “They face a new generation of people who won’t play this game anymore. These people need to be put on record.”
The JRDs would block more than 20,000 bombs, ranging from 250 to 1,000 pounds, after Trump indicated his intention to declare an “emergency” to bypass congressional approval for weapons shipments. According to a press release by Senator Sanders, “These bombs are directly implicated in tens of thousands of civilian deaths in Iran, Lebanon and Gaza.”
On July 30, 2025, the Senate voted on two similar JRDs to block $675 million in weapons sales to Israel. Twenty-seven senators, all Democrats, voted in favor of at least one resolution — the first time that the majority of Democratic senators voted to restrict arms shipments to Israel — but Schumer and Gillibrand sided with their pro-war colleagues in the Republican Party.
Organizers are leveraging the upcoming JRDs vote as a strategic wedge — protesters in New York repeatedly chanted: “Schumer, Gillibrand pick a side / The people or genocide.” Are Schumer and Gillibrand willing to set aside their unyielding loyalty to Israel at the behest of their constituents? Again and again, they have answered “no”; perhaps this time will be different.
One hour into the civil disobedience, the crowd — which included well-known movement figures and celebrities such as Hannah Einbinder, Molly Crabapple, and Linda Sarsour — converged onto Third Avenue, overlooking Schumer’s and Gillibrand’s offices. Minutes later, around 150 protesters sat down in the middle of the street; dozens more continued blocking the office doors.
As the group sang “Let Gaza live / let Iran live / let Lebanon live,” Thomas Keppen, a U.S. Army veteran and member of About Face: Veterans Against the War, told Truthout that he “loves civil disobedience,” and that he wishes Senators Schumer and Gillibrand would have shown their faces. “It’s crazy that such intense security measures are imposed by elected officials to block their constituents from speaking with them,” he said.
Immediately after Keppen finished his sentence, the NYPD made a perfunctory dispersal order and threatened protesters with disorderly conduct charges, before rushing forward to arrest 90 people. The crowd continued chanting, cheering on their comrades in zip-ties.
“The difference between dispersed outrage and organized, mass people power is what will shift policy,” Miller said.
It remains to be seen if the April 13 escalation will factor into the JRDs vote. But regardless of whether Gillibrand and Schumer reverse course, hundreds of New Yorkers demonstrated that people do have agency, and that meaningful action is possible.
“Showing outrage in this moment is a moral and political obligation,” said Dahleh.
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