Jewish Voice for Peace activists are detained after blocking Spring Garden Street Bridge, part of I-76
More than 30 protesters were detained after the demonstration blocked westbound lanes of the Schuylkill Expressway.
Pro-Palestinian demonstrators shut down the Spring Garden Street Bridge in Philadelphia and blocked the westbound lanes of Interstate 76 below during the afternoon rush hour on Thursday, leading police to detain more than 30 at the scene.
More than 200 activists with progressive groups Jewish Voice for Peace and Rabbis for Ceasefire assembled at the bridge near the Philadelphia Museum of Art, starting around 3:30 p.m., chanting “Let Gaza live” and calling on U.S. leaders to secure a cease-fire in the Israel-Hamas war.
Meanwhile, a smaller group converged on the highway below and blocked traffic for about 10 minutes until police intervened and placed protesters in zip ties along the highway median. But protesters remained on the bridge as rabbis lighted the shamash candle on a menorah and led songs in Hebrew, calling for peace.
Westbound traffic on I-76 was shut down for about a half-hour. The Spring Garden bridge — the sole one spanning part of the river, as Martin Luther King Drive bridge closed earlier this year for repairs — remained cut off to vehicles well into rush hour.
Police Commissioner John Stanford said 32 were arrested on the expressway.
Thursday’s action was one of eight planned by Jewish Voice for Peace on bridges and highways across the country in the eighth day of Hanukkah, organizers said.
Rabbi Alissa Wise, the lead organizer of Rabbis for Ceasefire, said holiday celebrations could not proceed in a conventional fashion while a humanitarian crisis unravels in war-torn Gaza.
“This is how we celebrate Hanukkah this year,” Wise said, as police detained protesters and traffic stood at a halt. “This year means disrupting business as usual.”
The demonstration was the latest in a sequence of dramatic actions organized by pro-Palestinian groups as the war has entered its third month. Jewish Voice for Peace was also responsible for the sit-in at 30th Street Station in November, as well as numerous protests targeting Pennsylvania congressional leaders like U.S. Sens. Bob Casey and John Fetterman. The group also recently protested a local fundraiser for the Israeli Defense Forces.
Many Jewish leaders have criticized the organization and its Jewish members for supporting the cease-fire movement, arguing the group comprises a small but vocal minority in the region’s Jewish community.
Using the refrain “not in our name,” protesters emphasized their message that the Jewish community does not monolithically support Israel’s actions. “Thousands of Jewish people across the country are putting their bodies on the line for a cease-fire, and for life,” said Hilah Kohen, an Israeli American graduate student at the University of Pennsylvania.
Protesters hold that the crisis in Gaza reaches catastrophic milestones with each passing week. According to the Gaza health ministry, more than 18,000 Palestinians have been killed and much of the blockaded strip’s infrastructure has been destroyed by Israel’s bombing campaign.
The cease-fire campaign so far has failed to sway many elected officials. Pennsylvania’s congressional delegation continues to back President Joe Biden’s administration in its support for Israel’s retaliation against the Oct. 7 attacks, with some officials saying they wouldn’t broach discussions about a cease-fire until Israel had completed its stated mission of eliminating Hamas.
Israeli authorities believe about 135 remain in Gaza of the 240 hostages kidnapped on Oct. 7, and the United States has been pressuring both camps to resume negotiations for another release, in exchange for more Palestinian detainees in Israel.
Rabbis who spoke on the bridge Thursday night called for a full hostage exchange and an end to the fighting on both sides.
”There is no military solution,” Mordechai Liebling, a rabbi, told the crowd. “There is only a political one.”
Protesters marched past the Art Museum around 5:30 p.m. before dispersing for the night. Distributing hand warmers to the crowd, some said they would rather have been celebrating the Jewish holiday with family in the warmth of their homes. But Jewish Voice for Peace member Jacob Winterstein said he wanted to teach his 3-year-old son about making sacrifices.
”I want to be able to say to him that I stood up and I fought,” he said, adding that “until there is a lasting and permanent cease-fire, you will continue to see disruption” in the streets.