Queens Councilwoman Tiffany Caban and Queens Assemblywoman Claire Valdez were among dozens of protesters arrested Friday at a pro-Palestine demonstration at the Manhattan offices of New York Sens. Chuck Schumer and Kirsten Gillibrand, according to city and police officials.
The demonstration, organized by the Jewish Voice for Peace organization, was held to protest Schumer and Gillibrand for recently voting against a measure that would halt U.S. arms shipments to Israel amid the war in Gaza. Their votes came as Israel — which is waging a war to eradicate Hamas in retaliation for the terrorist group’s Oct. 7, 2023 attack — has faced international condemnation for blocking critical aid like food and medicine from getting into Gaza, where the United Nations say starvation, especially among children, is becoming widespread.
Caban got her hands zip-tied before being escorted onto a decommissioned MTA bus with other protesters after refusing calls from NYPD officers to disperse from the lobby of the senators’ office building on Third Ave., her spokeswoman, Arden Dressner Levy, confirmed.
Levy said Caban, a democratic socialist who represents western Queens in the City Council, was taken into custody for “participating in civil disobedience” to demand that “Israel stop starving Gaza.”
“Israeli attacks in Gaza have created the highest rate of child amputees in the world. Israel is blocking food, medicine, and baby formula from entering Gaza. Israel is systematically destroying Palestinian life and society, and Chuck Schumer and Kirsten Gillibrand are writing the checks,” Levy said. “Never again is now.”
Valdez, a fellow democratic socialist who also reps western Queens, was also put in zip ties after being arrested.
While being led onto the bus, Valdez told reporters the U.S. and Israel must stop “starving Gaza.”
“Any politician who’s not doing something about it is failing New Yorkers,” she said.
Spokespeople for Schumer and Gillibrand didn’t immediately return requests for comment.
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