Pro-Palestinian protesters block airport access roads in New York, Los Angeles

Pro-Palestine protesters briefly blocked entrance roads to airports in New York and Los Angeles on Wednesday, in protest against Gaza.

As US airlines contended with a rush of holiday travel, the demonstrations snarled traffic on the outskirts of New York’s John F. Kennedy International Airport and Los Angeles International Airport.

In New York, activists locked arms and held banners demanding an end to the Gaza war and expanded rights for Palestinians, bringing traffic to a standstill on the expressway leading up to the airport for about 20 minutes.

Video posted to social media showed passengers, some carrying suitcases, leaving vehicles behind and stepping over barriers onto the highway median. One woman could be heard saying that she was “sorry for what’s going on in another country,” but she had to get to work, using an obscenity.

Twenty-six people were arrested on the roadway, said Steve Burns, a spokesperson for the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey. The agency also dispatched two buses “offering rides to travelers involved in the backup to allow them to reach the airport safely,” Burns said.

Around the same time as the New York protest, a major thoroughfare leading to the Los Angeles airport was shut down by another group of pro-Palestinian protesters, who dragged traffic cones, trash bins, scooters and debris into the lanes, according to news helicopter footage.

The group appeared to flee when police arrived, though the Los Angeles Police Department said traffic around the airport remained impacted roughly two hours after the demonstration was declared unlawful.

The number of arrests in Los Angeles was not immediately known. An estimated 215,000 passengers and 87,000 vehicles were expected to pass through the Los Angeles airport on Wednesday, according to a holiday travel forecast.

Passengers are WALKING past the protest blockade to get to their terminal. The protest is happening along I678 and the service road next to it leading to JFK International Airport in New York City. pic.twitter.com/EVD4uO2ct3

— Oliya Scootercaster 🛴 (@ScooterCasterNY) December 27, 2023

Since the war on Gaza  erupted on 7 October, near nightly protests have broken out in cities across the United States. In New York, organizers have responded to the growing death toll in Gaza with escalating actions aimed at disrupting some of the city's best-known events, including the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade and the annual tree-lighting ceremony at Rockefeller Center.

At a news conference Tuesday, New York City Mayor Eric Adams criticized some of the protest organizers’ tactics and suggested police may need to ramp up their response.

“I don’t believe that people should be able to just take over our streets and march in our streets,” he said. “I don’t believe people should be able to take over our bridges. I just don’t believe you can run a city this complex where people can just do whatever they want.”