Angry drivers try to move Jewish protesters who shut down LA freeway during rush hour
Angry Los Angeles drivers got out of their cars to help police cart protesters off the highway during morning rush hour after they blocked it for hours.
Several drivers were seen getting into a scuffle with protesters — from the group IfNotNow LA, who were calling for a ceasefire in Gaza — who who defiantly sat in a line to halt the highway Wednesday morning.
Fed-up drivers screamed at protesters to move, ripping away their signs, and one man was even seen pinning another to the hood of a car in the southbound lane on the 110 Freeway, videos posted to social media shows.
“You idiots are just hurting working people,” one frustrated driver yelled.
The protest group describe themselves as “anti-Apartheid American Jews working to end our community’s support for the Israeli occupation of Palestine” and while occupying the highway, chanted in Hebrew, erected a seven-foot menorah and yelled: “Shut it down,” according to the Los Angeles Times.
They backed traffic up so far back, a mother and daughter were stuck at a red light leading to an on-ramp. The mother grew so frustrated that she threw her hands up and shouted: “Is it over? I’m in support of a cease-fire but we’re late,” The Times reported.
Another man who noticed the traffic halt before joining it, ditched the highway in favor of grabbing a coffee nearby and waiting it out.
California Highway Patrol was notified of the standstill around 9 a.m. and started detaining protesters around 10 a.m., The Times reported.
Seventy-five protesters were taken into custody, being led to around two dozen police cars to be removed from the highway. They were arrested on suspicion of failing to comply with a dispersal order.
A state trooper repeatedly told protesters to “get off the freeway” in a video posted to X.
When they ignored the requests, officers approached individual protesters and zip-tied their hands and led them off without incident, according to ABC 7.
The freeway was reopened fully by 11:30 a.m., according to the local outlet.
Protest organizers apologized to drivers for disrupting their travels, but said it was the only way to get their message across.
“We have tried everything else. We have called, we have marched, we have sung, we have prayed. We have written letters and visited offices,” IfNotNow spokesperson Noa Kattler-Kupetz told The Times.
“Yet politicians like President Biden continue to stonewall, and Israel continues to slaughter innocent Gazans by the thousands. Enough. We cannot wait another day.”
