Toby Tabachnick
Police arrested 126 people on Monday at a protest in Harrisburg against the Pennsylvania government’s investments in Israel, the Associated Press reported.
There were chants of “free Palestine” before and after the protesters were arrested.
The demonstration, held on the steps of the Capitol Rotunda in Harrisburg, was shut down.
A spokesperson for the Department of General Services described the protest “as an unpermitted, unauthorized demonstration,” according to the AP. Protesters were ordered to disperse before being arrested, issued citations for trespassing and then released, spokesperson Troy Thompson said.
The demonstration was organized by Jewish Voice for Peace, the Philly Palestine Coalition and the Pennsylvania Council on American-Islamic Relations, KDKA reported.
Many of the protestors wore T-shirts that said, “divest from genocide,” according to the AP.
Organizers of the protest said it was targeted at the commonwealth’s Treasury Department’s investment in Israel bonds. PJC
Toby Tabachnick is the editor of the Pittsburgh Jewish Chronicle, an affiliated publication of the Jewish Exponent.
