Los Angeles freeway shut down by protestors calling for Gaza cease-fire

A Los Angeles freeway was blocked Wednesday by protestors demanding a cease-fire in Gaza.

The progressive Jewish organization IfNotNow, a pro-Palestinian group which supports ending U.S. support for Israel, said it had organized the protest and that it had been timed for Hanukkah.

“On the 6th day of Chanukah, @IfNotNowLA is blocking the freeway to demand a ceasefire,” the group wrote in a post on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter.

“As Jews, we cannot sit by as the people of Gaza are starved and slaughtered [in] our name. And as Americans, we can’t let Biden & Congress send billions more in funding for war crimes.”

The post by IfNotNow also featured a video of protestors appearing to link arms in a line stretching across a freeway. They could also be heard singing the phrase “cease-fire now.”

According to NBC Los Angeles, the protest occurred on the 110 freeway in downtown Los Angeles. The California Highway Patrol was also reportedly on the scene and said 75 people were arrested in the protest. Traffic was stopped for more than an hour due to the incident.

The protest in Los Angeles mirrors another action by IfNotNow in Massachusetts last month.

Protestors blocked traffic on the Boston University Bridge that connects Cambridge to Boston in mid-November. One of their reported aims was to get Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) to support their calls for a cease-fire.

In October, IfNotNow also organized a protest outside of Vice President Harris’s home in Los Angeles in favor of a cease-fire. For hours, protestors were outside Harris’s home, holding signs including one that read “Jews say ceasefire now. No genocide in our name.”

The Hill has reached out to the California Highway Patrol for comment.