Pro-Palestinian protesters disrupt Macy’s Thanksgiving Parade

Pro-Palestinian protesters temporarily halted the annual Macy’s Day Thanksgiving Parade in New York City by glueing their hands to the ground in the middle of 6th Avenue.

Around 30 protestors were demonstrating against the ongoing conflict in Gaza when a few of them made their way into the middle of the parade just before 11am, reports said.

The protestors jumped the barricades and ran into the street where the parade procession was happening and allegedly glued themselves to the ground.

The demonstrators were wearing white jumpsuits, with words such as ‘colonialism’, ‘imperialism’ and ‘consumerism,’ written on them, then proceeded to pour fake blood over each other and their slogans, the news site reported.

As they walked down 6th Avenue in front of large float displays, they chanted pro-Palestinian messages, such as “There’s an ongoing genocide and our planet is dying” and “We need a ceasefire,” according to the outlet.

A swarm of NYPD police came to arrest the protestors, meanwhile, the parade continued around them.

Floats, balloons and bands were all diverted around the police who were circling the protestors who were glued onto the ground.

Moving the protesters faired trickier than police envisaged, as when one police officer tried to move a demonstrator, they reportedly said “I’m glued down. I can’t get up.”

As the protestors were being de-glued and handcuffed they continued to chant their messages, while allegedly receiving boos from the parade crowd.

Other protesters who jumped into the parade procession were seen wearing t-shirts that stated ‘Stop the Genocide’ and carrying a banner that read ‘Genocide then. Genocide now,’ although it is unclear if these protestors were part of the same group as the ones in white jumpsuits.

The demonstrators reportedly came from a larger protest of 400 people that gathered in Madison Square Park, The New York Post said.

A Palestinian flag was also lifted and displayed by a person aboard the Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe’s float in the parade as it passed the Macy’s flagship store on 34th Street, Fox News reports.

Security measures allegedly increased for this year’s Thanksgiving Parade, as well as in airports and shopping malls across the United States, Reuters said.

The boost in security comes at a time when Islamophobia and antisemitism have seen a huge surge, especially since the start of the ongoing Israel-Hamas conflict.

Thanksgiving is seen by many as a display of the US’s healthy economy, due to the traditional turkey dinners being served, coinciding with recent Black Friday sales and the boost in shopping trips in the run-up to Christmas.

As war rages on in the Middle East, America has tried to continue in their holiday traditions as usual.

However, the Thanksgiving parade did not go by without an appearance from protestors, something that New York Mayor Eric Adams even discussed the possibility of ahead of the event.

Mr Adams declared he would not tolerate any such demonstrations and said, “You’re not going to destroy property, you’re not going to injure people,” on Wednesday.

President Joe Biden also commented in an interview with NBC during their coverage of the parade of the need for “decency” at this time.

“Today is about coming together,” Biden said. “We can have different political views but … we should focus on dealing with our problems. … And stop the rancor,” he said.

It is unclear how many people were arrested at the Thanksgiving parade.