Above photo: Fifteen protesters participating in a special Passover seder condemning ICE operations were cuffed in Manhattan on Monday night after the participants occupied the lobby of Palantir’s headquarters and refused to leave. Dean Moses.
Fifteen protesters participating in a special Passover seder condemning ICE operations were cuffed in Manhattan on Monday night after the participants occupied the lobby of Palantir’s headquarters and refused to leave.
The hours-long event began earlier in the day, around 5 p.m. on April 6, at Union Square for the sixth night of Passover and was held by Jews for Racial & Economic Justice for a “Seder in the Streets.” Attended by Mayor Zohran Mamdani and a host of other elected officials, protesters looked to condemn President Trump’s ongoing immigration crackdown.
“For many New Yorkers, that freedom feels out of reach, whether it be freedom from a suffocating cost of living crisis, freedom from a rising tide of anti-semitism or freedom from the brutality of ICE,” Mamdani said. “It’s a history of fighting back against the brutality of ICE and the raids across our city.”
Following several speeches, a few hundred demonstrators marched through the streets to 45 West 18th St., which houses Palantir, an AI company that has been heavily criticized for providing the technology ICE uses to identify those they detain.
Dozens of other activists had already entered the building’s lobby in a sit-in. The group refused to leave until the company agreed to cut ties with the federal government. For several hours, a crowd waited outside as those inside refused to leave.
“We have many pharaohs in our midst, and their hearts have been hardened. But we also have the fiery power of the people. The Exodus story teaches us that freeing ourselves and our neighbors from enslavement requires organized resistance. As our comrade Joshua Blaine sings, “We get there together or never get there at all,” the protest organizers wrote in a statement.
NYPD officers arrived on scene and began taking those occupying the lobby into custody as those outside sang protest songs.
Together, police say 15 individuals were arrested and taken to the NYPD’s 7th Precinct, where they were given court summons.
