In New York City, a group of demonstrators blocked traffic by laying down in the streets outside Israel’s Mission to the United Nations on Tuesday. Twenty-six people were arrested after refusing police orders to disperse. The action was organized by the author and scholar Norman Finkelstein.

NORMAN FINKELSTEIN: [echoed by the People’s Mic] Who’s prepared to get arrested will go down to the first light over here, and 10 of us will just lie down in the street

Well, I’ve been sitting in front of my computer for the past 21 days, morning and night, watching the horror unfold, and I felt I wasn’t doing enough, I wasn’t rising to the occasion, I wasn’t acting commensurate to the horror. So I decide it’s time to do something more, time to go past the computer, remove myself from the computer and get arrested.

OK, go! Lie down.

PROTESTERS: Hey, hey! Ho, ho! Occupation’s got to go! Hey, hey! Ho, ho! Occupation’s got to go!

GEORGE KHOURY: My name is George, and I’m here to protest against the racist apartheid state of Israel and the crimes they’re committing daily against innocent Palestinian civilians. The mainstream media is ignoring their suffering and what they’re going through, and we need to draw attention to it as much as possible in any way we can. I think I’m going to get arrested today.

LIZ ROBERTS: My name is Liz Roberts, and I was coming out to demonstrate at the Israeli Mission to the U.N. I arrived just to see an action unfolding. People were blocking the street, lying down in the street, chanting “The occupation has to go.” And people are completely beside themselves with grief over what’s happening to people in Gaza. There were probably about 20 or 24 people arrested. It was a very diverse group of people, multigenerational, multiracial, for really their outrage against what’s happening to Gaza.

PROTESTERS: Hey, hey! Ho, ho! The occupation’s got to go! Hey, hey! Ho, ho! The occupation’s got to go!