Protests Rock Midtown, Rockefeller Tree Lighting Undisturbed: NYPD

Crime & Safety

Protests Rock Midtown, Rockefeller Tree Lighting Undisturbed: NYPD Six people were arrested as fights broke out just a few blocks away from the annual holiday celebration, according to police.

This year's tree lighting was not disturbed by hundreds of nearby protesters. (Benny Polatseck | Mayoral Photography Office)

MIDTOWN, NY — Hundreds of protesters just blocks away from Rockefeller Center were unable to disrupt the annual holiday tree lighting tradition, police said.

NYPD officers arrested six protesters Wednesday night, charging most with resisting arrest and obstruction of governmental administration, police said. One person was charged with assault.

Organizers told CBS New York that over 1,000 pro-Palestinian protesters had gathered to demonstrate at the tree-lighting ceremony, an evening where thousands annually flood Rockefeller Plaza.

In anticipation, NYPD officers amped up their security presence, but on at least at one occasion on Sixth Avenue, police were overwhelmed as they tried to push back on the crowd of protesters with metal barricades, according to reports.

"All we're asking for is an end to the ongoing bombing of Gaza, the end to the siege and blockade that continues to place a chokehold on the Palestinian people," Nardeen Kiswani, a member of the organizing group, Within Our Lifetime, told CBS.

“They canceled Christmas in Bethlehem and we’re standing with them,” PhD student Mone Makkawi, 31, told the Daily News at the protest Wednesday nigh. “The Palestinian people are facing genocide.”

Despite the ruckus only blocks away, holiday spectators told the Daily News that they had no idea that a demonstration even took place, including one tree-lighting spectator who had traveled all the way from Boca Raton, Fla, to witness the iconic holiday event.

“It was amazing, it was incredible,” Sofia Rauh, 19, told the Daily News. “We waited for hours but it was worth it.”

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