The New York City chapter of Democratic Socialists of America is signaling plans to “stop” overseas arms shipments from John F. Kennedy International Airport.
A new DSA “Break the Chain” campaign is having its first mass meeting on Saturday to discuss achieving “a people’s arms embargo” against Israel, according to the campaign’s website. The DSA aims to host all the pro-Palestinian “orgs and workers” it can in New York to strategize on the upcoming actions, the website says.
The campaign did not specify exactly what those efforts would entail, but it has already taken credit for a July 2025 picketing demonstration outside the airport that reportedly prompted a lockdown of certain areas.
“Our pressure target is JFK Airport, through which hazardous cargo is shipped to Israel to commit genocide and endless wars of aggression,” the Saturday meeting’s description says. “By facilitating arms shipments to Israel, JFK airport is enabling genocide and compromising the safety of both workers and the traveling public.”
“The workers who move cargo at JFK didn’t sign up to arm a genocide,” reads the “Break the Chain” website. “But they can choose to stop it.” The site also offers employees of the airport or companies “complicit” in Israel-bound shipments to schedule a call with an organizer to help the activist movement from their workplace.
The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which handles communications for the JFK airport, did not respond to the Washington Examiner’s request for comment.
Israel-linked weapons shipments and defense companies have become a signature target for left-wing protests beyond the DSA, though they have not always been peaceful.
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Four pleaded guilty to misdemeanors in New Hampshire over a November 2023 riot against Israeli defense company Elbit Systems that involved the activists smashing a light, vandalizing with paint, and damaging a ventilation system, Patch reported. Elbit Systems also confirmed it was moving out of Cambridge, Massachusetts, in 2024 after frequent protests, including one in October 2023 that led to arrests. Several detainees reached agreements to dismiss charges such as disorderly conduct, vandalism, and assaulting a police officer, Cambridge Day reported.
Other demonstrators with the Arab Resource Organizing Center delayed a U.S. military ship in California that they believed was bound for Israel in November 2023 by climbing onto it, CBS San Francisco reported.