Seventy-five members of the pro-Palestinian group, IfNotNow, were arrested on Wednesday after they blocked all southbound lanes on Freeway 110 cutting through Los Angeles during morning rush-hour traffic.

“We cannot be silent. We have to keep being impossible to ignore until the killing stops, until the mass displacement stops, until the hostages are home, and until the weapons are laid down,” the group wrote in a post on social media afterward. “To those stuck in traffic, we sincerely apologize. We wish there was another way. We have tried everything else.”

Videos circulating online show activists linking arms across the major artery demanding “cease-fire now,” “down, down, with occupation,” and even featured a symbolic lighting of a Hanukkah menorah.

With frustrations mounting, some drivers stuck in the manufactured traffic jam, got into physical altercations with protesters, trying to drag and shove them off the freeway. Many of the IfNotNow demonstrators wore black T-shirts emblazoned with the words: “Jews Say Cease-Fire Now.”

“Our action is grounded in our nonviolent philosophy and doing what we can with our bodies and voices,” a group spokesperson, Noa Kattler-Kupetz told the Los Angeles Times following the demonstration:

After the 10/7 terror attacks spearheaded by Hamas, IfNotNow said it “cannot and will not say today’s actions by Palestinian militants are unprovoked.” “Every day under Israel’s system of apartheid is a provocation. The strangling siege on Gaza is a provocation,” the group’s statement continued.

Moreover, IfNotNow argued the deaths were “on the hands of the Israeli government, the US government which funds and excuses their recklessness, and every international leader who continues to turn a blind eye to decades of Palestinian oppression, endangering both Palestinian and Israelis.”

In April, Florida governor Ron DeSantis was interrupted during a speech at the Republican Party’s Amos Tucker fundraiser dinner in New Hampshire by IfNotNow members. At least two women charged on stage in the middle of the governor’s speech chanting, “Jews against DeSantis!”

DeSantis was in the middle of a speech talking about upcoming “governor races, president races,” when two women tried to unfurl a banner emblazoned with “Ron DeSantis: Loves Israel, Hates Jews” written in black on a banner before it was quickly ripped and they were escorted off the stage “You gotta have a little spice in the speech, right? I mean, you gotta have a little fun,” he joked afterward to a chorus of raucous applause:

The far-left American Jewish group claimed credit for the publicity stunt, arguing that it was an attempt to draw attention to the governor’s upcoming trip to Israel. “IfNotNow members are confronting Ron DeSantis at a GOP fundraiser in New Hampshire this evening. We’re making clear that DeSantis is an antisemite whose actions and policies both support Israeli apartheid and put Jews in danger,” the group announced on its official Twitter account, sharing a previously unseen recorded version of the events.

The thread went on to condemn “AIPAC and DeSantis” who “support occupation and apartheid at the expense of Jewish safety.” Conversely, “We believe in the opposite vision: where liberation for Jews and Palestinians are inextricably linked. We fight for equality, justice, and a thriving future for all Israelis and Palestinians,” the group claimed.