While stars, celebrities and Anna Wintour ascended the steps at the Met Gala on Monday night, protesters began assembling on the streets just surrounding the museum.
In Central Park, a small group of protesters, accompanied by an A.C.L.U. observer in a blue vest, gathered with cardboard signs reading “No Met Gala While Bombs Drop in Gaza” and “No Celebration Without Liberation,” mixed in among signs that mostly dealt directly with the war in Gaza. Representatives of the group declined to answer questions or say how many protesters they were expecting.
Another larger group made its way along Fifth Avenue, with many participants waving Palestinian flags and chanting “Gaza! Gaza!” as they clapped and banged drums.
The New York Police Department, trying to create space between the protesters and the event, assembled barricades at various intersections surrounding the area, but around 6:30 p.m., as the glitz and glamour of the event’s red carpet arrivals were in full swing, the police began making arrests just a block away on Madison Avenue, drawing complaints from some of the protesters that the police had worn riot gear while arresting people who were assembling peacefully.
Nearby, Mark J. Levy, a 19-year-old student at Yeshiva University, stood on the sidewalk draped in an Israeli flag in counterprotest.
