The strike was organized by Yemeni shop owners as a show of solidarity and defiance against last week’s executive order. The directive — which has been decried by critics as a “Muslim ban” — indefinitely blocks immigration from Syria and temporarily halts travel for many from six other Muslim-majority countries, including Yemen.
“This shutdown of grocery stores and bodegas will be a public show of the vital role these grocers and their families play in New York’s economic and social fabric and, during this period, grocery store owners will spend time with their families and loved ones to support each other,” protest organizers said in a statement.
Many of the grocers who are participating say they have been personally affected by the ban.
“United States is a great country, that’s why we are here,” Abdulmalek Yahya, a Yemeni-American and Bronx deli employee told ABC station WABC in New York. “So what Donald Trump is doing affects us. Our people, like other people, they are stuck in the airport.”
The strike was scheduled to take place between noon and 8 p.m. today — a time set intentionally later in the day in consideration of the morning breakfast rush.
“Originally, we considered starting the shutdown at 8 a.m., but the grocers, they made it clear they wouldn’t be willing to close if that meant their regulars wouldn’t get their morning coffee,” Debbie Almontaser, board member of the Muslim Community Network and one of the organizers, said in a statement. “Even when their lives have been turned upside down, they refused to disrupt the lives of the very people they serve daily.”