October 7, 2024 - 10:30pm
Manhattan, New York
The plan was to “flood” New York. From all over the city, protesters were expected to fill the streets of Manhattan to show their support for Palestine and stand with Gaza. “Call out of work and school, take to the streets and join us throughout the day,” read the widely circulated flyer.
The flood, however, turned out to be more of a trickle. As protesters gathered on Wall Street at around 1pm, numbers did not exceed much more than a few hundred people. Comprising seasoned Leftists, young Muslim-Americans, white students and a smattering of black nationalists, the group marched north to chance of “Hey hey, ho ho, reoccupation has got to go” and “Israel bombs, USA pays, how many kids did you kill today?”
This was the face of the new Left, a diverse crowd that has found no home on the Trumpist Right or the Democratic Left. In their view, these political forces were “two cheeks of the same ass”, as one attendee told me, and there was nothing to distinguish them when it came to Israel — a view also espoused by Green Party candidate Jill Stein. “I am remaining uncommitted,” another told me. “There is no way in hell I am voting for Killama Harris for President”.
Others agreed, before joining in with a new chant: “Free, free Palestine — Eric Adams must resign!” I asked one protester why Adams, the Mayor of New York, was being blamed for Israel’s prosecution of the war. She told me, draped in a Lebanese and Palestinian flag, that Adams was a corrupt “stooge” of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC). “He could pressure Biden to stop sending aid,” she said, “but he won’t because the Israel lobby has got to him.”
Organised by Within Our Lifetime, a pro-Palestine group of New York-based students, today’s march sought to commemorate the Palestinian lives lost since Hamas’s attack on Israel exactly one year ago. Over the last year, Within Our Lifetime has attracted attention for blockading Brooklyn Bridge and, more controversially, waving Hamas flags outside of a Nova Music Festival commemoration in June this year. The group’s founder, Nerdeen Kiswani, is the child of Palestinian refugees and a student at the CUNY School of Law. She called the festival, where hundreds were killed on 7 October, “the place where Zionists decided to rave next to a concentration camp”. The next day, progressive House member Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez described the protest as “atrocious antisemitism — plain and simple”.
Leading the march, Kiswani largely refrained from any provocative or antisemitic chants. And, notwithstanding a few clashes on the fringes, the protest was peaceful. That was until protesters were met by pro-Israel supporters in Washington Square Park. Here, a small group of pro-Palestine protesters squared off with Israel supporters, praising Hamas while spitting and stamping on the Israeli flag. Were it not for the heavy police presence, the confrontation undoubtedly would have turned violent.
Most protesters stayed on message. But it was more than a little provocative to choose 7 October — the day when Hamas fighters raped, kidnapped and murdered hundreds of Israelis — as a day of protest. Did it change the hearts and minds of any New Yorkers? As one vendor told me: “I don’t really care about Gaza, to be honest — I just want them [the protesters] to buy my fruit”.
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SubscribeThe whole point of the protest was to “celebrate” October 7, a day when cowards tortured, murdered, raped and kidnapped civilians & had the gall called it “resistance”. They have whined about the consequences of their actions since, while still holding 101 hostages. The pro Hamas/Palestine lobby will not be happy until Israel is wiped off the map and every Jew is murdered and defiled.
Agreed. And I think it’s time the sane majority called out the specious distinction between antiSemitism and antiZionism for what it is: it doesn’t really exist. AntiZionism is nothing more than a moral alibi for antiSemitism, a convenient cover for supposedly-legitimised expressions of hatred for Jews.
In 2022, Israel and Lebanon, including Hezbollah as a governing party, agreed their maritime border while granting Israel full rights to the Karis gas field and some to the Qana, with most of the latter’s going to Lebanon. Many in Israel have never liked that deal, but tearing it up would make Israel look like a bad business partner. Here we are.
For all the many faults of Hezbollah, it fought, and it continues to fight, against al-Qaeda and the so-called Islamic State. Hamas also executed IS in Gaza, when Israel was providing IS with the Golan Heights field hospital towards which Priti Patel attempted to divert British aid money, causing Theresa May to sack her.
Recalling the IS despoilment of Palmyra, and the Taliban’s demolition of the Buddhas of Bamiyan, Israel’s aerial bombardment of Baalbek has two possible meanings. Either Lebanon beyond the Litani is to be a Saudi puppet, run on Wahhabi lines. Or all idols in Lebanon must be destroyed, since all of it is part of the Land of Israel. As well as the bombing of churches in Gaza, that principle is already being used by governing parties in Israel to burn down churches there and on the West Bank, since the profession of the Divinity of Christ is considered idolatrous in itself. That is bad enough there. Imagine it in Lebanon.
David,
Keep working on it. There might be a thought hidden in there someplace gor you to find. Good luck!
‘For all the many faults of Hezbollah, it fought, and it continues to fight, against al-Qaeda and the so-called Islamic State’
Shiites fighting Sunnis? Big if true.
Adding the end line about fruit was priceless… While concern over the civilian Palestinians caught in the fighting is laudable, what kind of barbarian supports Hamas and denigrates the memory of those lost on October 7th. For that matter, how is any non-citizen of the US allowed to stay in country while supporting a recognized terrorist organization… Get the hell out of my country…
The fruit guy was completely on point.
Even though it’s absolutely human to have concern about the human cost of the fighting in Gaza, what has never ceased to shock me over the last year is how this issue (which I dare to say doesn’t directly affect the majority of protesters) has intruded into the domestic politics of countries thousands of miles away.
For goodness sake, it even seeped into a by-election in the UK when the discussion should have been about bins and potholes and things. Completely surreal.
All part of the “Look a squirrel!” type of politics that highlights stuff that can involve easy gestures that don’t seem to actually change anything over the hard graft of actually addressing complex issues that are fundamentally to the citizens wellbeing. Distraction politics.
Yes, quite. But it’s also about lacking moderation, self-control and a sense of relevance. I see nothing wrong with taking Gaza into account in your decision on how to vote in a national election when your country’s foreign policy direction is a salient issue. But dragging Gaza into a local by-election? Who does that serve?
The fruit guy has it exactly right. At that moment, the most important thing for him was to sell his wares to earn a living and feed his family, not a conflict thousands of miles away.
Spot on – barely a squeak from anyone about the Syrian civil war – in crude terms many times more bloody and damaging to people, homes and the whole region.
Same same about Yemeni war.
But hey stick a Palestinian flag in your bio and protest so you feel good – regardless of whether you have a scooby about what’s actually happening
Nice, some fanatical sectarians.
Had this demonstration not taken place one month before the presidential elections in the US it would have been flooded with spirited democratic youth..!
Now that there is an election to be won, the ever willing youth is held back for a future episode of demonstration business projects..!
Why do these people get to call themselves “left wing”. They promote nativist sentiment when it comes to Palestine. Some of the organisations they support like hamas are ultra conservative on social issues. Some of these people say similar things to 1930s nazi propaganda on Jews. They are just a combination of alternative far right wing alliances.
The Left didn’t quite scapegoat for the failure of their Marxist economic model. But they are scapegoating the Jewish community viciously for the failure of their dismal identity politics.