Anti-Israel protesters unfurled a disturbing “Lengthy stay October 7” banner as a gaggle of agitators surrounded and shoved a reporter making an attempt to cowl the demonstration at Union Sq. on Monday.
Just a few protesters coated in a keffiyeh – conventional Palestinian headwear – waved the banner with the disturbing message celebrating final 12 months’s Hamas assault on Israel, in accordance with footage captured on the scene.
About 1,200 Israelis, together with many civilians, have been murdered by the fear group and greater than 200 have been kidnapped and brought again into Gaza, launching a navy marketing campaign within the Palestinian enclave.
One reporter making an attempt to cowl the protest at Union Sq. was harassed and later filed a police report over the remedy.
Olivia Reingold, of The Free Press, took footage of her being encircled by demonstrators who needed her to depart the world.
“For the final 10 minutes I’ve been surrounded,” she stated on digicam earlier than a protester minimize in and stated, “You’re not being surrounded, you’re selecting to not go away.”
Protesters may be heard saying she wasn’t welcomed and to “get out of right here,” although Reingold famous she was on public property as she stood her floor.
Agitators shouted that Reingold had “blood on her palms” and was a “genocide supporter,” The Free Press stated in a tweet Monday night time.
In addition they blew air horns in her ears as they restricted her motion, the information outlet reported. At one level, the publication stated protesters grabbed her pocket book and ripped out some pages.
“The encounter intensified earlier than Reingold was shoved by an unknown assailant, hidden by the assorted keffiyehs held as much as obscure her imaginative and prescient. After almost an hour, Reingold made her approach out of the fray — however solely after the protest left the sq.,” The Free Press wrote.
The rally, branded as a “Citywide day of rage for Gaza,” started at Union Sq. and made its option to downtown Manhattan the place protesters shouted “Lengthy Stay the Intifada” and different anti-Israel chants outdoors the Nova Music Competition Exhibition that memorializes the homicide and rape victims on the music celebration turned nightmare.
The stunning act sparked criticism from elected officers throughout the political spectrum.
“Anti-Israel bigots are protesting the Nova Music Competition Exhibition, which seeks to commemorate the lives of the a whole lot of younger Jews barbarically murdered by Hamas on October 7th,” Rep. Ritchie Torres, of the Bronx tweeted.
“These bigots deny the bloodbath on the Nova Music Competition, calling it ‘Zionist propaganda.’ October 7 denial is however a contemporary mutation within the historical DNA of antisemitism. The antisemites who deny, downplay, or defend the barbarity of Hamas are revealing themselves to be barbaric.”
