On 28th October (Saturday), Pro-Palestinian protestors held large demonstrations in several places including the West Bank, London, Berlin, Rome, and New York in the wake of the ongoing Israel-Hamas war. In a spree of such protests, at least 7,000 pro-Palestinian protesters stormed the Brooklyn Bridge in New York, US, raising anti-semitic slogans. They openly cheered Hamas terrorists’ barbaric attacks on Israel, the New York Post reported.
In New York, the day-long rally was organised by the Palestinian-led community group ‘Within Our Lifetime’. Thousands of protestors stretched for several blocks as they travelled through the Brooklyn Museum to the Brooklyn Bridge, chanting “Free, free Palestine!”
The protest rally crossed through Barclays Center, Brooklyn Bridge, and finally culminated at Union Square. During their day-long protest, they vandalised properties including damaging police cars; blocked traffic, and gave anti-semitic calls.
Following the day-long rally, at least 800 pro-Palestinian protesters descended on Union Square where they spray-painted and plastered anti-semitic stickers across a Starbucks in Union Square.
In video footage of the incident, several pro-Palestine vandals, hiding behind masks and head coverings, can be seen etching “Free Gaza” across the East 15th Street restaurant as customers dined inside.
The vandals also slammed stickers that read “Zionism is terrorism” and “Zionism: hands off our universities” on the glass doors of the coffee shop. In a video, one protestor can be seen lifting another protestor so he could paste an “End the Lies or Gaza dies” sticker on the glass panel just below the Starbucks sign.
At their final protest site, Union Square, some protestors carried signs that read, “Support Palestinian resistance,” while others climbed the square’s iconic George Washington statue.
At the statue, they chanted “free Palestine” and plastered it with stickers that read “Zionists are terrorists.” The anti-Israel protestors even erected a makeshift basketball hoop with “f–k Israel” inscribed on its backboard and they took turns shooting free throws at it.
On the 13th Street, a group of anti-Israel protesters chanted “Long live Hamas” while a Muslim woman speaking to the crowd vowed “Until it’s free, we will not stop.”
Before the vandalism on Union Square, the protestors flooded the Manhattan-bound side of the Brooklyn bridge and raised slogans. A few protestors scaled the metal support structure and unfurled Palestinian flags, and protestors started raising chants of, “Gaza! Gaza! Gaza!”
Some protestors chanted, “Resistance is justified when people are occupied.”
‘What do you expect’: Protestors justified 7th October attacks on civilians
A pair of 24-year-old friends held signs depicting Israeli flags while calling for the eradication of the Jewish state. One of the women protestors, a resident of Crown Heights, said, “I personally don’t think the state of Israel should exist. I don’t think anything except that we need to give the land back to Palestine.”
The woman added that she thought Hamas was justified in slaughtering over 1,400 civilians on 7th October, including women and children, the New York Post reported.
The woman said, “What do you expect? They have no other way of freeing themselves other than attacking Israel. I don’t think anyone could expect Palestinians to peacefully try to reclaim their freedom. I don’t think it’s very idealist and unrealistic.”
Another protestor, Jason (37) was decked out in Palestinian accessories and carried a giant flag. Batting down the claims that Hamas decapitated Israeli babies and children, Jason said, “That’s the narrative that they put so they can put a bad name on the Palestinians.”