On Monday (6th May), a mob of more than 1,000 Pro-Palestine protesters attempted to disrupt and target the Met Gala, the star-studded fashion event held at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City. However, the rioters went on a rampage after the Police prevented them from reaching the venue and arrested several rioting protesters. The Pro-Palestine vandals went on to burn the flag of the United States and vandalised several iconic places, including the World War I memorial in Central Park.
As per a New York Post report, at least one anti-US rioter torched Old Glory at the site of the 107th Infantry Memorial. The vandals defaced the monument’s base with Pro-Palestine graffiti and wrote “Gaza” in large black letters. They also pasted stickers of the Palestinian flag that read “Stop the Genocide. End the apartheid. Free Palestine” on the bronze statues of soldiers. Some protesters even climbed atop the statues of the infantrymen and draped Palestinian flags over them.
#NOW 107th infantry War Soldier Memorial draped in Palestinian flag while American flag burns on the ground on 5th Ave in NYC during 'DAY OF RAGE' protest. pic.twitter.com/GAOyQoD130
— Oliya Scootercaster 🛴 (@ScooterCasterNY) May 7, 2024
The images and videos of a protester burning the US flag and others defacing WWI memorials have prompted strong reactions from US netizens. They have demanded strong action to curb anti-Semitism and vandalism by Pro-Palestinian protesters. This comes amidst a string of violent protests that have reached and intensified on college campuses in the US with Pro-Palestinian protesters taking over an academic building in Columbia University. The Police later arrested the protesters.
The demonstration dubbed a “Day of Rage” protest was organised by the Palestinian activist group, ‘Within Our Lifetime’. The mob blocked the traffic movement and marched towards the Met Gala venue. However, they were stopped by the New York Police Department (NYPD) near the East 79th Street Transverse in Central Park. Notably, the Met Gala has long been the target of protesters, but heavy Police deployment ensured that Pro-Palestinian protesters didn’t crash the event and attack the celebrities part of it.
Multiple arrests of pro-Palestine protesters near the Met Gala, where protests at NYU and Hunter College converged.
— Isabelle (@isabelle_leyva) May 6, 2024
SRG is now marching down the street threatening arrest of anyone in the roadway. pic.twitter.com/VOdd52odeQ
During the “Day of Rage” protest, the vandals also targeted another Central Park monument on Monday night. They defaced the Civil War Gen. William Tecumseh Sherman bronze statue in Grand Army Plaza by spray painting “Free Gaza” graffiti in red letters on the base of the memorial. They also attached a Palestinian flag to the statue.
Later when the NYPD removed the Palestinian flag, the vandals raised slogans calling for the physical harm of the Police personnel. One protester was heard asking another demonstrator to put a bigger flag on the statue. When an officer climbed a ladder to remove the flag, a protester was heard saying, “I hope you fall,” which was followed by the mob chanting “Free, Free Palestine!”
According to Police sources, about two dozen anti-Israel protesters were arrested earlier in the evening near Madison Avenue and East 83rd Street as a massive swarm of demonstrators marched toward the Met.
The mob raised slogans, “Disclose, divest, we will not stop, we will not rest,” while waving Palestinian flags and hiding their faces with coverings.
Recently, the pro-Palestinian protesters had targeted Indian-origin US Congressman Shri Thanedar’s community center in Detroit and defaced it with Pro-Palestine graffiti, prompting him to lodge a complaint in this matter. The vandals had painted an “X” across his photograph and the words “racist”, “ceasefire” and “Free Palestine” were also spray-painted on the walls of his community center. He was targeted for expressing pro-Israel opinions after the Hamas attacks on Israel on 7th October last year.
Pro-Israel supporters hold a protest against violent Pro-Palestine demonstrations, voice concerns about increasing anti-Semitism
In counter to the recent protests by Pro-Palestine individuals, several pro-Israel supporters gathered at Hunter College on Monday evening to face off with people they accused of “supporting terrorism.”
A 17-year-old Jewish Upper East Sider Elena Bakhchi said, “All these people are ignorant, uneducated and blindly following each other. It feels like we’re back in World War two.”
As per reports, nearly 1,000 pro-Israel demonstrators gathered at Riverside Park in support of Jewish students at colleges like Columbia University. Incidentally, the rally coincided with Yom HaShoah, the Holocaust remembrance day.
Jewish Columbia students condemned the surge in antisemitism currently being witnessed on college campuses across the United States.
Addressing the rally, the Israeli ambassador to the UN, Gilad Erdan, compared the anti-Israel protesters to “modern-day Nazis”.
Erdan said, “Words are being weaponized to spread bigotry, to incite violence, to inflame the targeting of Jews. Columbia, Harvard, and UCLA are new hotbeds of Nazi-like ideology, branding Israel as the root of all evil and the Jewish people is a global scourge.” He added that the hypocrisy of protests shows they are not liberal activism but are antisemitic.
He asked, “Did we see encampments to protest Russia’s war crimes in Ukraine? Did rioters barricade buildings to protest Assad’s brutality in Syria? Did we see Chinese students attacked because China is torturing Uyghurs? Were quads vandalized while Iran murdered women and protesters?”, and answered, “Of course not.”
The Israeli ambassador to the UN called on “Jews across the United States and around the world” to divest from universities that allow antisemitism to spread. He added that they should demand students who use violence be expelled, and blacklist every academic institution that shows tolerance for terror.
Erdan submitted, “This Yom HaShoah, ‘Never Again’ has taken on historic importance. Never again means taking action, and the time for action is now.”
