Pro-Palestinian actions in New York are increasingly aggressive – Rossiyskaya Gazeta

“The days of those who support genocide in the United States are numbered and coming to an end,” one of the protest organizers shouted into the microphone, The New York Post reports. About 300 protesters left Columbus Square around 2 p.m. and walked down the West Side to the American Museum of Natural History. They flooded stores on Columbus Circle, shouting, “Bombs are falling while you shop,” prompting store owners to rush to close their doors. Law enforcement threatened to arrest protesters for vandalizing a Starbucks near West 64th Street, but no one was arrested as the crowd began to disperse, the NYPD later said.

Some protesters also chased a woman holding a pro-Israel sign, grabbed one from a nearby man and yelled at them. The woman was able to run toward police, who escorted her several blocks to safety. The city’s famous Abraham Lincoln statue was draped in a Palestinian flag and a sticker was placed on his hat that read: “Every time the media lies, the Gaza Strip dies.” When the protesters arrived at the museum, almost three hours later, they were surrounded by dozens of police officers. Protesters demanded that the police step aside and let them in, chanting: “One, two, three, four, open the museum doors.”

The museum closed two hours early on Saturday in anticipation of a protest, said Nerdine Kiswani of the pro-Palestinian group Inside Our Lives, which organized Saturday’s demonstration along with many other organizations in New York. As experts point out, as the war between Hamas and Israel intensifies, and even despite the four-day truce, pro-Palestinian actions in the commercial capital of the United States, home to large Muslim and Jewish communities, become increasingly loud and aggressive. The protesters themselves stated that they adopted this position after the city’s mayor, Eric Adams, and the governor of New York state, Kathy Hochul, demonstrated their unequivocal support for Israel.