Mayor Eric Adams and other elected officials across the city denounced on Tuesday a violent pro-Palestinian protest in Lower Manhattan on Monday outside an exhibit that pays tribute to the hundreds of people killed during the Oct. 7, 2023 terrorist attacks by Hamas on Israel.
Adams said during a June 11 press conference at the Nova Music Festival Exhibition located at 35 Wall St., that the protest near the installation recalling the deadly attack at the festival was “despicable” and condemned many of the actions that took place, including lighting flares and waving flags that represent terrorist organizations, including Hamas and Hezbollah.
“You can not state you are calling for peace and then wave flags of Hamas and Hezbollah,” the mayor said. “And the words that were being used. You do not call for peace, and then come to a memorial site…it’s like you are desecrating a grave of innocent people.”
Protestors flooded Wall Street east to west, many of them wearing full-face masks as they yelled across a sea of people chanting messages such as “Long live the Intifada” and “Israel go to hell.”
They also lit red and green flares — two colors of the Palestinian flag. Several rioters clashed with police and barged through metal barricades that were set up as barriers.
A group of protestors are seen on a social media video unrolling a banner that read, “Long live October 7th.”
#NOW Protesters unfurl banner that reads “Long Live October 7th” in Union Square NYC pic.twitter.com/UH82UL92Vf
— Oliya Scootercaster 🛴 (@ScooterCasterNY) June 10, 2024
According to an article in the Times of Israel, pro-Palestinian group Within Our Lifetime, organized the demonstration, which was dubbed “A Day of Rage for Gaza.”
Video of the event shows demonstrators repeatedly chanting, “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free.”
The ugly display infuriated Mayor Adams.
“When you see a demonstration of that magnitude, there is a belief by those outside the city who say, ‘Is this what New York represents?’ and I say ‘No,’” Adams said. “[About] 150,000 people joined us at the Israel Day Parade almost two weeks ago to show what we represent. This is a city. There is no room for hate. It doesn’t matter if you wear a yarmulke, a Sikh turban, or hajib. It doesn’t matter if you go to church, a synagogue, or a Muslim house of worship. That is what we represent. Yesterday is not a representation of this city.”
The mayor said the protest was not planned, and applauded the NYPD for their response to the chaos. It is unclear how many arrests were made.
“I believe the strategies that we used were properly used and just the level of enforcement that was needed,” Adams said.
On Saturday, Oct. 7, in Israel, people gathered to celebrate life and music at the festival in Re’im, Israel, before it was brought to an end by Hamas terrorists, who killed nearly 370 festival attendees. The festival massacre was part of the larger terror attack on Israel that day, which resulted in 1,200 people killed, as well as over 240 taken hostage, some of whom were subsequently released and others killed.
The Nova Music Festival Exhibition — “October 7th 06:29am – The Moment the Music Stood Still” — memorializes the victims of the attacks. It opened on April 21 and was scheduled to close on May 23, before it was extended thorugh June 16.
In light of Monday’s protest, exhibit organizers announced that the exhibit would remain open through June 22.
Scooter Bruan, a music executive and co-founder of the festival, issued a statement about the protest.
“Due to the overwhelming demand and excitement around the Nova exhibition today, we have decided to extend one more week in NYC until the 22nd now just to make sure everyone has a chance to visit and see for themselves,” the statement read. “And for those who chose to protest against innocent music lovers who were murdered… WE WILL DANCE AGAIN… and you are all invited. Thank you for the inspiration. It is more important than ever that we fight for our shared humanity.”
Adams toured the Nova exhibit, and other New York politicians took to Twitter (formerly X) to condemn the protest.
U.S. Rep. Ritchie Torres (D-Bronx) posted, “Anti-Israel bigots are protesting the Nova Music Festival Exhibition, which seeks to commemorate the lives of the hundreds of young Jews barbarically murdered by Hamas on October 7th. These bigots deny the massacre at the Nova Music Festival, calling it ‘Zionist propaganda.’ October 7 denial is but a modern mutation in the ancient DNA of antisemitism.”
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-Queens) wrote, “The callousness, dehumanization, and targeting of Jews on display at last night’s protest outside the Nova Festival exhibit was atrocious antisemitism – plain and simple. Antisemitism has no place in our city nor any broader movement that centers human dignity and liberation.”
