(New York) Heavy atmosphere Monday in New York, divided between a pro-Palestinian rally of anger against Israel and a Jewish prayer in memory of the hundreds of civilians killed since Saturday by the Islamist movement Hamas.
For the second consecutive day since Hamas’ surprise attack on the Jewish state, New York – which has some two million Jews and hundreds of thousands of Muslims – is the scene of high-voltage demonstrations: on one side support for the Palestinian cause, on the other rallies to defend Jews and Israel.
Since Sunday, the police of the megacity, a multicultural mosaic of nearly nine million souls, have taken care to supervise these gatherings in order to avoid any direct confrontation.
“New York alongside Gaza”
In the heart of Manhattan, a few hundred Americans and pro-Palestinian foreigners, headstrong against the very right-wing government in Jerusalem, gathered under the slogans “New York alongside Gaza” and “Israel is going to hell”, while demanding that the United States stop providing military aid to its ally in the Middle East.
Rather young people from working-class backgrounds gathered in front of the Israeli consulate general, brandishing Palestinian flags and placards with slogans against Israeli “settlers” and a “racist Zionist” regime.
Parked behind security barriers and well supervised by police, the demonstrators faced, on the other side of the street, a very aggressive pro-Israeli group who insulted them copiously.
Young activists wearing kefi took turns using the megaphone to demand “the liberation of Palestine” and “the end of colonization and occupation of Arab territories”.
“Gaza, the new Warsaw ghetto”
“No justice without peace” or “no justice on stolen land”, they chanted while their placards compared the strip of “Gaza [au] new Warsaw ghetto.
Leena Abukuwaik, a 45-year-old Palestinian-American, said she had “a brother, two sisters and a number of cousins” in Gaza, of whom she said she had no news: “I don’t know if they were bombed, if they are alive, injured, safe and sound,” she whispered, holding back tears.
Ray Gordon, an 81-year-old white retiree who lives between Maryland and Florida, said he was “furious that his tax dollars arm, finance and diplomatically aid Israel.”
For her part, Maryam Alaniz, a 27-year-old “non-pacifist” doctoral student, does not think that “civilian victims are justified”.
This “non-pacifist” says “denounce the methods and tactics of Hamas” and would like “the struggle of the Palestinians [soit] organized from the bottom up, by the people, in a democratic way.”
“The people of Israel, our people”
Much more solemn and contemplative atmosphere on the very posh 5e Avenue, along Central Park: New York’s Temple Emanu-El synagogue, the first congregation of the city’s liberal Jewish community, welcomed hundreds of Jews and worshipers of other faiths outside for a “kaddish », the prayer for the dead in the Jewish liturgy.
People of all ages, from rather middle-class backgrounds, sang, prayed, held candles, waved flags in the colors of Israel and sometimes cried.
By inviting these New Yorkers, the American rabbi of Temple Emanu-El, Joshua Davidson, assured in a press release: “We stand strongly with the people of Israel, our people.”
His colleague, Rabbi Melissa Buyer-Witman, affirmed that “the New York Jewish community and other friendly communities such as the Catholic Church would stand together in solidarity in the days and months to come.”
While official censuses based on religion are not possible in the United States, the country of 335 million people has the largest number of Jews in the world, behind Israel. In 2020, according to the Pew Research Center, there were 5.8 million Jewish adults, religious or not, to which are added 2.8 million adults who claim a Jewish parent.
And the country has about 4.5 million Muslims, 600,000 to 750,000 of whom live in New York.