By Carol Tannenhauser
A few hundred protesters gathered in front of the American Museum of Natural History on Saturday afternoon to call for a ceasefire in Gaza and freedom for Palestine “from river to sea.” These and other familiar chants and cheers broke out sporadically in what was a calm and congenial crowd. Drums, horns, and tambourines kept the beat to songs as well.
Two rows of metal barricades and one of NYPD officers, who were out in force, lined the entrance to the museum, which was chosen, according to a flyer that was distributed, because “like other cultural institutions and museums in New York City, the AMNH has people who are Zionists on their board of trustees….” Museum visitors were directed by police to enter the museum at its 81st Street entrance. Central Park West was temporarily closed between West 81st and West 77th streets.
At around 4 p.m., the protesters marched west on 81st Street to Columbus Avenue and headed downtown. This is the second time in a week that the group, Within Our Lifetime, a Palestinian-led community organization, has demonstrated in front of the AMNH, the first being last Saturday. They have also targeted other high-profile New York City venues, including the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day parade and the annual Christmas tree lighting ceremony at Rockefeller Center.
Update, Sunday, 10:30 a.m.: Apparently, the “calm and congenial” crowd turned violent on Columbus Avenue when not constrained by the NYPD as they were at the museum. We are awaiting details from the NYPD.
10:55 a.m.: The police responded with an email stating that they had “nothing” on the violence on Columbus Avenue, but X told a different tale.
A couple on their way to/from their wedding in a vintage car watches as protestors pass by at Columbus Circle pic.twitter.com/r01FAarIzp
— katie smith (@probablyreadit) December 3, 2023
#NOW An Upper West Side resident left bloodied after a confrontation during a Pro-Palestine march coming from AMNH. Thousand of Palestine supporters marched through the neighborhood ripping down many KIDNAPPED posters along the way. pic.twitter.com/gYtZQzNaXW
— Oliya Scootercaster 🛴 (@ScooterCasterNY) December 2, 2023
This is what led up to the protestors being pepper sprayed by security outside the McDonalds: https://t.co/GqO07sx2KQ pic.twitter.com/uXTWM1ADVC
— katie smith (@probablyreadit) December 3, 2023
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Nice people, eh? Pro Gaza rally, would have demonstrated against Hamas for dragging Gasa population into this war. This is a pro-Hamas, anti-Israel, anti-Semitic rally. Mentioning the ‘freedom for Palestine “from river to sea.”’ without clearly stating that this is a call denying Israel a right to exist ( see ADL explanation – https://www.ajc.org/translatehate/From-the-River-to-the-Sea ) followed by “sporadically in what was a calm and congenial crowd” simply creates a sympathy for people that are full of hate towards Jews. ( even if the crowd refers to Jews as Zionists ). This is not tolerance – this is acceptance of hate. Under no circumstances, would there be coverage of another xenophobic gathering in such sympathetic manner.
I walked by it as they were heading south on Columbus yesterday and something had been set on fire, I saw the air was full of smoke and smelled it before I realized there was a protest. I agree that picking AMNH two weeks in a row is a pretty loaded move for a group that claim to just want to raise visibility for a cause, I’ve participated in many peaceful marches including BLM and they usually start closer to Columbus Circle and head through midtown where more people see.
perfectly said!!
I just wish Teddy was still there
The real Teddy, you mean.
Won’t go i nto the building until Teddy comes back
Keep it up. Ceasefire Now/hostages home.
Supporting terrorists is not a good look.
Supporting the Palestinian plight is NOT pro-Hamas and it is not anti-Semitic!
Stop with the BS narrative
And tell me where precisely I stated otherwise?
No. Israel has the right and duty to defend itself. When Hamas surrenders or is eradicated, and all the hostages will be back home, then the fire will stop.
No ceasefire till terrorist surrender or killed
So are they just planning on terrorizing us every Shabbat or what?
Why is it so hard to read between the lines? They target the Museum because there are zionists on their board? That’s not what they mean. They mean that there are JEWS on their board. Pure, unadulterated antisemitism.
Sure. Let them target every museum on planet earth since Jews support all of them. Then we will be left with what?! A culture of violence and hatred. Who needs art and science and music when you can have oppression and terrorism in its stead?
I think they’re attacking the AMNH because they think it represents America and Western Civilization, both of which they hate. They view America and Western Civ. as nothing but white supremacy and oppression. So they want to destroy it. They, of course, are wrong. Moreover, look what they want to replace it with!
In a few weeks this fashionable demonstrations will become less and less fashionable.
These are the 2023 version of the 2020 BLM demonstrations/riots.
Half of the current demonstrators could not locate Israel or Gaza on a map.
Some claim that Hamas did not murder/rape/kidnap anyone, but rather that Israel did it to itself in order to create a situation for it to attack Gaza and kill its citizens.
Most do not know that Gaza is not occupied by Israel. Since 2005 Gaza is free of any Israeli living there.
Gazans voted for Hamas in 2006. It was a free and democratic election. Hamas won. The PA lost.
Hamas’s charter states that first they will utterly destroy and kill all Israelis in Israel, and Jews all over.
They proved that they are true to their words on October 7. There is no walking back to even think of living side by side with Hamas.
These demonstrations call for the elimination of Israel.
This will not happen.
Israel and the Jews survived worse than this.
They will survive this as well.
Amen.
I am not so sure this will calm down as long as the fighting continues and there are horrifying out of Gaza . I think it will increase
The protestors say that there are Zionists on the museum’s board of trustees. Did they research this or do they mean that there are people on the board with Jewish sounding names?
I’m pretty sure every organization has at least one board member who’s pro-Israel. Why would they protest a museum for such a flaky reason? This is Manhattan, go downtown and there are government buildings, embassies, and corporate headquarters. The AMNH should be so far down their list of targets, but they’re protesting there two weeks in a row?
No, it’s obvious that they just want to March through a heavily Jewish residential neighborhood and intimidate people.
Exactly – and this needs to be explicitly called out for what it is. No other reason for them to continue to target the UWS on Shabbat yet again – they are focused on intimidating the Jewish community.
They think the UWS is a Zionist colony. To some of these protestors, everything is a colony that must be dismantled.
Cease fire, peace and security will only happen when Hamas surrenders or Hamas is annihilated.
These marches won’t change this eventual outcomes & realities
Bless the IDF!
I think people have to be very careful in situations like this. With individuals facing mobs of violent terrorist sympathizers, bad things can happen.
Let this pathology consumer itself, and work with the powers that be to control it behind the scenes, from a safe distance.
Couldn’t disagree more. Get right in their face!
I’m sick of it! If Gaza is so important to them that they March in support of genocide, I suggest that they take some time and go there to help the people become involved in nonviolent activities. It’s too bad that HAMAS is in control when reports are that most Gazans don’t even want them there! HAMAS doesn’t care about life and the people of GAZA know it. The death of the people of Gaza fits their policy position..kill all the Jews..just fine.
It would help curb these protests if Netanyahu and his government would focus on freeing the hostages instead of indiscriminately bombing Gaza – preferably hospitals, civilians and journalists. But I guess their main goal is not really “self-defense” but – rather, – finally be able to kill everybody there. West Bank will go a little slower because there is no Hamas there, no excuse. Absolutely shameful what’s going on, with deep US involvement, the “human rights’ defender nation yeah right”. Of course there are protests. Apart from feeling a deep deep sorrow for Palestinian people of whom many I know, work with and respect, i feel deeply, deeply sorry for the hostages’ family members as well.
What Israel is doing is the opposite of indiscriminate. They are targeting Hamas in an effort to remove it from all power in Gaza.
Incorrect
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/dec/01/the-gospel-how-israel-uses-ai-to-select-bombing-targets
Great. They are using AI to determine targets. But if you read the article, it clearly says that has to match HUMAN assessment. And that they only strike half of what the system finds. The AI system crunches numbers faster than a human can, but a human is still in control and goes through the targeting information. This hardly points to indiscriminate targeting. This actually points to greater discrimination because now you have both a computer and a human confirming targets.
Haspel, it would be nice if Hamas didn’t hide beneath hospitals, civilians, and journalists, no?
And let’s not forget schools and mosques.
If you truly feel sorrow for Palestinians, please recognize that Hamas is gleefully using their own fellow Palestinians as PR stunts.
In their mind, every dead Palestinian citizen is a great propaganda.
This is a grave distortion of reality. I urge you to become better informed about what is happening before jumping to conclusions, especially conclusions that fuel violent rhetoric. If Israel wanted to indiscriminately bomb Gaza and kill everyone there, it would have been done already and the war would have been over on October 8th. Israel communicates with occupants of buildings before their attacks. They send text messages and Arabic speaking soldiers call occupants of the building before the attack, warning them to evacuate. Israeli ground troops have guarded Palestinian civilians making their way to the south; guarding the civilians from Hamas who attack their own people to stop them from leaving. Signals Intelligence troops monitor the number of occupants in a building, and neighborhoods, via their cell phone signals so that they can minimize civilian casualties. Israel issues precision guided weapons to ensure they hit what they are targeting so as not to accidentally hit a hospital parking lot like Hamas/ Palestinian Islamic Jihad did on October 17th (which they lied and tried to blame on Israel). Hamas and PIJ launch unguided rockets and missiles indiscriminately at Israeli civilians. The casualty counts on the Israeli side are so much lower because, unlike Hamas, the Israeli government has prioritized protection of civilians, both with the Iron Dome system and building requirements that any structure built in Israel must have a bomb shelter or safe room. Instead of building infrastructure to protect its civilians, Hamas builds its military infrastructure under concentrations of civilians as human shields with the obvious goal of increasing the casualties of its civilian population. Hamas knew what would happen if they attacked Israel. They knew that they could strengthen Israel’s resolve by not just attacking Israel, but by torturing, brutalizing, and raping civilians. Their goal was for their civilians to die. Israel wants to protect civilians. Both theirs and, to the best of their ability, Palestinian. Hamas wants to kill civilians, both Israeli and Palestinian. Let’s keep our eyes open to reality.
Israel had the Hamas battle plan for Oct. 7th. But the IDF ignored it.
The IDF did NOT ignore it. It was ignored by the Netanyahu government. And a female security analyst for the government who pointed this out was fired. It has been argued, but with no proof as of yet, that Netanyahu wanted this attack to happen so that he would have an excuse for a war that would take people’s minds off his illegal activities.
Quite the myopic viewpoint. You’re suggesting that Israel should let Hamas flourish? The only way for Israel to achieve any type of peace is to eradicate those that believe they have no right to exist. That means going after them wherever they live, hide, sleep, etc. Indiscriminate bombing? Ridiculous.
No. No. No. The reason they are protesting in front of the museum is because the museum represents civilization. It is civilization they wish to destroy. All one as to do is look at the culture they are trying to implement. It is a culture locked in the 14th century, with no separation of church and state, that views women as subhuman, murders homosexuals and obliterates any possibility of free thought. These “useful idiots” disrupting our lives are what every revolution requires. Antisemitism is the opening act. Overthrowing civilization is the main event.
I live on Columbus and saw them march by. They were peaceful. It was not a large group – probably 500 or so. I don’t agree with them but I believe in free speech and we protect that in the USA.
Wondering if we were witness to the same March? My husband, who is Modern Orthodox and you can tell from his appearance, was yelled at with anti-Semitic slurs and Die Jew.
It was pretty horrific- the anger and spitting.
The First Amendment clearly cites “the right of the people PEACEABLY to assemble…” You can judge how peaceably these marches are.
Incitement to violence is not protected by free speech.
I think a moment of peaceful march that you saw outside your home does not make for the whole time. See the videos of open harassment at McDonald’s posted here, Starbucks customers and workers looking terrified inside the store, and there was a man bloodied on his face. They have in the past posted online that Starbucks and other places are “targets” meaning that they are inviting people to harass the business and customers. This is not a civil group and they say so as they march and post online, with intentions to harass, vandalize and in the case of last night commit violence echoing their sentiment of “by all means necessary”.
These weekly protests is by an organization called Within our lifetime (that held this and last week’s AMNH protests, and participated in the tree-lighting disruptions among others in the city) is headed by an American-Palestinian CUNY graduate, Nardeen Kiswani (you can google her) who is an antisemite and anti-Israel that spreads false information about colonialism, Israel and Palestinians, supports terrorist organizations like Hamas openly. There have been arrests in the past by members who have beaten Jews and committed violence on civilians. They call for murder of all Jews in Israel and also have recently published maps of Jewish and US targets that they call “enemies” that need to be dealt with as part of their antifada. They want to vandalize Starbucks because it condemned Hamas actions. They are not holding peaceful demonstrations and have been vandalizing places and turning to violence, shouting the most hateful things to passersby who say anything, intimidating onlookers and businesses and are proud of themselves cheering Hamas murderers and calling for “antifada”.
If this is an organization and not grass roots protests that is calling for violence and murder of Jews and committing acts of vandalism and crime, shouldn’t they be banned? Otherwise we are allowing organizations to organize with clear intent of violence and support of terrorists to come out every week and do this.
https://www.cbsnews.com/newyork/news/rockefeller-center-christmas-tree-lighting-protest-demonstration-pro-palestinian/
The City should be shutting down this group, as it is clearly a terrorist organization engaging in hate speech. France has no problem doing so, and protecting their secular society.
On October 8th – a day after the Hamas atrocities- I attended a counter protest of a pro-Palestinian rally at Times Square.
The hatred and glee on the faces of the pro-Palestinian protesters was something I will never forget. They were all in a state of euphoria over the mass murder and abduction of Jews the day before. They were all laughing and smiling and taunting the counter protesters. Some were even waving swastikas on their phones.
Whatever you think of the I/P conflict these protesters are not simply marching to end any “occupation” or to stop the fighting.
They are antisemites who will never be satisfied until Israel is destroyed.
Any “progressive” who sympathizes with these protesters needs serious therapy.
Stop Israeli occupation and violence.
Israel left Gaza in 2005. They had not occupied it for 18 years! Stop the violence? If Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad put down their guns and rockets, Israel will gladly negotiate peace. If Israel were to put down its guns, Hamas would gladly kill every single Jew in Israel.
Perhaps you may not have noticed but Israel does not occupy Israel. But since you raised the issue, I would be grateful for you to answer the following. During an almost 20 year period (1948-1967), Gaza was occupied and full controlled by Egypt; the West Bank was similarly occupied and controlled by Jordan. At any time during this period, the Palestinians could have established their own State and by this time become good neighbors with Israel. Kindly explain why the Palestinians never did this.
Or why the Palestinians/PLO turned down the offer of their own state which included more than they had asked for?
These are not peaceful protests how is our city allowing them to cause damage to public property and more every week and whenever they want. Our mayors office and city council has to act
Here is a good read to help realize what’s really going on: https://www.aei.org/articles/wth-critical-race-theory-antisemitism-marxism-colonizers-vs-the-colonized/
I was in the Time Warner Center around 5pm on Saturday evening to see the holiday stars and there was broken glass all over the floor, with security guards or barriers blocking access to all but one entrance to the mall. It seems the “peaceful” protesters had made their way there too.
Would they do this if the statue was still there?