Monday's Pro-Hamas New York protest, started at Union Square and moved towards downtown Manhattan. During the protest called a “Citywide day of rage for Gaza,” protesters chanted “Long Live the Intifada” and other anti-Israel slogans outside the Nova Music Festival Exhibition, an event commemorating victims of Hamas' October 7th massacre.
Some demonstrators, draped in keffiyehs—a traditional Palestinian headscarf—held up the banner which appeared to endorse last year’s Hamas assault on Israel.
As reported by the New York Post, Olivia Reingold from The Free Press was harassed while trying to report on the protest. Reingold was told she wasn’t welcome and was instructed to leave the area. Protesters accused her of having “blood on her hands” and labeled her a “genocide supporter,” as per The Free Press.
Protesters also blew air horns in Reingold's ears, restricted her movement, and at one point, seized her notebook, tearing out several pages. The situation escalated when she was shoved by an unidentified person, hidden among the keffiyehs. After nearly an hour, Reingold managed to leave the protest once the demonstrators vacated the square. She later filed a police report concerning the incident.
The incident drew condemnation from politicians across the political spectrum. Bronx Representative Ritchie Torres criticized the protesters, stating, “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.” He added, “The antisemites who deny, downplay, or defend the barbarity of Hamas are revealing themselves to be barbaric.”
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