USA: Mass demonstration in Brooklyn to protest the bombings in Gaza

Thousands of demonstrators gathered in the streets of Brooklyn, New York, to protest Israel’s ongoing bombing of the Gaza Strip.

Brooklyn, the largest borough in New York, inhabited by between 1.6 and 2 million Jews and hundreds of thousands of Muslims, has been witnessing demonstrations, marches and evenings in support of Palestinians or Israelis for three weeks.

A Jewish organization in New York also organized a massive sit-in against the Israeli war against Hamas in Gaza on Friday at Grand Central Station in Manhattan, and police arrested hundreds of people during the dispersal of the sit-in.

Yesterday, Saturday, the organizations called for “flooding Brooklyn” with a sea of ​​people “to clearly demand the release during our lifetime of all Palestinians” who have been living “under occupation for 75 years,” in the words of one of the demonstrators. Abdullah, 21 years old. In fact, the famous Brooklyn Bridge has been closed.

Nerdin Keswani, one of the organizers of the demonstration, attacked American “politicians” whose government strongly supports its ally Israel, such as “New York City Mayor Eric Adams and New York State Governor Kathy Hokul, who pledged to provide ‘unconditional support’ for Israel.” The Jewish state.

Adams—the mayor of a city of nearly 9 million people, home to the world’s largest Jewish community after Israel—has repeatedly emphasized at pro-Israel rallies that Israel’s “battle” is also New York’s battle.

However, activist Nerdine Keswani argues that local elected officials “do not represent New York City,” a mosaic of many cultures and religions.

The police did not provide figures on the number of participants in the protests, but New York media and Agence France-Presse estimated the crowd at “thousands” of demonstrators who raised banners reading “Free Palestine” and “By any means necessary.”

“We are here to support our Palestinian brothers. We are one nation, brothers, one Muslim country,” said 23-year-old New Yorker Younis Suhail.

The crowd, which started at the Brooklyn Museum, reached the famous Brooklyn Bridge, which connects it to Manhattan Island, where the police were forced to stop traffic due to the crowd.