Congratulations to the group of radical protesters who claim to be for the Palestinian cause in New York City. They brag online that they “shut down” the Nova exhibit on Wall Street and played out their day of rage throughout the subway system, against some museums and museum directors, and on the New York City streets and even hit some UN missions.
In reality, they didn’t shut down the Nova exhibit. The exhibit will probably get more attendees than anticipated and its presentation has been extended. The exhibit, which originated in Israel, presents oral history and artifacts of the horrific 7 October 2023 attack by Hamas on thousands of mostly generation Z and millennials who were at a rave enjoying music, drugs and dance.
The Nova music festival at Kibbutz Re’im was where Hamas killed at least 364 civilians and took around 40 hostages – young people, security guards and more (not all Jews, also Bedouin citizens of Israel). The group Within Our Lifetime shamefully called the Nova exhibit “Zionist propaganda” and said it was “manufacturing consent for genocide”.
But perhaps the basest action taken by these protesters was when they filled a subway car on their way to their downtown protest, essentially taking it over and challenging passengers to come forward and admit their Zionism. “Raise your hand if you are a Zionist,” one activist reportedly shouted with the rest of the group echoing his words. “This is your chance to get out.” Get out? Of what? Unclear, but frightening as hell. When no one responded, the same person apparently announced, “‘OK, no Zionists here – we’re good,” as someone chimed in reportedly, “We don’t want no Zionists here.” They were followed by applause.
I wondered, reading this unsettling tale, what I would have done had I been in that subway car. I wear a Jewish star around my neck, so even had I not spoken up to say, ‘yes, I’m a Zionist,’ the question might have been asked of me. The perpetrators here put any Jew in the subway car in a situation where they would have these options: say no (even if they wanted to say yes) and hide their true identity; say yes and fear what would happen to them; say no, if that aligned with their belief system, while knowing that this answer could put other Jews in danger. The final option would be to hope that the next stop came quickly and flee the train, knowing that they are not safe in the New York City subway system simply because of who they are.
That same day, protesters unfurled a banner in Union Square in Manhattan that read “Long Live October 7th.” Not even “Free Palestine” or “Palestine from the River to the Sea”, but long live a day of death, destruction, rage and abduction aimed almost solely at civilians, including numerous women and children and people in their 70s and 80s who were burned alive in their kibbutz homes. A day orchestrated by a rejectionist Islamic fundamentalist movement that stands against every tenet of American progressivism.
That night, they vandalized the home of the director of the Brooklyn Museum with threatening graffiti accusing her of being a “White Supremacist Zionist” and saying she had “blood on her hands” – even though the Brooklyn Museum is probably more multicultural and exemplary in community outreach than any museum in New York City. This follows up on the damage they did to the interior of the museum when they, and their supporters, stormed it a few weeks ago, including graffitiing at least one sculpture that is an iconic welcome symbol for the Brooklyn neighborhood where the museum sits.
But they didn’t just go after Jewish targets. So, they say, they are not antisemites. They are spraying their red paint and graffiti liberally around town. Amazingly, they also attacked the Jordanian and Palestinian Authority UN missions, probably the two most important official venues in New York City for promoting the Palestinian cause, but both opposed by the hard-core Palestinian factions Hamas and PFLP. They claimed that these offices aren’t doing enough to protect or serve the Palestinian people. This makes sense for a movement like Within Our Lifetime, which has refused to denounce Hamas and the PFLP, the extreme factions of the Palestinian movement, both committed to terrorism.
It appears increasingly clear that these activists aren’t interested in any type of process that will actually free Palestinians from an egregious occupation – and like the Hamas leaders themselves, who don’t appear to care what hardship and death is brought upon their fellow Gazans, they are also not looking to ease that pain.
They are filled with hate – hate against Jews, whether they admit it or not, and hate against a system they feel is rigged against them from the streets of New York to the streets of Rafah.
That’s why voices like New York representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez are so profoundly important. By coincidence, she had been scheduled to have an online conversation with two liberal Jewish leaders about antisemitism – how to identify it and how and why to fight against it. Sadly, and perhaps predictably, AOC, as she is known, was immediately attacked on social media for her stance. As only she could do, she politely (and not so politely) told her critics to stuff it. She had her bona fides in the progressive camp – and was an early voice for a ceasefire in Gaza. She is also probably single-handedly the most successful force in showing that change can happen by organizing and building around diverse groups.
Actions like this past week, if they continue, will surely lead to violence. The pronounced antisemitism in these protests is a profoundly unsettling phenomenon. And if these voices are the ones on the frontline, it is not only hard to see this ending well, but difficult to imagine them delivering a ceasefire or state to the Palestinian people.
Jo-Ann Mort is co-author of Our Hearts Invented a Place: Can Kibbutzim Survive in Today’s Israel? She writes frequently about Israel for US, UK and Israeli publications.
