Tiny Anti-Israel Protest No Match for 10,000 – Strong NYC Pro-Israel Rally
JP Update – 29th July 2014
In a small gathering only several blocks from where a massive rally in support of Israel was set to shortly take place outside the United Nations, several dozen protesters, most of them young adults who were dressed in mournful black outfits, stood in front of the midtown Manhattan office building that contains the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, chanting the mourners’ Kaddish and reading aloud the names of the hundreds of Palestinians, along with the Israeli soldiers, who have been killed since the beginning of Israel’s defensive war against Hamas in Gaza.
The demonstration was organized by “If Not Now, When?,” a hastily pulled-together group of “anti-occupation” Jewish protesters.
Their demonstration was overwhelmed by the “New York Stands With Israel” community-wide rally held next to the UN two hours later. The large gathering, which was officially co-sponsored by UJA-Federation of New York, the Jewish Community Relations Council and the Conference of Presidents, in conjunction with the Reform, Conservative and mainstream Orthodox movements, drew a passionate crowd of 10,000 people, said Shira Dicker, who has a public relations firm but was speaking as a rally participant. Participating in the rally is “exhilarating,” Dicker said.
