A report from the Israeli Independence Day celebration at Radio City Music Hall.
As Jews around the world celebrated the 60th anniversary of the birth of Israel as a modern state, the annual Yom Ha'Atzmaout (Israeli Independence Day) festivities in New York took place amidst a backdrop of controversy and protest outside of Radio City Music Hall on Wednesday evening May 7th.
At a gala, star-studded musical event sponsored by the UJA-Federation, thousands of supporters of Israel filed into the landmark edifice to hear a historic mix of all-star talent including Israeli stars David Broza, Idan Raichel, Rami Kleinstein, Habanot Nechama and Yael Naim. Also appearing on the bill were top American performer and Hasidic reggae phenomenon Matisyahu, recent MacArthur Genius Award winner John Zorn and Late Show With David Letterman bandleader Paul Shaffer. The event also included a moving tribute to Israel's fallen soldiers and victims of terror as part of Israel's Memorial Day.
Outside the hall, a vitriolic cadre of anti-Israel protestors staged a boisterous demonstration, excoriating both Israel and the United States for their supposed "oppression" of the Palestinian people. An organization called "Palestinian Action - Union Square East" sponsored the protest along with members of the Revolutionary Communist Party, an anachronistic Maoist organization who saw its heyday back in the 1960s as an agitating force behind the Vietnam War protest movement. The 75 demonstrators expressed their opprobrium for the Jewish State by chanting such slogans as, "From the River to the Sea, Palestine Will Be Free" and, "Not a Nickel, Not a Dime, No more Money for Israel's Crimes" while drawing parallels of the plight of the Palestinian people to the "racist" verdicts in the Sean Bell case in which several New York City detectives were exonerated of the shooting on April 25th.
"We are calling for the absolute right of return of the Palestinian people to their homeland," said Myka Abramson, 23, a protestor representing the Palestinian cause. Abramson, who identified herself as Jewish, added that, "a two-state solution to the Middle East conflict is not acceptable. We are rallying our forces to demand a one-state solution, a secular democracy in which the Palestinians are masters of their own fate." None of the protestors addressed the issue of incessant rocket attacks launched against southern Israel by Hamas in Gaza, but rather, mindlessly castigated the IDF for committing "genocide" against Palestinians living in Gaza. Another demonstrator who was selling copies of the Revolutionary Communist Party newspaper, formerly titled The Revolutionary Worker, said, "from Harlem to Palestine to Haiti we call for a revolutionary struggle for freedom for all oppressed peoples and we call for an end to the Israeli apartheid regime."
The Palestinian contingent was also joined by 15 members of the notoriously anti-Zionist Chareidi movement, "Neturei Karta," whose members held signs calling for the "Peaceful Dismantlement of Israel" and claimed that "Jews in Exile are Forbidden to Have Their Own State."
As the anti-Israel and anti-Semitic protestors spewed forth their vituperative railing and overt canards against Israel and the United States, directly across the street, members of "Stand With Us," a pro-Israel campus organization, gathered. "Stand With Us" was established to counter the vociferous anti-Israel propaganda that has become a permanent part of and endemic to the American university campus scene. Although greatly outnumbered by the anti-Israel protestors, the members of Stand With Us proudly hoisted an Israeli flag and held signs saying, "Stop the Hamas Terror" and "End the Hamas Bloody Occupation of Gaza."
An African-American woman named Coretta James joined the members of Stand With Us to express her unwavering support for Israel: "Israel is the only viable democracy in the Middle East and a loyal ally of the United States," she said, adding that, "As a member of Christians United For Israel, I am here today to tell the world that Israel has every right to exist as a clearly identifiable Jewish state. Every nation of the world that has risen up to attack the Jewish people and the Land of Israel has eventually become extinct and so too, these demonstrators who dare attack G-d's chosen people and their claim to their G-d given land will also eventually disappear. The establishment of Israel as a Jewish nation is extolled in the Bible and those who curse the Jewish people and Israel will be cursed and conversely those who bless the Jewish people and the Land of Israel will be blessed by G-d. That is why I am here today."
Another pro-Israel demonstrator said, "the fact that Israel is celebrating its 60th year since its formation is testimony to the fact that the G-d of Israel continually provides protection and succor to His people. In many ways, it is purely illogical that Israel should still be in existence. After five major wars and unceasing terrorism, the continued existence of tiny Israel, outnumbered by adversarial forces much mightier than herself, is nothing short of a Divine miracle of mammoth proportions." He added, "I feel and I fear that the times ahead will not portend well for Israel, as a Jewish State. The entire world is turning against Israel and she is becoming more isolated and reviled. As the global influence of radical Islamists continues to dramatically escalate, our only hope lies with our return to the G-d that saved our ancestors, to the G-d that will save us, if only we will beseech Him."
Meanwhile in Israel, where celebrations were taking place marking 60 years of independence, Israeli
Arabs chose to mark the 60th year of the Nakba in a mass rally attended by all Arab Knesset members, as well as public figures such as the Head of the Northern Branch of the Islamic Movement in Israel, Ra'ad Salah, and Shawki Khatib, Head of Higher Arab Monitoring Committee. The march, traditionally marking the expulsion of Palestinian refugees from their land during the War of Independence, led protestors from Nazareth towards the deserted ruins of the village of Suffurriye – today's Zippori. Upon closure, clashes broke out between police forces and demonstrators. Northern Region District Commander Shimon Koren and Brigadier Zohar Dvir were injured.
AriellaH@aol.com
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