New Yorkers denounce anti-protest legislation
Feb. 25 — The front steps of New York City’s City Hall were filled with people this morning protesting attempts to muzzle protests against the theft of Palestinian land.
The rally and news conference opposed City Council bills Int. 1-A and 175-A. These would mandate “buffer zones” to keep demonstrators away from the sites of these stolen land sales, which violate international and U.S. civil rights law.
The corporate media, in keeping with these censorship proposals, boycotted the event.
The sponsors of this anti-free speech legislation are City Council speaker Julie Menin and City Council member Eric Dinowitz. Since Zionist real estate companies often hold these for-profit sales of seized Palestinian land in synagogues, Menin and Dinowitz demagogically claim they are protecting the “right to worship.”
This ignores that many of the protesters at these illegal auctions have been Jewish supporters of Palestine. And it covers-up the violent attacks of Zionist vigilantes during the demonstrations.
The bills also restrict protests outside of schools, including universities.
Remember the Al-Khalil massacre!
Menin and Dinowitz also didn’t care that they were introducing this legislation on the 32nd anniversary of the Feb. 25, 1994, massacre at a mosque in Al-Khalil (Hebron) , Palestine. Twenty-nine Palestinians were murdered by the Zionist settler Baruch Goldstein, who was born and educated in the United States.
Didn’t they have a right to worship? The Zionist Minister for National Security Itamar Ben-Gvir considered Baruch Goldstein to be a hero. Ben-Gvir even used to have the terrorist’s picture in his living room.
The New York City Police Department, which is supposed to enforce these buffer zones, has a long history of anti-Muslim harassment. This includes spying on the large mosque Masjid-At-Taqwa in Brooklyn’s Bedford-Stuyvesant Black community.
The protest was called by a diverse coalition of groups, including PAL-Awda NY/NJ, which has organized protests against the sale of stolen Palestinian land in New York City. Other groups included UAW locals 2710 (Columbia grad student workers) and 2325 (legal aid attorneys), Jews for Racial and Economic Justice, Jews Against White Supremacy (JAWS), the National Lawyers Guild, CUNY for Palestine, Trans formative schools and New York for Abortion Rights.
People carried banners and signs saying “Protect our right to protest!,” “Stop the sale of stolen Palestinian land” and “Stop buffer zone bills.” One banner read “Jews say stop land theft not dissent.”
Afterwards people went inside the City Council to testify against this legislation to suppress support for Palestine.
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