Anti-Israel protesters disrupt NYC support rally for Harris campaign
Demonstrators interrupt speakers, including mayor, then follow participants to afterparty where they set off smoke bombs, clash with police
Pro-Palestinian and anti-Israel protesters disrupted a presidential campaign rally for US Vice President Kamala Harris in Harlem, New York City, on Wednesday, bursting inside and interrupting speeches with chants and slogans.
Footage from the scene showed crowds carrying banners, beating drums, and calling out slogans like “Palestine will be free” and “Normalize the intifada.” A photograph of Hamas chief Yahya Sinwar was seen held aloft.
The campaign rally was not sanctioned by Harris’s campaign and neither Harris nor her running mate, Gov. Tim Walz, was present. The event was, however, attended by other notable Democrats like New York City Mayor Eric Adams, Gov. Kathy Hochul, and Representative Adriano Espaillat.
According to Politico, the protesters entered the rally repeatedly, disrupting the speeches and calling on those present to push for a ceasefire in Gaza and an embargo on arms deliveries to Israel.
The protesters who disrupted the rally were escorted out by police.
Adams, who was speaking during some of the disruptions, underscored the importance of unity among the party’s supporters, saying that the election is “the real fight.”
NOW: Palestine supporters gather outside of Kamala Harris campaign event in Harlem NYC
Video by @yyeeaahhhboiii2 @FreedomNTV Desk@freedomnews.tv to license pic.twitter.com/zhsovxnqNt
— Oliya Scootercaster ???? (@ScooterCasterNY) August 14, 2024
“Hold onto all of that anger until after November. November you need to be laser-focused on one thing,” Politico quoted him saying to protesters.
After the rally, the protesters followed some of the event’s participants to an afterparty at an outdoor restaurant in the neighborhood where the demonstration escalated.
Footage from the scene showed the protesters setting off smoke bombs and clashing with police who were seen making arrests.
Many Arab Americans and leftists have expressed anger at the Biden administration’s handling of the war with Hamas and US support for Israel.
The war in the Gaza Strip has been ongoing for 10 months since October 7 when thousands of Hamas terrorists rampaged through Israel’s south, killing some 1,200 people and taking 251 hostages.
In response, Israel launched a ground invasion of Gaza with the objective of dismantling the terror group, which rules the Strip, and getting the hostages back.
BREAKING: Pro-Palestine Protesters STORM into Democratic After party event following Kamala Harris Campaign, SMOKE BOMBS set off at the outdoor restaurant, MASS ARRESTS pic.twitter.com/5BVEGhzrq0
— Oliya Scootercaster ???? (@ScooterCasterNY) August 15, 2024
The Hamas-run Gaza health ministry says more than 39,000 people in the Strip have been killed or are presumed dead in the fighting so far, though the toll cannot be verified and does not differentiate between civilians and fighters. Israel says it has killed some 15,000 combatants in battle as of May and some 1,000 terrorists inside Israel during the October 7 attack.
Anti-Israel and pro-Palestinian protesters have demonstrated regularly worldwide against Israel’s war in Gaza since the war began with some even praising Hamas’s October 7 attack and calling for intifada.
For Israelis, intifada — “uprising” in Arabic — conjures traumatic memories of a mass wave of terror attacks in the early 2000s. The period saw suicide bombings and other terror attacks in Israel that killed hundreds of civilians. Another intifada took place in the late 1980s.
