“Iran, Iran makes us proud! Burn Tel Aviv to the ground!” shouted pro-Islamic Republic protesters in New York’s Times Square.
The “Solidarity with Iran” rally was organized by the socialist, pro-Palestinian Bronx Anti-War coalition, which called for people to come out in “full force to support the brave Iranian and Palestinian people fighting for all free people worldwide.”
“Iran is defending itself against terrorist aggression from the US and Zionist regimes,” the group said.
According to videos and statements from the rally, protesters chanted, “US drones in the sky, Iran’s missiles will reply!” and “Courts and talks won’t set us free, resistance brings victory!” as well as calling for Tel Aviv to be burned to the ground.
Many posters and flags were also held up, including Iranian regime flags, posters saying “a genocidal apartheid state has no right to exist,” and pictures of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Ebrahim Raisi, and Qasem Soleimani.
Another poster showed a burning Israeli flag with the words “Karma’s a bitch.”
Multiple members of the fringe anti-Zionist Jewish group Neturei Karta were also there, many of whom were standing on Israeli flags.
Videos also circulated on social media of a man dressed as Jesus in Times Square, wearing only a loincloth and covered from head to toe in fake blood, shouting, “F*** Israel,” while attached to a homemade crucifix with the same words.
Just a day earlier, The People’s Forum NYC held a similar rally in Times Square alongside Nodutdol (a Marxist, diasporic Korean organization) “to oppose the Zionist war on Iran [sic].”
“We must not be deceived by Rubio’s lies,” one group member said. “The idea [that] Israel acted unilaterally in bombing Iran is a total fiction.
“By pushing the Zionist attack dog to strike Iran in the middle of diplomatic negotiations, Trump has shown the world that his word and the word of all US imperialists are worthless.”
Group called for severance of US financial, military aid to Israel
The group then called for the severance of US financial and military aid to Israel, as well as “international, working-class solidarity against the war-profiteering corporations using mayhem and genocide to line their pockets.”
In one video, a speaker can be heard asking an animated crowd, “Is it Iran that raises the rent on your apartment? Is it Iran that cuts funding to your children’s schools? Is it Iran that trains the police who terrorize your block?
“Who did that? The United States,” he added, met with cheers.
The NYC protests joined multiple worldwide pro-regime rallies over the last few days, including major ones in London and Paris.