Free and unfettered protest is the hallmark of every democracy. It enables citizens to voice their opposition to anything from injustice to bad policies that they feel demand change. It also serves to amplify attention to issues that otherwise might not be known to the public.
But when a demonstration is organized for the purpose of spewing hatred and vilifying a particular ethnicity, making them feel threatened, that is where it can no longer be legitimately classified as exercising one’s democratic right to protest. Because what are they actually protesting – the existence of a people?
This is what newly elected New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani approved a week ago when a “Jew-hating mob descended on a NYC synagogue and Jewish school while shouting ‘Long live October 7… We support Hamas.” (Geller Report, January 10)
After the mayor issued a permit to Hamas-supporting protesters, 200 people wasted no time, and made their way to a predominantly Jewish neighborhood, where they waved Palestinian flags outside the Young Israel of Kew Gardens Hills in Queens.
Just how does their shouted chant, “Say it loud, say it clear, we support Hamas here,” qualify as voicing opposition that brings awareness to injustice? It sounds more like the cries of a frenzied mob, lying in wait to physically harm the Jewish community.
Mamdani fails to protect Jewish community
Called the first significant protest under the Mamdani administration, how does the mayor, who promised to keep New York Jews safe, justify the actions of these so-called protesters, whose obvious aim was to incite rage against residents?
Was it just a lucky guess, or did they know that they were targeting a largely Orthodox Jewish population whose area houses a yeshiva and synagogue? And if they did plan this demonstration in that specific location, is it fair to say that this was solely to intimidate a particular ethnic community for the purpose of getting them to leave?
These are the familiar tactics that have been employed against Jews for centuries. Found to be effective, most people, when hunted down and vilified, will begin to search for a friendlier place to live, where they will not have to fear for their safety.
It happened throughout Europe for generations. Now, the US – the one bastion of hope, where Jews felt safe for more than 200 years – has turned on them, sending the message that they should consider packing.
Is this Mamdani's idea of protecting the Jewish community? What legitimacy does an organized gathering have, when its purpose is to menace and terrify another group of people who simply want to live within the confines of their faith, ethnicity, and shared New York culture?
Modern day Judenrein
At least one person – Sen. John Fetterman – had the courage to identify this event as the vigilante bullying of Jews that it was. His X/Twitter post called out the incident, which took place in close proximity to a Jewish school and place of worship, as “menacing and intimidation.”
His accurate definition should be the reason why future demonstrations of this type must be denied, because they are nothing more than a concerted attempt to frighten and harass people to abandon their neighborhoods. There was a name for that in Nazi Germany. It was called Judenrein – the exclusion of all Jews from society.
Once again, we are seeing the same effort, only this time under the guise of democratic protest. But when is that line crossed and moves into the realm of ethnic cleansing, in a city that has been home to Jews who escaped this kind of persecution?
Is this mayor, with his personal toxic views on Zionism and the State of Israel, even qualified to make an unbiased judgment about an immoral act that is being perpetrated in his city, by those who want to oust Jews from their midst?
Can the man who accused Israel of committing genocide, who, as a student, established a Students for Justice in Palestine chapter, or who has promoted the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions movement, be a fair and impartial arbiter to stop the heinous acts of the same people who elected him to office?
He uses his charm and twisted logic to excuse the hateful intimidation directed at the New York Jewish community, referring to the protests as protected free speech, while flashing another one of his insufferable smiles, assuring his commitment to the Jewish community’s safety.
The Trojan horse mayor
Mamdani has mastered the art of insincerity and craftiness, skillfully balancing his antisemitic constituents while, at the same time, paying the obligatory lip service to the rest of the public, which expects safety and protection for all.
It is no wonder that he has often been called a Trojan horse, representing the hollow statue used by the enemy to conceal themselves while planning to destroy their opponent. There is, perhaps, no better description, as we witness the cover afforded to the pro-Palestine crowd enjoying full immunity from their Trojan horse sponsor.
Legal avenues must be pursued that challenge the legitimacy of the bogus protests that are being weaponized and call for Jews to exit.
Forbidden acts of protest include committing violence as well as unrest. But doesn’t it also include the violence of words? Because when the October 7 murders, beheadings, rapes, tortures, and dismemberments are invoked as events that should be remembered and celebrated, doesn’t that welcome destruction?
This is where the line must be drawn, because if it isn’t, there will be no differentiation between a violent lynch mob waiting to pounce, and an illegitimate claim of peaceful protest, which is the right of all citizens.
New Yorkers, whether Jewish or not, must be willing to disavow what is being touted as a moral equivalence of something that is actually a precursor to forced expulsion.
History has already witnessed this movie, which doesn’t end well – neither for Jews nor for those who tried to banish them from existence. Protests must not be hate-fests in disguise.
The writer is a former Jerusalem elementary and middle school principal. She is the author of Mistake-Proof Parenting, based on the time-tested wisdom found in the Book of Proverbs, available on Amazon.