Mayor Adams Calls on Politicians who Loudly Supported Local Hamas Rallies to Publicly Renounce Their Hate

By Yehudit Garmaise
“I thought it was insensitive and despicable that while [Israelis] were murdered, kidnapped, and children were assassinated that anyone would show symbols of hate and say some of the comments that came of that rally,” Mayor Eric Adams said yesterday morning about the 700 pro-Palestinian activists who showed up at a Democratic Socialists of America (DSA)-sponsored gathering, in which flags with swastikas were waved in Manhattan on October 8.
“For five hours, from the start of the rally to the end of it, and I walked up and down that whole rally, I heard for hours chants of ‘From the river to the sea. From the river to the sea,' which means the elimination of the entire state of Israel,” said Fabien Levy, the mayor’s deputy mayor for communications, who attended the rally the day after Hamas invaded kibbutzim and other Jewish communities in southern Israel.
“I heard hundreds of people chant, ‘We want it all: not just from the river to the sea.’ I heard, ‘Glorious praise to the death, destruction, and murder.”
The Times of Israel reported that the rally’s participants shouted, “700!” to celebrate the number of Israeli deaths first reported.
Calling the pro-Palestinian protest, “a rally/insensitive celebration after horrific acts took place,” the mayor said, “All I know is: innocent people lost their lives.”
Adams said the left-leaning politicians who attended the October 8 pro-Palestinian rally, who attended the hateful rally, “know who they are, and they should speak up and denounce that form of hatred in our city.”
“A terrorist act happened. I would not want someone ‘celebrating’ after September 11 [although videos at that time captured Palestinians celebrating then too.] I would not want someone celebrating after a plane crashed. Those who ‘celebrated’ on those days: I thought it was despicable, and I am going to let people know how I feel.
“Hamas is a terrorist organization, and we need to treat them as such,” the mayor said. “We need to have that organization totally annihilated, destroyed.
“[Israel has seen]: 1,400 deaths, 200 kidnapped, 3,400 injured, and many innocent Palestinians have been killed as a result of the actions of Hamas,” Mayor Adams said.
With emphasis and understanding uncharacteristic for a Democratic politician, Adams repeated, “[Hamas’ invasion of Israel] was a despicable, heinous act that should have never happened to innocent people.”