Police are preparing for protests reportedly planned during the Rockefeller Center Christmas Tree lighting Wednesday evening, officials told Gothamist on Tuesday.
An Instagram post by the account wolpalestine – for the pro-Palestinian community organization Within Our Lifetime – calls for people to “flood the tree lighting for Gaza” starting with a rally at 6 p.m., one hour before the event is scheduled to begin. The NYPD’s Intelligence and Counterterrorism Bureau will be responding to the protest, deploying a “wide array of resources to protect the city based on events unfolding here and around the world,” according to an NYPD spokesperson.
The NYPD spokesperson said the department remains prepared to respond to the ongoing war protests.
“We do anticipate that there will be protests in the city on Wednesday — to include around the area of the tree lighting — and at future gatherings around the city in the days and weeks to come, as we have seen over the past seven weeks,” the NYPD spokesperson said. “The NYPD will be on hand to protect the tree lighting and all those attending, and we will not tolerate disruption or any threats to public safety.”
This year, the tree lighting ceremony falls on the same day as the International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People, the caption of the Instagram post calling for the mobilization says. The observance was established by the United Nations in 1977, 30 years after the General Assembly adopted the resolution on the partition of Palestine.
Organizers are calling for the suspension of Christmas celebrations, instead asking for the season to be spent “standing against the genocide of Palestinians.”
“Palestine is the birthplace of Christianity, Jesus was a Palestinian, how can celebrations go on as normal when his birthplace is being attacked,” organizers wrote.
The department similarly prepared for protests ahead of the Thanksgiving Day Parade last week in relation to the ongoing…
Read the full article here
Leave a Reply