White House denounces anti-Israel protest

US President Joe Biden’s administration has condemned a pro-Palestinian protest which was held outside a New York City exhibit commemorating the October 7 death of Israelis attending a music festival near Gaza when Hamas attacked the event.

Hundreds of people gathered in Manhattan on Monday evening and marched to the venue of the Nova Festival exhibition, carrying Palestinian flags, and the banners of Hamas and Hezbollah.

“Anti-Semitism has no place in the US,” White House spokesperson Andrew Bates said in a statement, calling the behavior of the protesters “horrifying” as well as “outrageous and heartbreaking.”

“Profane banners of terrorist organizations should not be flown anywhere, especially not on American streets,” Bates said.

The Nova Festival exhibit was set up in Lower Manhattan, near the New York Stock Exchange building. It commemorated the 364 people who were killed on October 7 last year, during the series of Hamas attacks on Israel. 

Videos circulating on social media showed the pro-Palestinian demonstrators outside the venue chanting “Israel, go to hell” and “Long live the intifada,” the Arab word for uprising.

One person was arrested during the protest, according to the New York Police Department.

The Nova festival “was a rave next to a concentration camp,” Nerdeen Kiswani, an activist with the pro-Palestinian group Within Our Lifetime, wrote on X (formerly Twitter). She called the exhibit “propaganda used to justify the genocide in Palestine.”

Kiswani said that some of the protesters gathered at Union Square spontaneously decided to march to Wall Street, where the exhibit was located. The Union Square protest was dubbed the “Day of Rage for Gaza.” 

A pro-Palestinian protest in Washington, DC on Saturday featured banners supporting Al-Qassam, the armed wing of Hamas, and chants urging Hezbollah to “kill another Zionist now.” One of the protesters was photographed with a sign “f*ck Israel, stand with Hamas.”