Thousands of people gathered across Manhattan on Monday to commemorate the first anniversary of Hamas’s Oct. 7 attack on Israel, with groups on both sides of the conflict expressing their collective grief and outrage over the past year of war.
A demonstration that began in Lower Manhattan in the afternoon drew a large crowd. Several hundred people, led by organizers from the pro-Palestinian group Within Our Lifetime, assembled around a huge Palestinian flag that they had unfurled on the street outside the New York Stock Exchange, where they prayed and then chanted, “Israel bombs, U.S.A. pays, how many kids did you kill today?” Nearby, a smaller group of counterprotesters waved Israeli flags and shouted, “Death to Hamas.”
The crowd grew as it marched north, blocking streets. Later, in Union Square, a separate event organized by left-leaning Jewish groups was held to mourn the Palestinian, Israeli and Lebanese victims of the past year.
“I’m protesting one year of killing human beings who don’t deserve to die,” said Mir Ali, 67, of Staten Island, who was among the protesters in Lower Manhattan. Israel’s campaign in Gaza has killed more than 41,000 Palestinians, many of them children, according to local health officials.
Several of New York’s highest-ranking elected officials including Gov. Kathy Hochul and Mayor Eric Adams, appeared at another event in Central Park memorializing the victims of the attacks on Oct. 7, when officials say 1,200 people who were killed and roughly another 250 were taken hostage. During emotional remarks by the parents of 22-year-old Omer Neutra, who is being held by Hamas, the crowd of more than a thousand, many waving Israeli flags or draping them around their shoulders, broke into the rallying cry that has been repeated throughout the past year: “Bring them home.”
The protests across the city remained peaceful. By Monday afternoon, at least one person had been arrested as the protesters moved across Manhattan, according to police officials.
The day of remembrance and protest follows a year of demonstrations around the city. Many protesters have expressed outrage over U.S. funding and support for Israel’s actions in Gaza. Other events have focused on the return of the hostages. As the war has broadened in recent days, pro-Palestinian demonstrations have also denounced Israel’s attacks on Lebanon, where at least 2,000 people have been killed and hundreds of thousands displaced since Israel invaded to fight Hezbollah.
The events over the past year, particularly on the city’s college campuses, have sometimes turned volatile and have included clashes with the police.
Feelings about the conflict have been raw in New York, which is home to the largest Jewish community outside Israel — nearly 1 million in the city — and also has about 6,825 residents who identify as Palestinian, according to the U.S. census. Since last October, the city has seen rising instances of antisemitic and anti-Muslim violence and harassment.
At Columbia University, where student encampments opposing the conflict earlier this year inspired similar protests at campuses nationwide, both pro-Palestinian and pro-Israel demonstrators gathered on Monday to speak about the impact of the war.
Addressing a group of people gathered outside Columbia’s gates holding Israeli flags and posters with photos of hostages, Shai Davidai, an assistant professor at Columbia’s business school, said, “This day is about us,” adding: “We are still here, and we are not going anywhere.”
When the pro-Palestinian demonstration in Lower Manhattan reached Washington Square Park, it merged with a gathering of hundreds of student protesters. The group marched to Union Square, where it paused again for prayers before continuing north.
Ritty Lukose, 55, a professor at nearby New York University, said she viewed the day as one of mourning, including for those in Gaza who have been killed or whose lives have been upended.
“This is not to erase the suffering of the people” who were victims of Hamas’s attack, she said. “But this is to put it in context.”
As the new school year began and Oct. 7 approached, some universities that had seen protests earlier in the year updated their policies around student action. Mayor Adams said that security would be enhanced around synagogues for the High Holy Days — the anniversary falls between Rosh Hashana, the Jewish New Year, and Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement — and that the police would be prepared to handle demonstrations.
“To those who plan to use this day to peacefully protest, that is your right,” Mr. Adams said on social media on Monday morning. “As you do so, remember to follow the law and I ask you to please hold a place in your hearts for those who lost everything a year ago today.”
Ahead of the evening memorial event at Central Park’s SummerStage, security had been ramped up, with armed officers guarding entrances and either side of the stage.
A line of elected officials — Ms. Hochul, Senators Charles Schumer and Kirsten Gillibrand, the House minority leader, Hakeem Jeffries, Attorney General Letitia James and Comptroller Tom DiNapoli — carried candles to center stage and stood silently, heads bowed and hands clasped, as a cantor sang a prayer. Behind them, a giant screen flashed photographs of those killed on Oct. 7 and those still in captivity, along with video clips of Israeli soldiers, tanks and warplanes. After more prayers and musical performances, including by the singer-songwriter Regina Spektor, the event concluded with the playing of the U.S. and Israeli national anthems.
Around 6 p.m., the pro-Palestinian demonstration changed directions and gathered in Madison Square Park. The call to prayer sounded, and the crowd fell mostly quiet as drones and helicopters hovered overhead. After the prayers, the crowd chanted “Gaza,” accompanied by drums and horns. Around 7:30 p.m., the demonstrators began to disperse.
Separately in Union Square, hundreds of people sang at a memorial organized by Jews for Racial and Economic Justice and several other left-leaning Jewish groups. As speakers called for an arms embargo, an immediate cease-fire and a deal to return the hostages, the crowd — some wearing kaffiyehs or kipas, some holding signs with slogans like “Palestinian and Jewish Safety Are Intertwined” and “Not Another Bomb” — was solemn.
As the names of Palestinian, Israeli and Lebanese civilians who have been killed in the past year were read aloud, quiet sobs were the only sounds. Attendees stood to light yahrzeit memorial candles and leave small stones at the feet of the speakers.
“It’s hard to be here knowing that despite the efforts of so many people, it hasn’t stopped,” said Zoe Goldblum, a 28-year-old Park Slope resident who works at a Jewish nonprofit.
“But we’re still here, because there are still people living in Gaza and in Israel and in Lebanon who deserve our voices and who need us to be out here, showing that we hear them,” she continued. “They deserve to live.”
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