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A coalition of pro-Palestinian groups plans to rally on the steps of City Hall tomorrow while the City Council votes on two measures that would restrict protests around houses of worship and educational institutions. Activists previously protested outside the first hearing in February.
The rally’s organizers include Jewish Voice for Peace NYC, the New York Civil Liberties Union and PAL-Awda NY. They say the bills are “anti-speech” and would “prevent protests against the sale of stolen Palestinian land outside places of worship,” reported the Jewish News Syndicate.
The NYC chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America also urged members to call City Council representatives in protest against the bills. “These bills expand the capacity of the NYPD to police and surveil Black, brown, and immigrant New Yorkers, jeopardizing the safety of protestors exercising their first amendment rights and students attending school,” the party said in a call to action.
Julie Menin, the first Jewish speaker of the City Council, proposed the legislation in response to pro-Palestinian protests outside synagogues holding Israel-related events. PAL-Awda was an organizer of those protests.
Mayor Zohran Mamdani has not commented on whether he will sign the legislation, saying he would await a legal review.
650 Fifth Avenue, a 36-story office tower near Manhattan’s Rockefeller Center, is seen on April 20, 2014. (Cem Ozdel/Anadolu Agency/Getty Images)