CNN
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A Monday night demonstration outside an exhibition that pays tribute to those killed at an Israeli music festival last year is “really heartbreaking for everyone involved,” an exhibition spokesperson says.
“It was pretty surreal that this protest took place outside of exhibition commemorating hundreds of lives of people that were lost,” the spokesperson, Michelle Rojas, told CNN Monday.
The exhibition commemorates those killed at the Nova Music Festival in Israel during the October 7 attacks by Hamas.
At least 260 people died during the festival attack, according to Israeli rescue service Zaka. Some attendees were taken hostage, seen in social media videos being seized by their armed captors. The outdoor festival was supposed to be an all-night dance party, celebrating the Jewish holiday of Sukkot.
The protest was part of a “Citywide Day of Rage for Gaza,” in which pro-Palestinian protesters demonstrated outside museums across New York City on Monday. The protests, organized by the group Within Our Lifetime “in response to the ongoing genocide being carried out against the Palestinian people,” called on demonstrators to “take autonomous action all day” then gather at Union Square at 5 p.m.
“Across the city the Brooklyn Museum and cultural institutions like it are drenched in the blood of Palestine’s martyrs. In their name and in their memory we call for autonomous action against these institutions all day,” the group said on X.
Israel launched ongoing attacks in Gaza after the Hamas attacks in October killed 1,200 people. More than 37,000 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza since Israel’s war against Hamas started in October, according to figures from the enclave’s health ministry.
Multiple protesters were taken into custody, and 23 were released with criminal court summons, according to the New York City Police Department. It’s unclear exactly how many protesters were arrested.
New York City mayor Eric Adams called the demonstration “pure anti-Semitism.”
“Any New Yorker who stands for peace cannot stand next to those waving Hamas and Hezbollah flags, especially at an exhibit commemorating the victims of the Nova Music Festival massacre,” he said in a post on X.
“The NYPD has overseen thousands of peaceful protests, but it is our duty to arrest anyone who breaks the law,” Adams added. “New Yorkers will always be safe here.”
The White House condemned the demonstration outside the New York exhibit, calling it “outrageous and heartbreaking.”
“The events at yesterday’s memorial to those murdered at the Nova music festival are outrageous and heartbreaking,” White House spokesman Andrew Bates said in a statement.
Bates added, “Profane banners of terrorist organizations should not be flown anywhere, especially not on American streets. Antisemitism has no place in the United States. This horrifying behavior is all the more reason for ‘Americans to stand united against antisemitism and hate in all its forms,’ like President Biden urgently called for at the Holocaust Memorial Museum last month.”
“On the citywide Day of Rage for Gaza today we flooded the streets, took over the subway and shut down the Nova Exhibition,” Within Our Lifetime posted on X.
The exhibit has been extended until June 22 as a result of the demonstrations to make sure more people come down to support it, Rojas said.
“It’s incredibly important for people to see that this impacted so many facets, not only in Israel but truly around the world, different countries, different communities around the world were impacted by what happened at a music festival,” Rojas said.
CNN’s Michelle Watson contributed to this report.
