Officials monitoring pro-Palestine rally in New York City amid war in Israel

Officials in New York are monitoring a pro-Palestine rally organized by the Democratic Socialists of America taking place on Sunday following a deadly terrorist attack on Israel launched by Hamas.

The rally is set for Sunday at 1 p.m. in Times Square in New York City, and it’s being held “in solidarity with the Palestinian people and their right to resist 75 years of occupation and apartheid.” The Hamas attack, launched early Saturday, has left as many as 600 Israelis dead and 2,000 wounded. The Israeli counterattack in Gaza and at Hamas structures has left 313 Palestinians dead and 1,990 wounded.

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Both NYC Mayor Eric Adams and Gov. Kathy Hochul (D-NY) will be monitoring the rally, they said.

“We will monitor the protests here in the city. Everyone has the right to protest even if I strongly disagree with any form of celebrations of such a horrific incident like this,” Adams said on Sunday in an interview on CBS News’s Face the Nation.

Hochul released a statement on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, on Saturday night condemning any plans to rally in support of Hamas.

“The people of Israel are facing violent terrorist attacks and civilian kidnappings. I condemn plans to rally in Times Square tomorrow in support of the perpetrators of these horrific actions. The planned rally is abhorrent and morally repugnant,” Hochul said.

Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-MI) released a statement on the “ongoing violence in Israel and Palestine” on Sunday, echoing similar comments made by DSA and other pro-Palestine groups. She said she is determined to fight for a “just future” where “everyone can live in peace,” calling for an end to the “occupation” in Israel.

“The path to that future must include lifting the blockade, ending the occupation, and dismantling the apartheid conditions that can lead to resistance,” Tlaib said. “As long as our government provides billions in unconditional funding to support the apartheid government, this heartbreaking cycle of violence will continue.”

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Rep. Ritchie Torres (D-NY), however, took a different position than his fellow Democratic representative. He said in a post on X on Sunday that the DSA is “normalized” in the Empire State, and the rally is “a sign of how far my beloved New York has fallen.”

“The DSA refers to ’75 years of occupation.’ For the DSA, the occupation is Israel itself,” Torres said. “Ending the occupation means ending Israel — the home of the world’s largest Jewish population. DSA has been so normalized within New York politics that it will pay no price at all for its genocidal celebration of Israel’s destruction in the wake of Israel’s deadliest terrorist attack.”