GAME ON: Gaza War Accepts Mayor’s Invitation to New Rochelle
As predicted, here comes the shitshow.
NEW ROCHELLE, NY (February 26, 2024) — A planned Community Flag Ceremony unanimously approved last week by the New Rochelle City Council to bring members of New Rochelle’s Jewish community together with members of the New Rochelle African-American Advisory Committee will have uninvited guests.
Tuesday’s ceremony has been targeted with a Call to Action by a newly created “organization” (“they” have a hastily set up Instagram page) calling itself New Rochelle Liberation Coalition (“NRLC”).
The Call to Action was pre-announced on Saturday after the City of New Rochelle published a post on Instagram, since removed, about the Community Flag Ceremony where the Israeli flag will be lowered and the Pan-African flag raised. The post generated the exact type of hostility that Council Member David Peters claimed on February 13 does not exist among those seeking to remove the Israeli flag — his supporters.
Over 100 hateful comments were appended to the post in the first 24 hours. I took screenshots before the post was deleted, after I asked city official about the comments. Excerpts from the NRLC comments are at the end of this article.
On Sunday night, NRLC posted its call to action, noting the deletion of the Flag Ceremony Post.
nrliberationcoalition: Today, the flag of Israel flies over New Rochelle's City Hall. A couple of days ago, newrochelleny's Instagram page made a post announcing a flag ceremony, showing the Israeli flag alongside the Pan-African flag. The Pan-African flag was created in 1920 to represent people of the African Diaspora and to symbolize Black liberation in the United States. The struggles for Black liberation in the US are intertwined with Palestinian liberation.
The post has since been taken down, and it’s unclear whether the flag ceremony is set to continue this Tuesday. Either way, we are showing up. We want to make this clear: Israel does not represent New Rochelle, and it certainly does not reflect the sentiments of Black liberation.
Join us this Tuesday as we demonstrate our solidarity with Palestine.
It should hardly be a surprise that having played with fire by bringing the Gaza War to New Rochelle City Hall, Democrats on City Council are now reaping the whirlwind.
It will be interesting to see on Tuesday which side of the police barricades the two authors of this unfolding debacle — Council Members David Peters and Shane Osinloye — stand. Will they stand by the primary architect, the Mayor, at the flagpole, or with the people who got them elected in November? Or will they have to shampoo their hair that day?
Who on City Council or the African-American Advisory Committee will show up? And how about the Jews who turned out for the RLM on February 20 waving the Israeli flag? Or that NewROAR crowd who called the Israeli flag a symbol of murder and genocide at CTBH on February 13?
Either way, my readers are the least surprised.
Two weeks ago, I wrote:
What could have been solved in a transparent democratic process a month ago has instead been turned into an open cattle call for every person with a strong opinion on the ongoing conflict in Gaza. The inflamed situation was entirely avoidable but for inept backroom dealing by a newbie Mayor who thought it wise to spend most of her first month in office trying to secretly remove the Israeli flag while publicly telling Jewish residents to “raise these Israeli flags”.
While the two sides at the subsequent CTBHon February 13 were generally respectful of each other, it appears my concerns for that meeting will be realized on February 27.
How long will it take before Pro-Israel speakers at Citizens to be Heard are drowned out by chants of “From the River to the see, Palestine will be free” or “Free, Free, Palestine”? How long before Pro-Palestinian speakers are met with calls of “shame” and “release the hostages”? What signs will be raised? How about flags?
Predictably, the NRLC Call to Action instructs supporters to “Bring signs, 🇵🇸 flags, banners, wear kuffiyehs”.
It will be a scene bound to attract TV cameras — most likely WCBS-TV and News12. If you see Telemundo (based in New Jersey) you know the story has gone wide.
By all appearances, the NRLC looks a lot like another WESPAC Foundation front group. WESPAC Foundation is a founding member, along with U.S. Congressman Jamaal Bowman and New Rochelle Board of Education Member Makeda Lewis.
WESPAC Foundation is the fiscal sponsor for pro-HAMAS groups like National Students for Justice for Palestine.
New Rochelle Mayor Yadira Ramos-Herbert spoke at a Westchester Coalition for Police Reform, a WESPAC front group which later sought to exploit the officer-involved-shooting of Jarrell R. Garris who died from a gunshot wound after he violently resisted arrest in what I previously reported appears to have been a PCP-induced psychotic episode on the afternoon of July 3, 2023. Ramos-Herbert marched in an anti-police parade supporting Garris.
Nada Khader is the Executive Director of the WESPAC Foundation, so look for her in front of City Hall on Tuesday. Expect activists from throughout Westchester County and beyond.
Here is a little bonus, previously unreported news on the Mayor. Yadira Ramos-Herbert is now the subject of a Congressional Investigation into Columbia University’s “response to antisemitism and its failure to protect Jewish students” for her role in two separate events at Columbia University, where she was an administrator at the law school.
New Rochelle Mayoral Candidate Caught on Video at Pro-HAMAS Campus Rally
Columbia Administrators Stand By as Anti-Israel Protesters Overrun Law School and Disrupt Classes
Congressman Bowman, perceived by many Jewish voters as anti-Israel, has been something of a mentor to Ramos-Herbert. He was one of the first to endorse her campaign for Mayor.
Last week, Ramos-Herbert organized a “none of the above” vote to protect Bowman by denying Westchester County Executive George Latimer the endorsement of the New Rochelle Democratic Committee in the upcoming Congressional Primary.
UPDATE: I only saw after this article was published that the City of New Rochelle created a new flyer that emphasizes raising a flag for Black History Month, promotes the Black History Month Gala, de-emphasizes the lowering of the Israeli flag, and removes images of the Israeli flag and Pan-African Flag — and it was not posted to Instagram or any other social media, just the city website where there is no commenting feature. The wording is a bit muddled but it is certainly toned down.
Reaction to Flag Ceremony IG Post
Here is a sample of comments appended to the City of New Rochelle Instagram post about the Community Flag Ceremony (many of them from members of New Rochelle Liberation Coalition).
Members:
Comments:
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