Coalition of Student Groups brings Middle East politics to Bay Ridge, takes to the street
The bloodshed over contested territories in Israel and Palestine may be thousands of miles away, but several dozen protesters sought to bring the debate home with a rally and march in Bay Ridge. Organized by members of Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP), a national network of campus-based anti-Zionist activists, the preliminary part of the event convened on the plaza of Leif Ericson Park at 67th Street and Sixth Avenue.
Aug. 26 will be the first anniversary of the official end of the 2014 Israel-Gaza conflict, which the United Nations Human Rights Commission claims resulted in the death of 2,251 people. To mark the occasion and draw attention to lack of progress made toward defusing Palestinian and Israeli tensions, numerous events are scheduled to occur throughout the city.
But for otherwise sleepy Bay Ridge, far from the customary sites of political demonstration (think Foley Square, Zuccotti Park, etc.), the rally and brief march were untypical. The choice, though, of Bay Ridge — sometimes referred to as “Little Palestine” on account of the sizable immigrant community calling it home — was auspicious. Demonstrators aimed to bring their demand for Palestinian sovereignty home to the very community whose relatives in their native land live with the day-in and day-out reality of armed conflict, and to rouse it into action.