Gone unnoticed

With the entire media attention focused on mad, oil-intoxicated speeches of Iranian Hitler-want-to-be president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and his Venezuelan admirer Hugo Chavez, largely unnoticed has gone massive Israel solidarity rally on the Dag Hammarskjold Plaza near UN headquarters in New York on Wednesday, September 20th. Unnoticed to a degree that left me with an unsettling impression that only gatherings that involve hate speech and/or burning or breaking things deserve media attention nowadays and this one was nothing like it.


Nevertheless the event featured speakers such as New York State governor George Pataki and gathered at by my own estimate about ten thousand people. While “We Stand with Israel” were the most common signs seen, there where lots of people carrying signs that read “Christians United for Israel”, many of whom (I have heard) traveled great distances to attend this event. As a Jew and an Israel supporter I express my deepest gratitude and sympathy to them.


There were also some one-of-a-kind, homemade signs. One of them that touched my heart was carried by an elderly man and read “Liar! Denier! I am a Holocaust Survivor”, apparently addressed to Iranian president. But my favorite one is “UN stands for ‘Useless Nothing’”, gets the point across, doesn’t it?

And of course there was a lonely dissident, carrying “Peace through coexistence” sign. I hope he or she (I can’t be sure because of the crowd), meant to address it to president Ahmadinejad, as he is the one talking about wiping countries off the map. But I doubt he’ll listen.

More pictures annotated


Crowds completely filled Hammarskjold Plaza


More people were standing on both sides of Second Avenue (back of the shot)


Another shot of “Christians United for Israel” signs


The podium located near First Avenue is visible on the background