Hundreds Rally Downtown For Palestine; Menorah Climbing Denounced As Antisemitic

Jake Dressler photo

At Saturday's protest on Elm Street.

A protester climbing the menorah on the Green on Saturday.

About 300 people marched in the streets and rallied on the Green on Saturday in the latest local effort to get elected officials to support Palestinians and a ceasefire amid the ongoing Israel-Hamas war.

During the event, one protester climbed the menorah on the Green and lodged a Palestinian flag between the candle holders — prompting criticism from fellow protesters, and a planned press conference by elected leaders and the Jewish Federation on Monday morning to denounce the act as antisemitic.

Saturday’s event, which was hosted by American Muslims for Palestine CT, We Will Return Palestine, and UCONN SJP, kicked off on the Green at around 2 p.m.

Protesters brought keffiyehs, Palestinian flags and prayer rugs. Tri-fold posterboards were on display recapping key historical events in the decades long Israel-Palestine conflict. 

The protest was billed online as Shut It Down! For Human Rights Day.” One flyer read: Show out to protest the United Nations’ complicity in continuous human rights violations, genocide, and war crimes in Palestine.” It came less than a week after supporters of a ceasefire in Gaza formally introduced a proposed resolution on that matter to the Board of Alders, amid a nationwide effort by pro-Palestinian activists to get city halls across the country to weigh in on the conflict and to speak out against the Israeli military’s response to Hamas’s Oct. 7 attack. 

After hearing from a number of speakers, including a civil rights lawyer, the group on Saturday followed a U‑Haul pickup truck on a loop that took them up Chapel to Broadway and then back towards the Green on Elm Street. 

On the back of the truck, protesters took turns delivering chants through a megaphone. As they passed the Yale dining halls, Yale dining staff gathered on the sidewalks with some of them waving Palestinian flags. Police vehicles followed closely behind and blocked off traffic.

Video recorded by Jake Dressler.

When the crowd returned to the Green, one protester climbed the menorah that had been erected just a few days before to celebrate Hanukkah, and lodged a Palestinian flag in between the candle holders. Other protesters pleaded with him to take down the flag, and said it made them look bad. The flag was taken down immediately by other protesters.

Behind him, protesters chanted shut it down” as part of a chant that refers to various institutions that have not supported Palestinians. They were not chanting about the menorah.

This reporter’s video recording of the incident went viral, and led the Jewish Federation of Greater New Haven to announce via an email press release on Sunday night that they plan on hosting a press conference on the Green on Monday morning at 10:30.

Let us be clear: this is antisemitism, plain and simple,” the press release reads. And we do not intend to sit idly by nor stay silent in the face of such a brazen act. While we support the right of all people to exercise free speech, the defacement of a menorah, which is itself a symbol of Jewish resilience against all odds, is an act of hate speech against Jews, not a political act against the Jewish state.” The press conference will be attended by Mayor Justin Elicker, U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal, and Jewish Federation CEO Gayle Slossberg, among others.

Yale also released a statement on Sunday criticizing the incident as antisemitic and noting that it has asked the New Haven police to investigate the matter.

New Haven Police Chief Karl Jacobson said his officers investigated the incident after learning about it. They interviewed the owner of the menorah, who said there was no damage to it. He said police do not know who climbed on the menorah, and he urged anyone in the public with more video to share it with the police.

When the group on Saturday got to lower Elm Street, they were greeted with a barrage of eggs. Multiple protesters were hit. One protester said the eggs were thrown from a window on the fourth floor of the Union Trust apartment building. Although he could not confirm it, there was only one open window on that floor with a man leaning out of it watching the scene unfold.

When addressed by one of the protesters who pointed up at him, the man in the window called down and said, It wasn’t me. I think it came from that building,” pointing at the building across the street which has sealed windows.

The protest continued until around 4 p.m.

Flyer advertising Saturday's event.

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