Emotional protesters gathered at the United Nations secretary-general’s house in Manhattan Friday morning to demand action on behalf of Israeli hostages held by Hamas and accused the UN of “legalizing violence” for inaction.
“What [has the UN] done, they do nothing. In the most basic way, it legitimizes this situation. It legitimizes violence, legitimizes hostage-taking,” organizer Omer Lubaton Granot told The Post after the peaceful demonstration.
A group of about 50 people – mostly middle-aged Manhattanites – met at a park in Sutton Place around 9 a.m. Friday and walked together to the home of Secretary-General Antonio Guterres.
Demonstrators lined up in front of homes holding large signs reading “Free our hostages,” as well as prints of photos of more than 240 missing people taken by Hamas during the terror group’s incursion into southern Israel on Oct. 7.
Supporters of Israel gathered outside the 3 Sutton Place home of UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Friday morning.J. Messerschmidt for the NY Post
The peaceful demonstration was a stark contrast to recent protests – including a New York City woman who was arrested after allegedly pepper-spraying a Jewish volunteer and threatening to “kill all you Jews” as she tore down a hostage poster.
After each hostage’s name was read by a different crowd, protesters said prayers and sang songs in their honor.
At one point, the group tied origami butterflies to a tree outside Guterres’ residence to “remind the secretary general of the hostages,” explained one participant.
Protesters hung origami butterflies on a tree outside the residence to remind Guterres of the hostages.J. Messerschmidt for the NY Post
One woman held a sign that read “Secretary Guterres, what if they were your children?”
The group said it plans to meet every Friday morning – rain or shine – to read the names of those taken.
“On October 7, my cousin [Chen Almog Goldstein] being a hostage and a grieving mother on the same day,” Granot, who attended the protest with his wife and young child behind him, told The Post.
“She was taken hostage with her three children, Agam, Gal and Tal — and her husband, Nagav, and her eldest son, Yam, were killed [by Hamas].
Omer Lubaton Grunot attended the protest with his wife and small child.J. Messerschmidt for the NY Post
Granot urged people to think of each hostage as more than just a number.
“Think, behind the number there is [a person]. Everyone is the whole world. There are faces and stories, and we have so many stories,” he explained.
“A girl, her name is Abigail, she is 3 years old, she is a hostage without her parents. Both his parents were killed and they adopted the child. We have elderly women, some of them over 80 years old, they need their medicine, they need their treatment.
Susan Lax’s friend Vivian Silver has been missing since she was taken from her kibbutz on Oct. 7. Messerschmidt for the NY Post
Granot added that he was disappointed by Guterres’ response to Hamas’s invasion of Israel and the subsequent war in the Gaza Strip.
Late last month, Guterres had to defend himself against accusations that his statements on the issue justified the Hamas terror attack when he told the Security Council that the incident “did not happen in a vacuum.”
“First of all, I hope he will take care of this [as] the biggest hostage crisis in history,” said Granot.
A total of about 50 New Yorkers participated in the peaceful demonstration.J. Messerschmidt for the NY Post
“The number, the timing, the diversity of ages, the public involved … there is nothing like it. We want the UN, the secretary general to deal with it.”
Susan Lax, 65, an entrepreneur who lives between Manhattan and Tel Aviv, told The Post that the UN’s perceived lack of action reinforced the trauma of generations of the Jewish community.
“[I am here so] that he will make sure, as second-generation Holocaust survivors, we know what it’s like when the world is silent, and his job is to make sure the world is not silent,” he said of Guterres.
Antonio Guterres has come under fire for his response to the Hamas war.REUTERS
“If it was his son, his siblings, his wife, or his parents, I want to know what he would have done.”
Lax’s friend, peace activist Vivan Silver, has been held hostage since he was kidnapped by Hamas from Kibbutz Be’eri on Oct. 7.
“[The protest is] to remind the world and to remind the secretary general that we are talking about souls. Each of them is a soul and they must not be forgotten,” he explained.
“We have to keep their face out there, we have to keep the message out there. There were children, women, and old men, and my friend Vivian Silver.”
The group plans to return every Friday at 9 am until the hostages are returned.J. Messerschmidt for the NY Post
Perak in particular was known for his charitable contributions to the Palestinian community before he was taken, Lax added.
“Vivian is one of the most precious souls I know because she believes in peace. He has been a peace activist all his life, he never gives up, he helps sick people from Gaza come to Israel for medical help, he drives them, he befriends them.
“He was in contact with his son until 11 in the morning [Oct. 7]. I tried to hold him again and again. He told his son, ‘They are coming for me, I heard them, they are in the house.’ He hid behind the closet, and then he told her that he loved her, and that was the last,” he said of his friend’s last terrible moments.
Another protester, Ally, declined to give her last name but told The Post that “any human being” should have condemned the Hamas attacks more clearly than Guterres.
The name of each hostage was read out as part of the demonstration.J. Messerschmidt for the NY Post
“Any human being … will support … our clear and straightforward efforts to bring home those little children, the elderly, the sick, the young, it’s a basic human thing to support,” the 50-year-old pharmacist insisted. that.
It was unclear whether Guterres was ready to address the Israeli hostage crisis any time Friday.
A meeting of the Security Council will reportedly address the Palestinian situation at 3pm, The Post has learned.
With Postal wire
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Source: thtrangdai.edu.vn/en/
