Three years have passed since the barbaric October 7, 2023 Hamas terror attacks, a day etched in history for the slaughter of 1,200 innocent lives. Yet, what should have been a solemn remembrance was instead twisted into a grotesque celebration by radical elements in New York City.
Adding insult to grievous injury, Democratic Socialist New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani marked this horrific anniversary by issuing an incendiary statement. Rather than condemning terror, he accused Israel of committing war crimes and genocide in Gaza, effectively pouring fuel on the flames of hate. His morally bankrupt rhetoric demonstrated a shocking disregard for the victims of October 7.
Mayor Mamdani’s inflammatory words did exactly what one might expect: anti-Israel, pro-Hamas protests erupted across the Big Apple on Wednesday. Unsurprisingly, radical enclaves like Columbia University and NYU once again served as breeding grounds for this twisted response to the anniversary of a barbaric slaughter.
Hundreds of anti-Israel protesters descended upon New York City. Students at NYU and Columbia University brazenly called to “keep the intifada alive” and declared “resistance is justified” – chilling echoes of terrorist rhetoric. Over 100 individuals converged at Washington Square Park for NYU Students for Justice in Palestine’s so-called “Rage Week,” supposedly aimed at condemning the Israel-Gaza conflict, but clearly a platform for hate.
These demonstrators, adorned in keffiyehs and brandishing banners demanding NYU “divest” and close its Tel Aviv campus, chanted sinister slogans like “Long live the intifada” and “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free.” This latter chant is a thinly veiled call for the destruction of the Jewish state, showcasing the true agenda of these radical groups.
The audacity of these terrorist sympathizers continued into the night. A group of protesters brazenly surrounded a peace vigil hosted by Israelis for Peace. Disturbingly, some among the mob brandished posters celebrating Yahya Sinwar, the Hamas mastermind behind the October 7 slaughter, who was fittingly eliminated by Israel in October 2024. This act of blatant provocation and intimidation against those mourning the victims is truly repulsive.
Even Mayor Mamdani, despite his anti-Israel stance, found himself under fire – apparently, for some of these zealots, he wasn't extreme enough. What truly happened to so many of our once-respected universities? The answer lies in their hiring decisions, bringing in figures who peddle this dangerous ideology.
One such individual is Andrew Ross, a professor from NYU’s American Studies program and a member of Faculty and Staff for Justice in Palestine. Speaking to the Washington Square Park crowd, Ross offered a chilling justification for Hamas' bloody October 7 invasion.
Ross audaciously justified Hamas’ bloody invasion on October 7, 2023, framing it as a “military tactic” solely aimed at acquiring hostages to free Palestinians from Israeli jails. This grotesque attempt to rationalize mass murder shows the intellectual rot at play in academia.
While Ross hypocritically termed the day “very tragic,” he immediately pivoted to spreading a vile conspiracy theory. He claimed the Israel Defense Forces were responsible for killing some of its own citizens during the massacre, where nearly 1,200 people – over 800 of them civilians – were slaughtered, many enduring torture and rape by Hamas terrorists.
“On Oct. 7, a mass Hannibal Directive was issued, and for the first time, it applied to civilians, Israeli civilians, and as a result, an untold number of them died at the hands of being targeted by IDF forces in vehicles that were being taken back to Gaza,” Ross astonishingly claimed to the crowd. This is not just misinformation; it is an active effort to rewrite history and demonize victims.
This isn't Ross's first foray into such morally reprehensible pronouncements, underscoring a systemic issue within our educational institutions.
It is truly difficult to comprehend the sheer depravity of the atrocities committed three years ago, let alone the sickening celebration of such horror on its anniversary. A dangerous mental sickness is clearly spreading across our nation, infecting minds with anti-American, anti-Israel, and anti-common sense ideology. This sickness must be unequivocally confronted and stomped out before it completely erodes the foundational values of our society.
