Some 10,000 protesters gathered in Battery Square Park in lower Manhattan, to listen to an array of speakers; from grassroots organizers Linda Sarsour of Mpower Change and Steven Choi of the New York Immigration Coalition to New York State Senators Chuck Schumer and Kirsten Gillibrand.
Just a day after newly-sworn President Donald Trump vowed to make good on his campaign promises to build a US-Mexico border wall and ban Muslim immigrants, the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) of New York organized an “emergency rally for Muslim and Immigrant Rights.” Chanting ‘No ban, no wall!’ more than 3,000 people gathered in Washington Square Park in New York last night in a show of solidarity with Muslim and immigrant American communities.
Along with initiating the process to further militarize the US-Mexico border, Donald Trump will reportedly be signing an executive order to restrict immigration from Muslim-majority countries that are considered to be a ‘national security threat’—these include Syria, Iraq, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan and Yemen. Hisham, a permanent US resident originally from Iraq, has been watching the news almost non-stop for any updates on Trump’s immigration policy. He says as his voice shakes, “I don’t know what I’m going to do. My fiance and her mother are going to be stuck [in Najaf] and I can’t explain to them why. How can I tell them that [Trump] is targeting Iraq because of “national security”? What has Iraq done? I’m confused and hurt. Refugees running from hell shouldn’t have to worry about another hell trying to get to a place of safety.”
Hoda Katebi responds to one of the enduring images from the Women’s March on Washington, “From all the photos these past few days filling our social media feeds of white people with red hats and white women with pink beanies with ears, people holding signs of cheetos, and enough pro-Hillary slogans to make this Muslim woman of color uncomfortable, there was one particularly striking image that was consistently shared and re-shared and praised by the ‘left.’ The American-flag-clad Hijabi woman illustrated in the trademark style of Obama’s ‘hope’ poster is not short of striking. But maybe not for the right reasons.”
Donald Trump seems to have cold feet about moving U.S. Embassy to Jerusalem, with his spokesperson saying he will consult “stakeholders” in a “decision-making process.”
Anyone who wants to be anti-Semitic today supports Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS), Israel flack Bernard-Henri Levy says on WNYC. When will public radio air anti-Zionists?
Donald Trump has now named his son-in-law Jared Kushner as a senior adviser, notably on Middle East and Israel issues. Ten years ago, Kushner fired Philip Weiss from the New York Observer after Weiss started reporting on the Israeli occupation. Weiss reflects on his experience with Kushner and what it could mean for his upcoming White House role.
Secretary of State John Kerry spoke to Netanyahu three or four times as often as to Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, according to former State Dep’t aide David Makovsky
Donald Trump is giving ISIS a recruiting tool by nominating an extremist supporter of settlers as ambassador to Israel in David Friedman. Hatred of the U.S. will increase if the Arab world comes to believe that the U.S. is abandoning the Palestinians.
Peter Beinart says Steve Bannon can be accused of misogyny, racism and Islamophobia, not anti-Semitism during an open argument among pro-Israel Jews on CNN, a signal of more and more public disagreement.