Round two of holiday caroling at the Washington Square Park Christmas tree is set for Christmas Eve, Sun., Dec. 24, at 5 p.m.
During the first night of festive singing, at the Dec. 6 tree-lighting ceremony, Pro-Palestinian and anti-war activists competed with the carolers, chanting, “Shut it down!” and staging a die-in.
This time around, as they always do on Christmas Eve, the singers will work the delicate favorite “Silent Night” into their repertoire, among other time-honored holiday tunes. Will protesters try to “shut it down” again? … Let’s all pray for peace on earth.
If John Penley or anyone else is curious as to my views on Gaza and the Palestinian question, they are directed to my public work. I have been concentrating on virtually nothing else for the past 10 weeks, and it is very easy to find. GIYF. https://www.patreon.com/countervortex
I see Bill Weinberg’s comment above but when I click your list of comments it goes here……..https://www.billweinberg.info/ and the photo is a scary-looking alien face who looks nothing like BW? What happened? Has a Weinberg clone hijacked your site with his alien superpowers?
It actually did this when I first clicked the comments listing link but now seems to be corrected. Anyway, because I posted the link, readers can access Bill’s [or his alien double’s] website for more of his ? take on current events.
OK, but why “peers”? I don’t think there’s much overlap between the drunken Santa and Free Palestine crowds.
This short report may be over your head Bill, but it could be that The Village Sun has a point? These days the contrast between Free Gaza Ceasefire protests during the Christian Christmas events, like the tree lighting at Rockefeller Plaza, are going on everywhere in the city and around the world at the same time. They say that Jesus was a homeless Palestinian, so maybe both event participants are on the same page? Bill, could you give us a bit more on your views on the Netanyahu, Settler West Bank violence and IDF Christmas mass bombing? Over 10,000 Palestinians, the majority are children, have been killed so far and the war all over the region seems to be expanding hourly, so how many more on all sides will die as clashes go on worldwide over Gaza? Merry Christmas Peace on Earth!
Also, John’s figures are out of date. The death toll in Gaza has now reached 20,000.
I hope and pray that there will be peace in the Middle East, and that both sides will stop killing, but protesting at the Xmas Eve sing does nothing for the Palestinian cause; it may even annoy more than convince people to support their cause. I doubt that the protesters have a permit; the Washington Square Association, which sponsors the event, does.
Per another VS commentor……
Strange that the protestors did not try to disrupt their peers at Santa Con — which actually celebrates capitalism.