Rockland for Ceasefire, an advocacy group formed to call for an end to the Israeli bombardment of Gaza, is organizing a march and rally to protest the criminal charges against a 15-year-old Palestinian-American boy. The charges stem from the removal of an Israeli flag from the Clarkstown Police Department building as a demonstration against Israel’s mass bombardment of Palestinians – a response to a fatal attack by the terrorist organization, Hamas.
The group demands the dismissal of charges against the teenager and the removal of Israeli flags from all Rockland County government buildings. They argue that displaying a foreign flag in shared government spaces funded by the entire community is both illegal and demonstrates selective favoritism.
The group claims this incident with the Palestinian-American boy is not isolated, as two Haredi Jewish men opposing Zionism were recently arrested for allegedly removing Israeli flags at the Ramapo Town Hall.
The march is scheduled for December 19 from 3:00 p.m. to 4:30 p.m., starting at the County Executive office parking lot and proceeding to Clarkstown Town Hall. Petitions will be presented to County Executive Ed Day and Clarkstown Supervisor George Hoehmann.
Rockland County has denied displaying Israeli flags on county property. In a statement provided via email, County Executive Ed Day stated, “There are a number of incorrect assertions made about flags on County property. To be perfectly clear, the flying of flags outside of American, State, County, and POW MIA are not allowed on our [property] per a long standing policy I established a number of years ago. Upon hearing about this inaccurate and wild accusation we reconfirmed with our Facilities manager that there are not, and have not been, any other unauthorized flags flown on our property.”
According to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, more than 20,000 people have been killed in the Israeli-Hamas conflict since October 7, 2023. Out of the total, 18,000+ were Palestinians and 1,200+ reported killed were Israelis.
Attributions: County Executive’s quote is from Lanning Taliaferro’s article on Patch.com.