Borough Park, NY – A potentially explosive rally that had more than half a dozen groups calling on their followers to protest remarks by Councilman Kalman Yeger turned into a glorified shouting match, with the handful of demonstrators who showed up far outstripped by members of a counter-protest staged by the Jewish community.
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As previously reported on VIN News (http://bit.ly/2TCOj29), Yeger found himself subjected to a torrent of criticism after tweeting that Palestine does not exist and calling Minnesota Congresswoman Ilhan Omar an anti-Semite.
A protest originally scheduled to be held outside Yeger’s house Thursday evening was moved to his 16th Avenue office, with former Assemblyman Dov Hikind calling for the Jewish community not to let a demonstration of hatred in the heart of the Borough Park go unchallenged.
Bklyner columnist Zainab Iqbal, who called Yeger out on social media for his comments about Omar and Palestine on March 27th, sparking the city councilman’s now famous post, tweeted repeated during the rally.
“i’m at the yeger protest. a woman just asked me if arabs murdered any people today and if they burned pregnant women,” tweeted Iqbal at the start of the rally.
Shouts of “Am Yisrael” from the Jewish contingent, some of whom carried signs saying “zero tolerance for anti-Semites” while others waved Israeli flags, competed with chants of “Palestine will be free, from the river to the sea.” One pro-Palestinian protester carried a piece of brown cardboard bearing the words “a shanda” in Yiddish, while a few Neturei Karta members standing shoulder to shoulder with the Palestinian group held signs reading “Dov Hikind Kalman Yeger Spreading Bigotry in the Name of Our Jewish Community.”
There was a heavy NYPD presence at the rally, which took began at 6 PM and lasted just over an hour. Police formed a line between the demonstrators separating them, taking the pro-Palestinian contingent out of the area in their official vans to ensure that the evening stayed peaceful.
Hikind and Yeger have had their differences in the past, but the former assemblyman said that he called for the counter-protest because the planned demonstration was an attack on the entire Jewish community.
Yeger did not return calls for comment on the rally.
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What a shame! And then we wonder why antisemitism spikes so badly? How dare Hikind come out and invoke such pure hatred?! Kalmen Yager should apologize for his racist comment! Does he not know of repercussions? Is he sane? How provocative can a uod be?!? Even a Zionist shld know to shut up yet he provokes the world against us.
We Jews are in Galus. We havta lie low and not say abhorrent comments that could have terrible repercussions.
How simple BP Jews celebrated with Hikind and Zionist flags is beyond comprehension too. Its nauseating to watch. Where have they fallen??!This act of Yager should alarm every Jew and not give support to the Dov Hikinds of our times that celebrate with Zionist flags. How disgusting and despicable!
what’s the purpose of Mr, Yeger turning on a fire. ?
I hope the community together should condem his talk.
Why is he doing this ?
Do we need to bring the fire to our Boro park streets ?
Very stupid and unhelpful comment by Kalman Yeger. It created a terrible backlash against Jews and against support for Israel. Totally unnecessary.
Very stupid and unhelpful comment by Kalman Yeger. It created a terrible backlash against Jews and against support for Israel. Totally unnecessary.
It would have been far more helpful if Kalman tweeted that Palestine really DOES exist. It’s now called Jordan, it consists of 78% of Trans-Jordan, and is almost 4 times the size of Israel.
Let him do the work he was elected to do. Don’t become another Dov Hikind!
wow what a bunch of stupid bored people with nothing better to do with the time, I need help making peasch do any of those bored people want to help, the pay is good
Seems like his district has no other problems. What an idiot this nobody is. Who gives him the right to provoke such a backlash? Did we vote for him to represent us on the broader political arena? Let him stick to making sure the streets are cleaned, traffic congestion is dealt with, shul and school safety, to name but a few issues. We should all speak out against this Hikind inspired idiot.
Now I can see what’s written – that a lot of jews didn’t want to leave egypt when the time came at passover eve, but a mixed multitude went with the jews, who later caused problems.After all the egyptians gave their jews matza to eat.
As a councilman in the city of New York, Yeger represents all New Yorkers in his district. He represents New Yorkers who are Arab, as well as those who are Jews. Congresswoman Omar is an antisemite, but lumping that comment together with remarks targeted againts constituents he represents (Arabs) shows arrogance, lack of awareness that we are in galus, gross insensitivity to Arab constituents and is inflammatory and plain wrong. He is bigoted and increasing hate for constituants of all religions, including Jew, Arab and Christians. The truth of his comments is not the point. Some true things are better left unsaid.
Kalman is a fighter for jewish causes. You people are all nuts. Of course we are all in golus but we still have a job to protect achineu benei yisroel. We need to set the narrative straight so that Linda yoimach shimo doesn’t become the standard of the democratic party.
We stand behind kalman. Keep up the good work!
hikind is a class act despite all the lies and negativity that kalman spread against him and his son he comes out supporting him, I recall david greenfield CONDEMNING hikind when he had the whole black face non controversy on Purim and greenfield controls yeger so when the shoe was on the other foot, yeger/greenfield him a fellow Jew when he was down.
there has never been a country called palestine these are just arabs who happened to live in an area that didn’t become a part of jordan
in today’s day and age one must be “politically correct” so though Kalman yeger may have his own feelings on this topic (and i personally agree with his position)
as a politician everything he says can and will be scrutinized and used against him
the slope of politics is very slippery especially if your jewish
(never mind frum goes w/o saying)
Im sure he learned his lesson and will be careful in the future
he stepped on a landmine topic that landed him in hot water if hes looking for a future in politics he will be forced to be politically correct in order not to antagonize
those voters who may not agree with his personal opinions regarding international
issues not having any direct bearing on local politics