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Drawings of a City Divided: New York Reacts to the Israel-Hamas War
Drawings of a City Divided: New York Reacts to the Israel-Hamas War
(about 5 hours later)
I started drawing New York over 30 years ago when I first arrived in the city as a visitor from London. Since then, I have witnessed the city as its architecture and population changed. I saw the city coping with loss and recorded scenes at ground zero in the months after the Sept. 11 attacks. And now I have seen the new trauma of a city divided.
I started drawing New York over 30 years ago when I first arrived in the city as a visitor from London. Since then, I have witnessed the city as its architecture and population changed. I saw the city coping with loss and recorded scenes at ground zero in the months after the Sept. 11 attacks. And now I have seen the new trauma of a city divided.
As October turned into November, Times Opinion asked me to explore the city looking for the reverberations of the war between Israel and Gaza through protests and other visual clues. The idea was to document the impact in New York of a war over 5,000 miles away. I recorded observations and moments of anger, fear and hope over 10 days. What became clear over and over was that, to many New Yorkers, the war feels extremely close to home.
As October turned into November, Times Opinion asked me to explore the city looking for the reverberations of the war between Israel and Gaza through protests and other visual clues. The idea was to document the impact in New York of a war over 5,000 miles away. I recorded observations and moments of anger, fear and hope over 10 days. What became clear over and over was that, to many New Yorkers, the war feels extremely close to home.
My drawings were made on the spot and depict a spectrum of positions and actions. With all the uncertainty and volatility that this war has brought, these drawings are snapshots of moments when no one view speaks for everyone.
My drawings were made on the spot and depict a spectrum of positions and actions. With all the uncertainty and volatility that this war has brought, these drawings are snapshots of moments when no one view speaks for everyone.
My first day drawing was a Friday. On 81st Street in Manhattan, an empty Shabbat table was set for over 200 people, representing the hostages not present for Shabbat. A poster for each hostage was taped to each chair, with the word “kidnapped” prominently displayed. Similar empty tables have been set up in Tel Aviv, in front of the Brooklyn Museum, in Times Square and in other American cities.
The same evening, Jewish Voice for Peace protesters demanding “Cease-fire now” took over the main concourse of Grand Central Station.
The following afternoon, thousands of protesters, responding to a call to “flood Brooklyn for Gaza,” gathered in front of the Brooklyn Museum and marched down Flatbush Avenue and across the Brooklyn Bridge.
As the marchers reached Manhattan, my eye was drawn to a handwritten sign held up by three women sitting at the base of a giant column at the Manhattan Municipal Building.
On Shabbat morning, at B’nai Jeshurun synagogue on the Upper West Side, the synagogue’s private security team spoke to a member of the New York Police Department’s counterterrorism unit.
On Tuesday, Oct. 31, Baruch College hosted “Israel/Gaza: Past, Present and Future,” a public panel discussion moderated by Carla Robbins, a Baruch faculty member, with Yehuda Kurtzer, the president of the Shalom Hartman Institute; Mitchell Cohen, a Baruch College professor of political science; and via video, Mohammed Dajani, a Palestinian peace activist.
“A lot of our students come from places where they’ve seen very bad things. They are a respectful group,” said Ms. Robbins. “They are filled with pain but are open and respectful.”
At the Jewish Theological Seminary the next day, I saw cards set out on a table in the entrance hall offering a chance to write a message of sympathy to the Israeli Consulate.
Posters for the hostages have become flash points for confrontation across the city, as some have been torn down. A poster for a kidnapped Israeli woman named Carmel Gat, 39, was taped to a lamppost at the intersection of 116th Street and Broadway, near Columbia University.
In Times Square I watched as the American Eagle LED billboard briefly showed the Israeli flag along with the Stars and Stripes before flashing back to advertisements. The flag appeared again on a 10-minute loop.
During prayers, members of the N.Y.P.D. were stationed outside the entrance to the Islamic Society of Bay Ridge, also known as Masjid Musab ibn Umair.
Mahmoud Kasem, the owner of Al Aqsa Bakery and Restaurant nearby, described his bread as “a taste of Palestine the same as I make back home.” The bakery is adorned with Palestinian flags.
“Over 75 years it’s the same thing: If you kill my family, how am I going to forget? You are creating a revenge community. We lived a great life in Rabin, Clinton and Arafat times,” he told me. “Can the government create an environment in which they could come together and live with each other? I think that is going to be very difficult.”
CUNY students and workers held a rally on 42nd Street outside the chancellor’s office, calling on the university system to “stand with Palestine.”
Opposite the CUNY rally, a group of counterdemonstrators had gathered. Police officers were on the scene, keeping the two groups apart. A young Israeli, Leeanne Azulai, said, “Never again is now,” echoing a warning often used to refer to the lessons of the Holocaust. “We want our lives back. Nobody should be scared. Everyone should live in peace. Israelis want to see Gaza as a beautiful, peaceful city. We love Palestinians. We hate Hamas.”
Her friend Liram Wasserman, wrapped in an Israeli flag said: “I am from Israel. After the attack on Oct. 7, it’s our right to defend ourselves. The world needs to wake up and search on the internet about who attacks first in the Israeli war, to know the history of Israel. It’s our land, and nobody will take it from us. We will stand in our land forever. Stay strong, and justice will come.”
That day, I spoke with Zein Rimawi, who was born near Jerusalem, at An-Noor Social Center, which he founded in Bay Ridge in Brooklyn.
“It’s the second time in my life I feel unsafe — me, my wife and my daughters. It is very painful. We see people dying. Unfortunately, we cannot do anything. It makes us very frustrated. What makes us very sad is the support from the U.S. and European countries like England, France and Germany,” said Mr. Rimawi, who is also the chairman of the Arab American Federation. “Before, we had good relations. There is a Jewish store across the street. Next to me is a day care center run by one Jew and a Palestinian.”
On Saturday morning in Union Square, a crowd of people waited to board buses to Washington, D.C., for a rally demanding a cease-fire and calling on President Biden to end military aid to Israel.
“We’re part of history right now, I want to be on the right side of history. I don’t think human rights should be negotiable,” said Usman Qidwai.
That evening, the Hostages and Missing Families Forum hosted a havdalah service, marking the close of Shabbat, at a crowded benefit concert supporting the families of the kidnapped Israelis at the Romemu synagogue on the Upper West Side.
I traveled to draw Rabbi Sharon Kleinbaum at her home on Sunday evening. She leads Congregation Beit Simchat Torah.
“There is real evil in the world. Oct. 7 was real evil. We must do everything to bring those hostages home. My congregation naturally holds many different views. I say to them, we have to hold multiple truths at the same time,” said Rabbi Kleinbaum. “Hamas has to be defeated, and there needs to be a constant vision of a shared future.”
Lucinda Rogers (@lucindarogers1) is an artist and illustrator based in London and the author of “New York.”
Produced by Ana Becker, Shoshana Schultz and Sarah Wildman.
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