These are the new walls of regret.
Facades, storefronts, lampposts or advertising poles have been filled in New York with personal and tragic stories.
It all started on October 7, another date that has already become part of human ignominy for what it entailed the merciless attack by Hamas and the disproportionate and indiscriminate Israeli retaliation.
Since that day, posters with identical format and composition of photography and text have been displayed in every corner of the Gran Poma.
"Ella Elyakin, 8 years old, kidnapped by Hamas in her home". And a clarification. "On October 7, more than 230 innocent people were kidnapped in Israel and taken to the Gaza Strip."
Then comes the postulate: "More than 4,500 women, men and children, aged between three months and 85 years, were injured, killed, beaten or kidnapped and brutally separated from their loved ones by Hamas."
Only the illustration changes, but there are many more names and portraits. “ Dafna Elyakin, 15 years old; Amelia Eloni, five years old; Yoram Metzger, 80 years old...".
The list can be very long, according to these posters. The Palestinians could come up with another, even more extensive enumeration, but in that case, that's another story.
Action and reaction. This is how the war of the posters arises. Some stick them and others, the pro-Palestinians, rip them off. They put them back in and take them out again.
It is a scene experienced on the Upper West Side of Manhattan on Wednesday morning. Hispanic workers, dressed in helmets, line up in front of a food cart to buy breakfast. The cart is identified as Halal Grill. At the head was a man with a round face, bald and bearded, like so many, his name sounds similar to Yussuf.
Suddenly, a middle-aged woman appears, dressed in a gray jacket. As they say, he goes in full force. He pushes aside the Hispanics and addresses that person who is in charge of the business with a tone of recrimination. imperative
- You took out these posters.
And he points to the glass wall in front (an empty building), located at the intersection of Broadway Avenue and 80th Street.
- No, I haven't been.
In this way, a discussion began to which other passers-by gradually joined, while the Hispanics, forgotten to one side, looked at them in disbelief.
When it seemed that the woman was convinced of Yussuf's innocence, another popular accuser burst in brandishing a mobile phone and pointing at the seller. "It's him, he destroyed the posters, I have it on video!" he exclaimed.
The recording, made some distance away, showed a bald man in a blurry way. Those who were gathered there ruled that it could or could not be the one in the cart, while the latter insisted on his innocence. "It's not me, I assure you", he reiterated in a pleading tone.
Most significantly, the accuser in the video revealed that a kind of neighborhood watch brigade had been organized to protect the signs.
This only reveals a transformation in the mentality of the Jews. New York is the city in the world outside of Israel where there are more Jews. But they are very different. While the Hasidic and ultra-Orthodox in Brooklyn are very conservative, admirers of Trump's policies, those on the Upper West Side are characterized by their progressivism and because they vote Democrat.
This area was ridiculed in its time by the Republicans as "Moscow on the Hudson" because of its supposed (and false) admiration for socialism.
A demonstration in defense of Israel was held in this neighborhood this week. 10,000 people went there, the largest march of those that have taken place so far in support of the Israelis. There were some old acquaintances there. One explained its evolution. "You know that we are not from the right, that we have always been against the occupation of the settlers, against Netanyahu and against any religious fundamentalism", he recalled. "But what happened on October 7, and especially what happened after, is not politics, it is hatred of Jews. We know people who have lost relatives or who have been kidnapped", he emphasized.
On Thursday, near the Halal Grill, two women attacked another woman who had reprimanded them for tearing down the posters. As a tip, they tore off his necklace with the Star of David. The Jews consider that tearing down the posters is a sign of anti-Semitism. Explanatory stickers have been added to these posters. "The person who breaks this is supporting the murder, rape and mutilation of Jews," says one. "If you continue to destroy this, you are simply offering the world proof of what you are capable of doing if Israel accepts the cease-fire," says another note.
