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Protesters Denounce Torres’ Support of Israel - Fail to Denounce Hamas

A pro-Palestinian crowd of about 150 begin a march from Congressman Ritchie Torres’ office on East Fordham Road to the U.S. Military Recruiting Station on the Grand Concourse. -Photo by David Greene

‘Ritchie Torres you can’t hide, you’re supporting genocide’ - Crowd Chants

By David Greene 

Bronx Voice 

October 26, 2023 

BRONX - An estimated crowd of 150 demonstrators protested outside the East Fordham Road office of Representative Ritchie Torres (NY-15) for the Congressman’s support of Israel.

Members of the Bronx Antiwar Coalition led the crowd in chants of, “Israel what do you say, how many kids did you kill today,” and “Ritchie Torres you can’t hide, you’re supporting genocide.”

Speaking outside of Torres’ office, Bronx Antiwar Coalition spokesperson Richard Merino was speaking of Torres when he said, “Though you claim to be a defender of Judaism, your Tweets reveal two particularly respondent reflexes, genocide denial and slander of the Jewish people.”

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Janet Clarke, a member of Jewish Voice for Peace and the Bronx Antiwar Coalition said of the U.S. funding of Israel, “Every year gives $3 billion, that’s billion with a “B” to a nation that enjoys healthcare, education. But every day when I walk through my neighborhood and I’m a member of Norwood, I see people that are homeless, suffrage, doomed to lives of despair in Ritchie Torres’ district.”

Members of the True Torah Jews and anti-Zionist congregation from Monsey, New York, join protesters outside of Representative Ritchie Torres’ district office on East Fordham Road. -Photo by David Greene

Rabbi Dovid Weiss, a member of the True Torah Jews Congregation in Monsey, New York, told demonstrators, “Religion is not the cause of all this bloodshed. The difference of religion is something that was created out of fabric by the Zionist people that they say this is the cause because of hateful Muslims.”

Weiss added, “How disgusting is that to say that a people who took us in and gave us a home and a safe haven and we flourished amongst them. To turn around for your convenience and condemn the whole populus of Muslim countries as being anti-Semitic. That’s shameful.”

Speaker Claudia De La Cruz, the co-director of The People’s Forum, said of Torres, “The only people he represents are the people he’s meeting in Washington DC right now are the Zionists and the real estate moguls. That’s who Ritchie Torres represents.”

De La Cruz added, “We are here to say that it is a shame that this man stands in Congress and needs to spit out the Bronx from his mouth. He is a shame to the Bronxites. He is a shame to the Puerto Rican community.”

After the rally Parkchester resident “Debra” was asked why she attended, being of Puerto Rican and Dominican decent, she replied, “It’s important to me because I’m a human being and I see death and destruction and I also see that Ritchie Torres and the government have plenty of money to send to other countries, yet if you look at the Bronx, there’s so many needs here.”

Meanwhile, about 350 supporters of Israel and Torres gathered at the same time at Seton Park, at West 235 Street in Riverdale. It’s believed that Torres was in Washington during the protests.