A group of anti-Israel zealots stormed the Brooklyn Museum this Friday and proceeded to set up an encampment within the building.

According to various reports, hundreds of anti-Israel zealots congregated at the Barclays Center this Friday afternoon as per an event organized by Within Our Lifetime, an anti-Israel group.

3pm rally starting HERE across the street from Barclays Center on Atlantic Avenue! pic.twitter.com/sWVTqFzJ0O

— Within Our Lifetime (@WOLPalestine) May 31, 2024

From there, the group marched to the Brooklyn Museum specifically to “de-occupy” and “shut it down” until the museum chose to “disclose and divest” from Israel.

“The intruders — who were the vanguard of a massive demonstration nearly 1,000 people strong — scaled the building and rappelled down inside of the art museum with climbing equipment,” the New York Post reported, citing law enforcement sources.

Some of the activists reportedly fought with security guards.

“Our public safety staff were physically and verbally harassed,” a museum spokesperson later told the Post, adding that some of the artwork within and outside the museum was likewise damaged.

Take the yellow “OY/YO” sculpture in front of the museum. It was reportedly covered in graffiti reading “Free Palestine” and “Free Gaza.”

This wasn’t the first time the “OY/YO” sculpture has been targeted. The same thing reportedly happened in December:

This is disgusting.., Palestinian protestors desecrate my sister’s @deborahkass iconic Oy Yo sculpture in front of the Brooklyn Musuem. https://t.co/bbYvk5VlpE @tomkeene @ferrotv @lisaabramowicz1 @RepStefanik @jimcramer @carlquintanilla @ScottWapnerCNBC @andrewrsorkin

— Dougie Kass (@DougKass) December 12, 2023

The zealots also draped a “Free Palestine Divest From Genocide” banner over the front of the museum.

Video footage on social media showed the zealots jumping over the museum’s security fence and then barging into the museum as they chanted “Free, free Palestine.”

Another video showed the zealots inside the museum’s lobby chanting “From the river to the sea, Palestine will live forever.”

FLOOD THE BROOKLYN MUSEUM RIGHT NOW

Activists are de-occupying the museum until they disclose and divest from the US-israeli genocide. All out to stand with Gaza‼️ pic.twitter.com/g1wHFP0mZn

— Within Our Lifetime (@WOLPalestine) May 31, 2024

Outside the museum, the activists reportedly yelled expletives at the police, calling them “pigs” and the “KKK.”

The police eventually cleared the building and arrested dozens of people. The museum, meanwhile, closed an hour early “out of a concern for the building, our collections, and our staff,” the spokesperson said.

After the arrests, Within Our Lifetime took to crying on social media, whining that its members had been “targeted and violently arrested.”

Look:

WOL chair @NerdeenKiswani was targeted and violently arrested today during an action where autonomous activists occupied the Brooklyn Museum from the inside as our protest flooded the outside. she continues to be held 9+ hours later, alongside other protesters. pic.twitter.com/Qm2cGm0v5Y

— Within Our Lifetime (@WOLPalestine) June 1, 2024

The group also released an email statement defending the protest.

“The Brooklyn Museum was targeted in an autonomous action organized by hundreds of artists, cultural workers, and other NYC communities who came together under the banner Cultural Front for Free Palestine with demands relating to the genocide in Gaza,” the email reads, according to station WPIX.

“Today, the ongoing pillage of housing and livelihoods proceeds through the economic violence of investors and developers, many of whom sit on museum boards while the ongoing trauma comes at the hands of armed police whose primary mission is the protection of property and the repression of dissent. Free Palestine. Palestine is everywhere,” they added.

All this happened on the same day that President Joe Biden began promoting a sketchy Israel-Hamas ceasefire deal that critics say would only prevent Israel from finally eliminating the terrorist group.

The deal would require Israel to withdraw all its forces from Gaza and release hundreds of Palestinian prisoners, many of them violent.

“Israel’s conditions for ending the war have not changed: the destruction of Hamas’s military and governing capabilities, the freeing of all hostages and ensuring that Gaza no longer poses a threat to Israel,” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a statement.

“Under the proposal, Israel will continue to insist these conditions are met before a permanent ceasefire is put in place. The notion that Israel will agree to a permanent ceasefire before these conditions are fulfilled is a non-starter,” he added.

All this also comes days ahead of the 60th annual Israel Day on Fifth Parade this upcoming Sunday.

“An internal threat assessment … says the event may be ‘an attractive target for an act of mass violence or disruption,'” according to CBS News.

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Vivek Saxena

Senior Staff Writer
Vivek@bizpacreview.com

V. Saxena is a staff writer for BizPac Review with a decade of experience as a professional writer, and a lifetime of experience as an avid news junkie. He holds a degree in computer technology from Purdue University.

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