Police Investigate After Palestinian Protest Flag Is Unfurled On Manhattan Bridge
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) -- Police were investigating Wednesday evening after pro-Palestinian groups unfurled a political protest flag on the span of the Manhattan Bridge.
The Palestinian flag was unfurled shortly after 7 p.m. The flag featured lettering reading, "boycott, divest, sanction," urging people to support Palestinians in the ongoing conflict with Israel.
The NYPD Emergency Service Unit took down the flag at 7:20 p.m.
The flag was unfurled during a march organized by several New York City-based activist groups. A news release said the march was intended to "connect the struggle of the Palestinian population to those of oppressed communities throughout the U.S."
Participants announced in a news release that participants planned to "cover the Brooklyn Bridge in a 'sea of Palestinian flags' to show NYC's support for Palestine and resistance to Israeli's campaign of aggression, occupation, and ethnic cleansing."
The march began at Cadman Plaza on the Brooklyn side of the Brooklyn Bridge and ended at One Police Plaza, where organizers said participants would hear from "NYC's Palestinian and Arab community, joined by activists from the anti-police brutality movement," about both the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and domestic issues such as the unrest in Ferguson, Missouri following the police shooting that killed Michael Brown, 18.
Police told CBS 2 the unfurling of the flag was being investigated Wednesday night, but it would not be treated as a security breach in the same way as the July 22 incident in which the two U.S. flags on the Brooklyn Bridge were replaced with white flags.
The Palestinian flag was preserved as evidence, police told CBS 2. No one had been arrested as of Wednesday night.
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