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‘New Yorkers Deserve Better’: Ritchie Torres Blasts NYC Move to Host Anti-Israel Singer Kehlani at Pride Event
US Rep. Ritchie Torres (D-NY) speaks during a rally to mark 506 days in Hamas captivity at Naumburg Bandshell at Central Park on Feb. 23, 2025, in New York City. Photo: Ron Adar / SOPA Images via Reuters Connect
US Congressman Ritchie Torres (D-NY) sent a letter to New York City officials on Friday asking them to rescind an invitation to anti-Israel singer Kehlani before she is set to take the stage at a taxpayer-funded Pride event in Central Park this summer.
The City Park’s Foundation — an organization funded by New York taxpayers — will host a one night only “Pride With Kehlani” benefit concert in Central Park on June 26, as part of the city’s Summer Stage series and in celebration of June being Pride Month. The event is being produced by Live Nation and sponsored by Capital One. Tickets start at $103 on Ticketmaster.
Last year, Kehlani released a music video that begins with the message “Long live the Intifada,” an antisemitic slogan that incites violence against Israel and the Jewish community. In a previous Instagram post, Kehlani wrote in part: “Dismantle Israel. Eradicate Zionism.” She has also voiced support for Palestinian “resistance” against Israel and an “intifada revolution.”
An Instagram post uploaded by the Grammy-nominated singer said: “Long live resistance in all its forms & Long live Palestine, from the river to the sea.” The slogan “from the river to the sea” has been widely used as a call for the destruction of Israel, which is located between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea, and for it to be replaced with “Palestine.”
Torres cited many of Kehlani’s anti-Israel and anti-Zionist comments in his letter on Friday that was addressed to New York City Mayor Eric Adams, City Parks Foundation Executive Director Heather Lubov, and Live Nation Entertainment CEO and President Michael Rapino.
“New York City is home to the largest Jewish population outside Israel,” Torres wrote. “Our public institutions have a duty to ensure that taxpayer dollars are never misspent on subsidizing or sanitizing antisemitism – under the banner of a Pride Event. I urge you to rescind Kehlani’s invitation to perform at a city-sponsored event. Her rhetoric flatly contradicts the spirit of Pride Month, which is and must remain a celebration of love and inclusion – not hate and exclusion. New Yorkers deserve better.”
Torres also took to X on Friday to share screenshots of some of Kehlani’s hateful social media posts and to further criticize city officials for their decision to feature the singer. “America’s largest city has no business subsidizing or sanitizing antisemitism at taxpayer expense,” he wrote. “Stop mainstreaming the extremes and inviting those who invite violence.”
The letter was sent a week after Kehlani’s performance at Cornell University’s end-of-the-year concert was canceled because of her rabid comments against Israel and Zionism.
The City’s Park’s Foundation and Live Nation have not responded to Torres’ concerns, but Adams clarified in a post on X that the New York City Department of Parks and Recreation is not involved in the foundation’s events.
“Congressmember, now you know @NYCParks does not select, contract, or pay the artists, and does not fund the City Parks Foundation at all,” Adams wrote to Torres. The mayor further noted that the City Parks Foundation is a privately-run organization, and “the only taxpayer funds it can receive are City Council discretionary awards, just like you advocated for when you were a councilmember and allocated funding for the City Parks Foundation.”
The post ‘New Yorkers Deserve Better’: Ritchie Torres Blasts NYC Move to Host Anti-Israel Singer Kehlani at Pride Event first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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At Least 12 Killed in Massive Russian Attack on Ukraine
Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky speaks during a joint press conference with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, amid Russia’s attack on Ukraine, in Kyiv, Ukraine June 10, 2023. Photo: REUTERS/Valentyn Ogirenko
i24 News – Russia-Ukraine War: About three and a half years after the outbreak of the war, Russia carried out last night (Sunday) the largest air attack since it began. At least 12 people were killed, including three children, and dozens more were injured when 367 rockets and missiles were fired at Ukrainian cities, including the capital Kyiv.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky sharply criticized US policy, which so far has taken a soft stance towards Russia, and recently hinted that it would stop mediating between the two countries: “The silence of America, the silence of others in the world only encourages Putin,” he wrote on Telegram. “Every such Russian terrorist attack is reason enough for new sanctions against Russia.”
The Ukrainian Air Force reported that Russia launched 298 drones and 69 missiles in a night attack. According to him, they shot down 266 drones and 45 missiles. Damage was caused to several areas, including the second largest city in Ukraine, Kharkiv, as well as Mykolaiv in the south and Ternopil in the west.
In parallel, a prisoner of war exchange deal was concluded. In Russia, reports said that 303 prisoners were transferred from each side. In total, over the last three days 2,000 prisoners, 1,000 Ukrainians and 1,000 Russians, have been returned to their countries. Zelensky thanked the servicemen of the armed forces, and promised to bring all the prisoners home. “Today, our armed forces, the national guard, the state border service, and the special state transport service are returning home.”
“I am grateful to the team that worked around the clock to successfully execute these exchanges,” he added. “We will certainly bring back each and every one of our people from Russian captivity.”
Meanwhile, The Washington Post reported that the Russian army may reach a severe shortage of manpower and weapons in the next year. The Ukrainian army is also in trouble, and it is offering generous economic grants to new recruits.
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UN Says More Food Needed in Gaza as Looting Hampers Deliveries
United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres speaks to members of the Security Council during a meeting to address the situation in the Middle East, including the Palestinian question, at UN headquarters in New York City, New York, US, April 18, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Eduardo Munoz
Israeli airstrikes killed at least six Palestinians guarding aid trucks against looters, Hamas officials said on Friday, as the head of the United Nations warned that only a “teaspoon” of aid was getting in following Israel’s 11-week-long blockade.
The Israeli military said 107 trucks carrying flour and other foodstuffs as well as medical supplies entered the Gaza Strip from the Kerem Shalom crossing point on Thursday, for a total of 305 since Monday when the blockade was relaxed.
But getting the supplies to people sheltering in tents and other makeshift accommodation has been fitful and U.N. officials say at least 500 to 600 trucks of aid are needed every day.
So far, an umbrella network of Palestinian aid groups said, 119 aid trucks have got past the Kerem Shalom crossing point and into Gaza since Israel eased its blockade on Monday in the face of an international outcry.
Despite the relaxation of the blockade, distribution has been hampered by looting by groups of men, some of them armed, near the city of Khan Younis, an umbrella network representing Palestinian aid groups said.
“They stole food meant for children and families suffering from severe hunger,” the network said in a statement, which also condemned Israeli airstrikes on security teams protecting the trucks.
The U.N. World Food Program said 15 trucks carrying flour to WFP-supported bakeries had been looted, which it said reflected the dire conditions facing Gazans.
“Hunger, desperation and anxiety over whether more food aid is coming is contributing to rising insecurity,” it said in a statement.
A Hamas official said six members of a security team tasked with guarding the shipments were killed.
Israel imposed the blockade in early March, accusing Hamas of stealing aid meant for civilians. Hamas rejects the charge, saying a number of its own fighters have been killed protecting the trucks from armed looters.
“Hamas constantly calls the looters ‘guards’ or protectors’ to mask the fact that they’re disturbing the aid process,” an Israeli military official said.
‘DESPERATION’
With most of Gaza’s 2 million population squeezed into an ever narrowing zone on the coast and in the area around the southern city of Khan Younis by Israel’s military operation, international pressure to get aid in quickly has ratcheted up.
“Without rapid, reliable, safe and sustained aid access, more people will die – and the long-term consequences on the entire population will be profound,” said U.N. Secretary General Antonio Guterres.
A German government spokesperson said the aid was “far too little, too late and too slow,” adding that delivery of supplies had to be increased significantly.
Israel has announced that a new system, sponsored by the United States and run by private contractors, will soon begin operations from four distribution centers in the south of Gaza, but many details of how the system will work remain unclear.
The U.N. has already said it will not work with the new system, which it says will leave aid distribution conditional on Israel’s political and military aims.
Israel says its forces will only provide security for the centers and will not distribute aid themselves.
As the aid has begun to trickle in, the Israeli military has continued the intensified ground and air operation launched last week, which Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said would end with Israel taking full control of the Gaza Strip.
The military said it had conducted more strikes in Gaza overnight, hitting 75 targets, including weapons storage facilities and rocket launchers.
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Swiss Authorities Exploring Probe Into US-Backed Gaza Aid Group
Displaced Palestinian children wait to receive free food at a tent camp, amid food shortages, as the conflict between Israel and Hamas continues, in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip, February 27, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Ibraheem Abu Mustafa
Swiss authorities said on Sunday they were exploring whether to open a legal investigation into the activities of the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, a US-backed organization that plans to oversee aid distribution in the Palestinian enclave.
The move comes after a Swiss NGO submitted a request for a probe into GHF’s aid plan, which the United Nations has opposed, saying it is not impartial or neutral and forces further displacement and exposes thousands of people to harm.
The GHF, which has said it hopes to start work in Gaza by the end of May, told Reuters it “strictly adheres” to humanitarian principles, and that it would not support any form of forced relocation of civilians.
Israel has allowed limited aid deliveries to resume this week after having stopped all aid deliveries to Gaza on March 2.
TRIAL International, a Switzerland-based NGO, on Friday said it had filed two legal submissions asking Swiss authorities to investigate whether the Swiss-registered GHF complies with Swiss law and international humanitarian law.
The submissions were made to the Swiss Federal Supervisory Authority for Foundations and the Swiss Federal Department of Foreign Affairs (FDFA) on May 20 and 21.
The FDFA on Sunday confirmed to Reuters that both authorities had received the submissions.
TRIAL International said it asked the Swiss FDFA to explain if the GHF had submitted a declaration, in accordance with Swiss law, to use private security companies to distribute aid, and if it had been approved by Swiss authorities.
The FDFA told Reuters it is investigating whether such a declaration would be required for the foundation.
It said that the Federal Supervisory Board for Foundations cannot review whether foundations comply with their statutes until they start their activities.
The GHF told Reuters that though using private security firms represents a change from prior aid delivery frameworks, it would ensure aid is not diverted to Hamas or criminal organizations.
The post Swiss Authorities Exploring Probe Into US-Backed Gaza Aid Group first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
“We’ll formally respond to the letter you sent us, but your letter should be addressed to Speaker [Adrienne] Adams and her councilmembers who have control over their own discretionary funding,” Adams added. “Our administration will not fund organizations that promote antisemitism or any other form of hate.”
Torres did not back down.
“The City Charter grants the mayor the authority to impound city funds. You unquestionably have the power to withhold city funding from any organization or event that provides a platform for antisemitism,” he responded to Adams in a post on X. “I find it hard to believe that the most powerful elected official in New York City is powerless to act on a city matter involving city funds.”
New York City Councilwoman Julie Menin (D-Manhattan), who sits on the Jewish Caucus, and Mark Treyger, who is CEO of the Jewish Community Relations Council of New York, also expressed serious concerns about the city’s decision to host Kehlani, according to statements they released that were cited by the New York Post.