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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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After False Dawns, Gazans Hope Trump Will Force End to Two-Year-Old War
Palestinians walk past a residential building destroyed in previous Israeli strikes, after Hamas agreed to release hostages and accept some other terms in a US plan to end the war, in Nuseirat, central Gaza Strip October 4, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Mahmoud Issa
Exhausted Palestinians in Gaza clung to hopes on Saturday that US President Donald Trump would keep up pressure on Israel to end a two-year-old war that has killed tens of thousands and displaced the entire population of more than two million.
Hamas’ declaration that it was ready to hand over hostages and accept some terms of Trump’s plan to end the conflict while calling for more talks on several key issues was greeted with relief in the enclave, where most homes are now in ruins.
“It’s happy news, it saves those who are still alive,” said 32-year-old Saoud Qarneyta, reacting to Hamas’ response and Trump’s intervention. “This is enough. Houses have been damaged, everything has been damaged, what is left? Nothing.”
GAZAN RESIDENT HOPES ‘WE WILL BE DONE WITH WARS’
Ismail Zayda, 40, a father of three, displaced from a suburb in northern Gaza City where Israel launched a full-scale ground operation last month, said: “We want President Trump to keep pushing for an end to the war, if this chance is lost, it means that Gaza City will be destroyed by Israel and we might not survive.
“Enough, two years of bombardment, death and starvation. Enough,” he told Reuters on a social media chat.
“God willing this will be the last war. We will hopefully be done with the wars,” said 59-year-old Ali Ahmad, speaking in one of the tented camps where most Palestinians now live.
“We urge all sides not to backtrack. Every day of delay costs lives in Gaza, it is not just time wasted, lives get wasted too,” said Tamer Al-Burai, a Gaza City businessman displaced with members of his family in central Gaza Strip.
After two previous ceasefires — one near the start of the war and another earlier this year — lasted only a few weeks, he said; “I am very optimistic this time, maybe Trump’s seeking to be remembered as a man of peace, will bring us real peace this time.”
RESIDENT WORRIES THAT NETANYAHU WILL ‘SABOTAGE’ DEAL
Some voiced hopes of returning to their homes, but the Israeli military issued a fresh warning to Gazans on Saturday to stay out of Gaza City, describing it as a “dangerous combat zone.”
Gazans have faced previous false dawns during the past two years, when Trump and others declared at several points during on-off negotiations between Hamas, Israel and Arab and US mediators that a deal was close, only for war to rage on.
“Will it happen? Can we trust Trump? Maybe we trust Trump, but will Netanyahu abide this time? He has always sabotaged everything and continued the war. I hope he ends it now,” said Aya, 31, who was displaced with her family to Deir Al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip.
She added: “Maybe there is a chance the war ends at October 7, two years after it began.”
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Mass Rally in Rome on Fourth Day of Italy’s Pro-Palestinian Protests
A Pro-Palestinian demonstrator waves a Palestinian flag during a national protest for Gaza in Rome, Italy, October 4, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Claudia Greco
Large crowds assembled in central Rome on Saturday for the fourth straight day of protests in Italy since Israel intercepted an international flotilla trying to deliver aid to Gaza, and detained its activists.
People holding banners and Palestinian flags, chanting “Free Palestine” and other slogans, filed past the Colosseum, taking part in a march that organizers hoped would attract at least 1 million people.
“I’m here with a lot of other friends because I think it is important for us all to mobilize individually,” Francesco Galtieri, a 65-year-old musician from Rome, said. “If we don’t all mobilize, then nothing will change.”
Since Israel started blocking the flotilla late on Wednesday, protests have sprung up across Europe and in other parts of the world, but in Italy they have been a daily occurrence, in multiple cities.
On Friday, unions called a general strike in support of the flotilla, with demonstrations across the country that attracted more than 2 million, according to organizers. The interior ministry estimated attendance at around 400,000.
Italy’s right-wing government has been critical of the protests, with Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni suggesting that people would skip work for Gaza just as an excuse for a longer weekend break.
On Saturday, Meloni blamed protesters for insulting graffiti that appeared on a statue of the late Pope John Paul II outside Rome’s main train station, where Pro-Palestinian groups have been holding a protest picket.
“They say they are taking to the streets for peace, but then they insult the memory of a man who was a true defender and builder of peace. A shameful act committed by people blinded by ideology,” she said in a statement.
Israel launched its Gaza offensive after Hamas terrorists staged a cross border attack on October 7, 2023, killing some 1,200 people and taking 251 people hostage.
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Hamas Says It Agrees to Release All Israeli Hostages Under Trump Gaza Plan
Smoke rises during an Israeli military operation in Gaza City, as seen from the central Gaza Strip, October 2, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Dawoud Abu Alkas
Hamas said on Friday it had agreed to release all Israeli hostages, alive or dead, under the terms of US President Donald Trump’s Gaza proposal, and signaled readiness to immediately enter mediated negotiations to discuss the details.
“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.