Several thousand demonstrators turned out for the rally against Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad across from the United Nations.
New York City Council Speaker Christine Quinn helped kick off Monday’s event, declaring: “We are all here today to send one clear, loud and united message that there is no place for hate and terror in this world, but there will always be a place for the great State of Israel.”
The rally at the Dag Hammarskjöld Plaza, which started at noon, is in conjunction with the start of the U.N. General Assembly. It was organized by an ad hoc coalition that included the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, the Jewish Community Relations Council of New York, United Jewish Communities, UJA-Federation of New York and the Jewish Council for Public Affairs.
Among the dignitaries who spoke were Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni, former U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Richard Holbrooke and several New York politicians.
