Loud screams and marching band music were spewing hate as people stood on line trying to pick up their tickets and enter Carnegie Hall to hear the Israel Philharmonic.

Gabi Barat Gabi Barat is a Consulting Chief Financial Officer and has an MBA from Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD: More from the author ► Gabi Barat is a Consulting Chief Financial Officer and has an MBA from Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD:

It was a gorgeous Sunday afternoon with hundreds of people excitedly lining up on the corner of Seventh Avenue and 57th Street in New York City - but they were welcomed with threats meant to elicit fear by a group of Anti-Israel protestors with slogans that reminded some of the 30’s in Berlin.

Loud screams and marching band music were spewing hate as people stood on line trying to pick up their tickets and enter Carnegie Hall to hear the Israel Philharmonics Orchestra and internationally acclaimed violinist Itzhak Perlman.

Only the melodious tones of the violin could calm the nerves and distress the audience had to endure to enter the world’s most prestigious concert hall. NYPD carefully watched the crowd and separated the protestors from the line, however they allowed them to be on the same side of the street, allowed them to get in “punching range” with each other. Some of the yells at those on line were so intense that it was surprising that no one lost his temper.



Why would our own government put us New Yorkers in danger by allowing the protestors proximity to an apolitical event and its audience?

The fine line between freedom of speech and freedom to marginalize Jews is blurred by our laws and law enforcement. No permission should be granted by our municipal government to threaten peaceful music lovers, to have protestors standing on the same corners, allowing them to be yelled at as if they are representatives of an African Apartheid State murdering innocents.

Why would we never see Nazis on our Avenues but allow fundamental Islamists to join forces with the most unlikely and illogical group on the left making a mockery of human rights and anti-discrimination activism? Is the PR of terrorism so much better than the PR of Western Democracy?

Is the draw of the alleged human rights of one group above all the starving children of Yemen, Syria, Somalia and the rest of the world.? Shouldn’t activism protect ordinary and innocent civilians from the endless barrage of terror groups like ISIS, Hamas, Boko Haram, Al Qaeda, Al-Jama’a, Al-Aqsa, Al-Shabaab, Hezbollah, Harkat Majahadeen attracting millions of Jihadists looking to destroy all Western Civilization including Christians, Atheists, Jews and even Muslims who don’t conform?

Why would our own government put us New Yorkers in danger by allowing the protestors proximity to an apolitical event and its audience? Even if we were to claim that they are not all Jihadists, that they are “only” leftists, didn’t we see Antifa protestors turning violent in our major cities?

Would the Milan Scala allow this insult on its audience? Would the African-American communities tolerate this type of threat by the KKK or any of their enemies within our country?

These insults must be stopped by law enforcement before they turn violent or attract naïve college kids thinking they are helping a cause.

Tchaikovsky and those composers who followed him would have never thought that 200 years later audiences would have to be afraid to enter a concert hall to listen to their wonderful concertos.

Nevertheless, all this disappeared as soon as the music began, The world-renowned Israel Philharmonic Orchestra with conductor Yoel Levi and violin virtuoso Itzhak Perlman were able instantly to enhance the moods of the large group of culture loving Americans who, on one New York Sunday, experienced the lowest and highest levels of culture mankind has to offer.

Photos by Gabi Barat