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Shocking: Arrests Made During Easter Service

Shocking: Arrests Made During Easter Service

By 

Logan Sekulow

|
April 1

4 min read

Israel

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The far Left clearly has zero respect for the most important day on the Christian calendar, as the NYPD made several arrests during a chaotic Easter Catholic mass at St. Patrick’s Cathedral yesterday.

The New York Post reports:

A trio of attention-seeking protesters — one of whom previously glued his feet to the stands at the US Open as part of a climate-change stunt — were cuffed and hauled out of St. Patrick’s Cathedral after disrupting Easter Mass with shouts of “Free Palestine” on Saturday night, cops say.

Police were called to the iconic Midtown cathedral for complaints about a “disorderly group” just before 9 p.m. The protesters were quickly taken out of the service.

Matthew Menzies, 31, John Rozendaal, 63, and Gregory Schwedock, 35, were taken into custody and charged with disruption of religious service, police told The Post.

While being escorted out, one yelled “Free Palestine,” a video shared to X shows.

I hope your personal Easter service didn’t experience such a disgusting outburst. Whatever happened to civil disagreements that still showed respect for religious beliefs?

Imagine how scary this must have been for the everyday parishioners at St. Patrick’s. Unfortunately, when many New Yorkers see a pro-Palestine protest taking place, their first reaction might be that gunfire or explosions will soon follow.

Where’s the outrage over this service disruption? If a pro-Israel protest broke out at a Ramadan service, the far Left would be going crazy over the disrespect shown to the Muslim faith.

A religious service is not the appropriate forum to pull stunts for political protests. Conservatives seem to recognize this fact, so why not the Left?

I am thankful that the police were able to stop the Easter protest and prevent any possible violence. I hope the police who were brave enough to arrest these protestors don’t face consequences for doing the right thing.

Unfortunately, the attacks against Israel are growing among members of Congress. In fact, 19 Senators just signed a letter calling for President Biden to help establish a “non-militarized” Palestinian state.

The proposal is very dangerous to Israel. A “non-militarized” zone could allow the Palestinian Authority to become the leader of the government because “Palestine” doesn’t have an official military. Such a move also wouldn’t require the removal of terrorist groups like Hamas.

In other words, the status quo would remain in place to elevate “Palestine” to statehood under the dangerous rule of the Palestinian Authority. The ACLJ remains vigilant that granting statehood to “Palestine” would be a disaster for Israel and the world. Watch our video for more reasons why.

ACLJ Senior Counsel CeCe Heil just defended Israel before the U.N. last week. She explained the importance of the ACLJ’s recent oral intervention for Israel:

The Human Rights Council in Geneva has three sessions every year and we try to be at several of them. . . . We were there . . . really just standing up for Israel and for persecuted Christians. . . . There were a lot of interventions going on in two days discussing Israel, and we were one of maybe five that actually defended Israel. Some of them were actually hostages that had been released and had their own story to tell. But we were there standing up for Israel. . . . If we are not there, then there is not a voice, especially on the Israel front, for Israel. . . . It was my honor to stand up for Israel.

CeCe faced much opposition during her U.N. appearance. For two days, most of the dialogue was attacking Israel for its war to eradicate Hamas. Instead of starting with Hamas’ murderous assault on October 7, the opposition began with October 9 and equated the Israeli hostages with everyone in Gaza being a hostage.

Today’s Sekulow broadcast included a full analysis of the pro-Palestinian protest that disrupted the Easter service at St. Patrick’s Cathedral. ACLJ Senior Counsel and Director of Policy Harry Hutchison responded to President Biden’s claim that the U.S. economy is the “best in the world.” We also reacted to the breaking news of the Israeli airstrike in Syria that killed Senior Commander Mohammad Reza Zahedi of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps.

Watch the full broadcast below:

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