Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade suffers slight interruption

The 97^th annual Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade played to good-sized crowds on a bright, sunny (but cold!) day. But the parade suffered an interruption – which organizers and telecasters did their best to minimize. That interruption resulted from the Fourth Arab-Israeli War – which also made itself felt in some float performers’ choice of decorations.

Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade – and the interruption

Kristinn Taylor at The Gateway Pundit reported on the interruption, and gathered several X posts with embedded video. The parade began on time, at 9:30 a.m. EST, on 34^th Street in front of the iconic nine-floor Macy’s New York store. Its first band, the Alabama A&M University Marching Band, arrived at the store at that time.

Eventually a float entered by Massachusetts’ Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe passed by the store. Viewers in the stands – and on NBC Television – could see float performers displaying Palestinian flags. NBC-TV’s three-person anchor crew deliberately did not mention those flags; TV viewers had to look twice to see them.

Then NBC-TV went to commercial – and stayed on commercial for more than five minutes, longer than usual. When they returned, they took up coverage of the parade and offered no explanation for the extra-long commercial break.

But the viewers who were there live, got an eyeful and an earful.

Several viewers in the stands unfurled banners sympathetic to the “Palestinian State” of Gaza, and of the Islamic Resistance Movement (Arabic Harakah al-Muqāwamah al-Islāmiyyah, abbreviated HAMAS). After the Mashpee Wampanoag float passed, several of these viewers rushed past police and thronged on 6^th Avenue. Some of them glued their hands to the street, refusing to let any other floats or bands pass. The parade came to a dead halt.

The messages on those banners included these two gems:

Liberation of Palestine and the planet.

And:

Genocide then, genocide now!

TV viewers know nothing!

But New York Police successfully de-glued and removed the protesters. The parade continued – and millions of TV viewers would learn nothing about the interruption until afterward.

Ms. Taylor gathered this sample of X posts, some in support of the interruption:

Ms. Taylor reported also that the blockaders threatened their action ahead of time, and apparently the NYPD and Macy’s planned some kind of work-around.

About the image

Macy’s Department Store and Herald Square, New York – Superintendence to the National Gallery of Modern Art, Italy – CC0.

https://www.europeana.eu/item/2026104/Partage_Plus_ProvidedCHO_Soprintendenza_alla_Galleria_nazionale_d_arte_moderna_e_contemporanea_871