- New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio has been criticised for singling out the Jewish community in a tweet about people who are not following the city’s social distancing rules.
- “My message to the Jewish community, and all communities, is this simple: the time for warnings has passed,” he wrote in a tweet on Tuesday evening.
- Critics slammed de Blasio and pointed out that New York state is home to an estimated 1.7 million Jews who have largely followed the social distancing rules in place.
- The coronavirus pandemic is fuelling anti-Semitism around the world, particularly in New York, where Jews comprise about 13 per cent of the city’s population
New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio is catching heat for singling out the Jewish community in a tweet about people who are not following the city’s social distancing rules.
“My message to the Jewish community, and all communities, is this simple: the time for warnings has passed,” he wrote on Tuesday evening. “I have instructed the NYPD to proceed immediately to summons or even arrest those who gather in large groups. This is about stopping this disease and saving lives. Period.”
The tweet was one of three sent Tuesday night, but they were not threaded together.
Earlier, de Blasio vented his frustrations about a large funeral gathering in Williamsburg that occurred on Tuesday night – that he personally went to help break up.
“Something absolutely unacceptable happened in Williamsburg tonite: a large funeral gathering in the middle of this pandemic,” he tweeted. “When I heard, I went there myself to ensure the crowd was dispersed. And what I saw WILL NOT be tolerated so long as we are fighting the Coronavirus.”
Read the article by Rosie Perper in Business Insider Australia.