A cold war of sorts has been brewing in the streets of New York since the events of October 7th. It started with "Kidnapped" flyers, bearing the image, age, and other identifying characteristics of Israelis taken hostage by Hamas invaders. The flyers--neatly, perhaps professionally done, and often laminated--sprang up seemingly overnight. Quickly, they were ubiquitous.
Of course, not everyone is sympathetic to the Israeli side, so many flyers were vandalized or simply torn down. Several such incidents were caught on video, resulting in varying examples of cancel culture hijinks. By mid-October, "Free Palestine" stickers began to pop up, sometimes directly on top of "Kidnapped" flyers.
Seven months later, the original stickers and flyers are defaced, torn, papered over. Scrawled edits in Sharpie reflect the angry impotence of supporters on both sides. Here, they are half a world away from the conflict but surrounded by countrymen of both territories. On lamp posts, mail boxes, or any public frontage, one finds the stickers. Traditionally, missing cat flyers or tear-offs for guitar lessons fluttered from these de facto kiosks. Now, slights and slurs over a millennia-old war.
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