New York Mayor Eric Adams reacted with anger and disgust on Tuesday, after anti-Israel protesters vandalized a World War I memorial in New York City on Monday.
The 107th United States Infantry monument, located along Central Park on the Upper East Side, depicts seven U.S. Army soldiers in the throes of battle in September 1918, as they burst through the Hindenburg Line — the last and strongest of the German army’s defense.Â
On Monday, as anti-Israel protests were underway in the area near Hunter College and the star-studded Met Gala, demonstrators placed pro-Palestinian stickers on the memorial, spray-painted “Free Gaza” and burned the American flag at the site.Â
Adams, whose uncle died while serving in Vietnam at age 19, offered $5,000 of his own money to catch the vandals. NYPD Crime Stoppers is offering another $10,000 as a reward.
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“We’re going to treat this crime with the seriousness that it deserves,” Adams said Tuesday in front of the monument. “I will not stand by while people desecrate memorials for those who fought for democracy and human rights. The right rights that they (pro-Palestinian groups) are calling for.”
Video footage posted online shows a group of anti-Israel supporters placing a flag on the statue and using spray paint to advocate for Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.Â
Fox News Digital has reached out to multiple veterans’ groups for comment on the matter.Â
Officials noted that the memorial is different from most others, which generally honor high-ranking military officials.Â
“This is a [monument] to the Doughboys,” said Zachary Iscol, commissioner of the city’s Department of Emergency Management, who was referring to the nickname for troops under Army Gen. John Pershing’s American Expeditionary Forces.
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In an online post, Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., who served in Iraq and Afghanistan as a U.S. Army infantry officer, said the “terrorist sympathizers committed felony violations of the Veterans’ Memorial Preservation and Recognition Act by defacing this memorial to the 107th Infantry.”
New York City Councilor Vickie Paladino, who represents a portion of Queens, said a friend cleared the site of “Hamas propaganda” and planted American flags.Â
“He and another Veteran went into action as soon as images emerged of what had happened here. Sadly this is far from over,” she wrote online.
The Veterans of Foreign Wars, an advocacy group with chapters across the country, pointed Fox News Digital to a May 1 statement on the anti-Israel protests.
“The first amendment of the Constitution grants the rights of freedom of speech and of the people peacefully to assemble, the same rights members of the Veterans of Foreign Wars (VFW) swore an oath to support and defend, said VFW Commander-in-Chief Duane Sarmiento. “We also support the rule of law in our country and those working to uphold it. Without them, segments of our population would have their rights infringed upon.”
Elsewhere on Monday night, protesters also put a Palestinian flag on a statue honoring Union Army Gen. William Tecumseh Sherman near Central Park. NYPD officers arrived and blocked the crowd while an officer climbed on a ladder to remove it.Â
The monument was also defaced with spray paint. Three suspects are being sought for that alleged act of vandalism.Â
