NYC Mayor makes 'solidarity' trip to Israel
- 9 years ago
New York City's mayor, Bill De Blasio, on Saturday kicked off a brief visit to Israel that he has described as a solidarity mission at a difficult time.
De Blasio met with his Tel Aviv counterpart, Ron Huldai, in the seaside city early Saturday before attending an event sponsored by a mixed Israeli-Palestinian school.
The three-day trip is being paid for by Baruch Eliezer Gross, a Brooklyn resident and founder of the Besadno Group, an investment firm with offices in Jerusalem and New York.
The latest wave of Israeli-Palestinian unrest began last month with clashes at Jerusalem's most sensitive holy site and quickly spread across Israel and into the West Bank and Gaza.
A series of attacks, mostly stabbings, have unnerved Israel, which has responded by beefing up security nationwide and imposing checkpoints in Palestinian neighborhoods of Jerusalem.
De Blasio met with his Tel Aviv counterpart, Ron Huldai, in the seaside city early Saturday before attending an event sponsored by a mixed Israeli-Palestinian school.
The three-day trip is being paid for by Baruch Eliezer Gross, a Brooklyn resident and founder of the Besadno Group, an investment firm with offices in Jerusalem and New York.
The latest wave of Israeli-Palestinian unrest began last month with clashes at Jerusalem's most sensitive holy site and quickly spread across Israel and into the West Bank and Gaza.
A series of attacks, mostly stabbings, have unnerved Israel, which has responded by beefing up security nationwide and imposing checkpoints in Palestinian neighborhoods of Jerusalem.