Over 150 New Yorkers gathered yesterday to support a City Council resolution demanding that the PLO be declared a terrorist organization and their UN Mission in New York be shut down. The rally was organized by The Coalition for Jewish Concerns (Amcha). Amcha President Rabbi Avi Weiss said that after September 11, \"Our city\'s finest are making sure terrorists today cannot cross our bridges into the city. Yet there are police-protected offices of the terrorists of the PLO right off Park Avenue... If Osama Bin Laden can\'t have an Al Qaeda diplomatic mission in New York, why should Arafat, who has a longer and bloodier record, have one?\" Leroy Comrie, an African-American city councilman, added, \"We have to make sure we send a clear message against terror around the world, not just in Afghanistan. Terror cannot be tolerated in any manner, shape or form.\"
New York City Mayor Bloomberg responded to the rally by defending the PLO\'s right to maintain a UN mission in the city, saying no United Nations member nation should be kicked out no matter how \"disgraceful and disgusting\" the circumstances might be. The NY Daily News reported that the mayor noted that the UN is an enormous economic contributor to the city: \"Either you are going to be the host city or you\'re not,\" he said. Several months ago, Bloomberg negated the decision by his predecessor, Rudy Giuliani, to eject Yasser Arafat from a concert for world leaders in the city. \"He was wrong in doing it, obviously,\" Bloomberg said in July.