According to a media release by the RI Coalition for Israel, on Sunday August 4, several hundred members of Providence’s Latino community rallied outside Vision Evangelica Church, 1014 Broad Street, in support of Israel’s right to self-defense and in opposition to proposed ordinance 45610 of the Providence City Council. The event itself was named “estamos con Israel” (We Stand With Israel).

The proposed ordinance would force the City to divest from Israel bonds. Mayor Brett Smiley has said that it “reeks of antisemitism “.

Keynote speaker at the rally was Pastor Daniel Gonzalez, Latino District Director of Christians United for Israel (CUFI). Locally the event drew support from Praise Tabernacle Church of Cranston, a leading non-denominational church affiliated with CUFI.  Pastor Gonzalez also spoke at other Latino churches and faith groups over the weekend.

In his remarks, Pastor Gonzalez spoke about the threat to RI’s landmark anti-BDS law of 2016. He explained that the proposed Providence City Council ordinance 45610 would make discrimination against Jewish people legal and urged the crowd to take action against it by signing their names against the ordinance. “If you are a child of God then you are a Zionist!” he proclaimed.

Organizational help for the rally was provided by RI Coalition for Israel (RICI), the statewide non-partisan organization of Christians and Jews that supports Israel and the Jewish people.

“RI’s pro-Israel community naturally includes the majority of Latinos, who believe in the Bible and God’s promise to Abraham in Genesis 12:1-3 that those who bless Israel shall be blessed and those who curse Israel shall be cursed. Israel belongs to the Jewish people. Our Latino neighbors don’t accept the hogwash that Jesus was a Palestinian. They don’t buy the big lie of ‘genocide’. They realize that there can be no justification for Hamas’ murder, kidnapping, baby-burning and rape,” said Mary Greene of Peacedale, president of RICI.

“Latinos are the fastest-growing demographic in the state,” said Howard Brown, RICI Executive Director. “Pro-Israel Latinos by their actions demonstrate that to connect the Israel-Hamas war with racial justice in the US is a lie. In fact it is the same religious, not racial, war of Islam on the Jews that has been taking place for at least the past hundred years. Organizations on the left such as Jewish Voice for Peace, in spite of its intentionally misleading name, are just Jew-haters that have teamed up with radical Islam to achieve their immoral, nefarious goal of eliminating the Jewish state. It is a stain against Roger Williams’ legacy of religious tolerance.”

“We welcome RI’s Latinos to the growing pro-Israel coalition in RI.”