|
Photos. Lots more quotes at both links. [NYPost] An anti-Israel protest erupted into violence and mayhem as a swarm of demonstrators flooded a primarily Orthodox Jewish neighborhood in Brooklyn Tuesday night.
One person was arrested after dozens of agitators chanting "Zionists go to hell" and waving Paleostinian flags descended to Borough Park to protest a real estate event, according to police and reports.
"How many kids did you kill today?" anti-Israel protesters chanted to the beat of a snare drum, as some flashed Jewish residents the middle finger, The Times of Israel reported.
The demonstration, organized by anti-Israel activist group Pal-Awda, gathered to protest what they claimed was Paleostinian land being sold off to the Jewish state, the group shared in a post on X Monday afternoon.
Amidst the chaos, the protest organizer yelled "There is only one solution, intifada revolution" through a megaphone as others shouted, "settlers settlers go back home, Paleostine is ours alone," the outlet reported.
Pro-Israel demonstrators, along with a crowd of locals, carrying Israel’s flag, also gathered in the area, with barricades separating the opposing groups.
At one point, the dueling groups converged, and a brawl ignited with the sounds of screams blaring in the background as police forcefully separated the sparring crowd, according to videos shared on X.
Local leaders condemned the protest Monday night when plans for the controversial event spread on social media, with many calling on the city and police to put a stop to demonstrators gathering in the Jewish neighborhood.
Bronx Rep. Ritchie Torres blasted protesters for targeting Borough Park "simply because it is Jewish."
"It should come as a shock to no one that the pro-Hamas
 ..a contraction of the Arabic words for "frothing at the mouth",...
mob targeting Jews and promising to ’flood’ Boro Park has descended into violence," posted to X Tuesday night.
"Violence is not a bug but a feature of the so-called ’Free Paleostine’ movement, which has no desire to free Paleostinians from Hamas."
Activist group End Jew Hatred called out other city leaders for failing to "stand up" against the anti-Israel protesters.
"Hamas apologists and supporters, cloaked in the tired and well-worn pretense of supporting "Paleostine," showed their true nature as violent mostly peaceful thugs looking for any reason to attack Jews," the group said in a statement.
Charges are pending against the one protestor taken into custody, police said.
Countless demonstrations organized by anti-Israel activists have erupted in the Big Apple since the Paleostinian terror group Hamas attacked the Jewish state on Oct. 7, 2023. The latest protest flared just hours after Hamas made a ghoulish announcement confirming its youngest hostages, Kfir and Ariel Bibas, 2 and 5, and their mother, Shiri Bibas, are dead and their bodies will be returned to Israel this week. Bibas and her boys quickly became symbols of the horrors of the terrorist attack.
Around 200 anti-Israel protesters gathered on a street in the neighborhood within a barricaded area set up by police. A crowd of Jewish neighborhood residents and other pro-Israel counterprotesters demonstrated on the sidewalk across the street. Dozens of police officers separated the two sides. The protest began just after sundown and the temperature was below freezing.
On the Jewish side, dozens of adults and children from the neighborhood and other counterprotesters lined a police barricade across the street. Some were actively protesting, while others were curious passersby who stopped to take photos on their phones. Several held Israeli flags and shouted at the anti-Israel crowd. One woman held up the yellow flag of the far-right Jewish Defense League.
Several fights broke out. A couple of anti-Israel activists who walked into the Jewish side were shouted at and pushed out. Some participants traded blows on the sidelines of the rally. As the protest wound down, the two opposing groups walked down opposite sides of the street, with some crossing back and forth, leading to further scuffles. The police struggled to keep participants separated, and on the sidewalks, away from traffic.
As the anti-Israel group headed toward a subway station, NYPD Deputy Chief Richie Taylor, the highest-ranking Orthodox Jewish police officer in the city, urged neighborhood residents to not follow them any longer.
“There’s no reason for it. They’re leaving,” he told a crowd of young men.
The NYPD did not immediately respond to a request for comment on arrests.
Anti-Israel activists have held hundreds of protests in New York since the October 7, 2023, Hamas invasion of Israel, but Tuesday’s rally stood out because protests in Orthodox Jewish neighborhoods are rare.
The protest was widely condemned by New York political leaders before it took place.
“This ‘protest’ is in fact targeted harassment aimed at a neighborhood with one of the highest populations of Orthodox Jews in the US,” said Representative Daniel Goldman, a New York Democrat. “To harass and intimidate Jews because of the actions of Israel is textbook antisemitism. True progressives must speak out against this hate.”
Anti-Israel street protests in New York have spiked since the Hamas attack on Israel, starting with a celebration the following day, and have continued since the current ceasefire between Israel and Hamas. The activists’ targets have included cancer patients, museums, memorials to the dead, libraries, transportation hubs and holiday events. 
|
