Riot Erupts Over NYC Israel Event
The protest was aimed at a real estate marketing event that included information about property in Israeli communities in Judea and Samaria. The neighborhood has a large Orthodox Jewish population, and the march quickly drew crowds of residents who followed the protesters as police kept the two sides apart.
Anti-Israel protesters marched through Midwood, Brooklyn, on Monday night during a demonstration targeting an Israeli real estate event, drawing a large counter-protest from local Jewish residents and supporters of Israel.
The protest was aimed at a real estate marketing event that included information about property in Israeli communities in Judea and Samaria. The neighborhood has a large Orthodox Jewish population, and the march quickly drew crowds of residents who followed the protesters as police kept the two sides apart.
Protesters waved a Hezbollah flag and chanted “Globalize the intifada,” along with “Brick by brick, wall by wall, Israel will fall,” “Baby killers,” and “Death to the IDF.” Some held an orange banner reading, “Israel is killing children.”
Jewish counter-demonstrators responded with pro-IDF chants and taunted the protesters over Israeli operations that killed Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar and Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah. Some counter-protesters shouted, “Where’s Sinwar? Where’s Nasrallah?” A small number were heard singing “May your village burn” in Hebrew.
The two sides traded insults throughout the march. Counter-demonstrators mocked protesters for wearing masks and called them “terrorists,” while protesters shouted “Fuck Israel” at residents watching from doorways.
Police drones and a helicopter monitored the area from above, while officers on the ground formed lines between the protesters and neighborhood residents. Several scuffles broke out during the demonstration.
In one incident, an elderly man grabbed at a protester’s face mask and was shoved to the ground, hitting his head on a tree. The man later said the protester had a right to demonstrate but not to hide his identity.
“It’s a free country. He has the right to protest but not to hide himself,” the man said. “I survived Vietnam. What’s a little prick like that?”
At another point, eggs were thrown into the anti-Israel crowd and splattered on the ground. An adolescent Jewish boy was led away by police.
The demonstration followed a similar protest last week outside a Manhattan synagogue hosting an event by the same real estate organizers. That protest drew a smaller counter-demonstration because it was held in a neighborhood with a less dense Jewish population.
Monday’s march in Midwood appeared to bring out roughly equal numbers of protesters and counter-protesters, intensifying the confrontations and the police presence around the event.