Flag-waving pro-Palestine and pro-Israel demonstrators clashed in Borough Park Tuesday night during a demonstration outside a real estate expo.
The pro-Palestine activists, led by the Pal-Awda group, gathered near several synagogues, shouting inflammatory slogans such as “Settlers, go back home!” and “Zionists, go to hell!”
Children on their way home from local yeshivas looked on from bus windows as the protesters flashed obscene gestures and beat snare drums while chanting hateful rhetoric. That led to dozens of Yeshiva students descending on the area to show support for their neighborhood and demand that the protesters leave.
The Feb. 18 protest occurred during an Israeli real estate expo at Brooklyn Center, 3611 14th Ave., in the predominantly Orthodox Jewish neighborhood. Due to concerns about the protest, it had been relocated there after being initially scheduled at 1358 50th St., the Yeshiva Jesode Hatorah.
Jerusalem-based real estate company The Getter Group, which hosted the expo, said the event would provide attendees “All the info you need about real estate in Israel.” The company’s website advertises properties in cities across Israel as well as in Israeli settlements in disputed areas of the West Bank. Past events advertising land for sale in the territory have drawn criticism.
Local leaders had demanded that the NYPD and Mayor’s Office take action against the demonstration, but it proceeded nonetheless.
In a statement, U.S. Rep. Hakeem Jeffries denounced the protest and urged New Yorkers to stand against antisemitism.
“The vile and antisemitic rhetoric directed at Jewish residents in Borough Park is unacceptable and unconscionable,” he said. “We will not tolerate the egregious behavior on display that was clearly designed to intimidate and harass Jews in the Borough Park neighborhood.”
The protest came the same day that Hamas confirmed the deaths of three Israeli hostages, including Shiri Bibas and her two young sons Ariel and Kfir, who were four-years-old and nine months old when they were abducted by Hamas on Oct. 7, 2023.
Prominent pro-Israel figures, including former Councilman Ari Kagan, former Assemblyman Dov Hikind, advocates Stephanie Binshimol and Karen Lisa LichtBraun of Herut NYC, and activist and City Council candidate Heshy Tischler were present at the counter-protest.
Hundreds of Jewish residents and supporters gathered, defiantly chanting “Am Yisrael Chai!” in response to the aggressive rhetoric of the pro-Palestine demonstrators.
The protest took a violent turn when a pro-Palestine protester allegedly attempted to ram his vehicle into a crowd at the intersection of 14th Avenue and 37th Street. The attacker was swiftly stopped by the NYPD and taken into custody.
Additionally, Tischler was allegedly assaulted by a pro-Palestine protester, suffering a blow to the face that left him bloodied.
Meanwhile, Pal-Adwa claimed in an Instagram post that, “Protest attendees were spat on, kicked, harassed, maced and even physically struck … as they made their way to the protest and as they tried to go home.”
They further alleged that the pro-Israel demonstrators engaged in anti-Islamic behavior, with “one counterprotester [holding] a lighter to a Quran, another made sexual gestures with a Quran, and others mocked our call to prayer.”
The protest comes in the wake of comments by President Donald Trump that he would seek to have Gaza, currently under Hamas control, taken over by the United States and transformed into a seaside resort. Under his proposal, the 2 million Palestinians living in Gaza would be resettled in other Middle East nations.
While Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the proposal should be explored, other world powers — including China, Germany and Russia — rebuked the idea, Reuters reported.
Meanwhile, a fragile ceasefire deal ending the Israel-Hamas War is still holding, with more Israeli hostages and Palestinian prisoners being freed.
