Anti-Israel and pro-Israel activists clashed during pro-Palestinian protests and counter-protests outside an Israelis real estate event in Brooklyn on Tuesday, according to the event organizers, with both sides accusing the other of starting the violence.
New York Police Department officers separated activists throwing punches at the anti-Israel protest against the Getter Group Borough Park exposition, according to videos published by anti-Israel group Pal-Awda New York/New Jersey and pro-Israel group Betar US.
A Getter Group representative said that the police were present and had set up barriers at the site.
A 42-year-old Brooklyn man was arrested by police for punching a 61-year-old male victim during the demonstration. The NYPD said that the suspect, Anthony Frausto, was charged with third-degree assault.
Pal-Awda, which organized the protest, issued a Wednesday statement together with the Muslim American Society New York claiming a litany of alleged physical attacks against them by counter-protesters. Activists alleged that they were spat on, kicked, maced, and punched.
Jugs of water were allegedly thrown from windows. MAS and Pal-Awda claimed counter-protesters followed withdrawing demonstrators, with one group allegedly being surrounded, beaten, and hospitalized.
During the protest that was reportedly endorsed by around 30 other groups, activists proclaimed that from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea, “Palestine is Arab.”
Al-Awda claimed that the protests were to stop what they claimed was the sale of “stolen” land. The expo website didn’t offer holdings in disputed territories, but Getter does seek out real estate on behalf of its clients depending on their requests, which could include in settlements.
An anti-Israel protest leader, in an Pal-Awda Instagram story, claimed that “in the last 15 months, more land has been taken in Palestine since 1967.”
Betar members called the pro-Palestinian activists “terrorists,” and one activist waved a Kahane Chai flag one man mocked “how much does a home go for in Jenin.”
“F**k Palestine, they kill people,” said one Haredi man filmed by Pal-Awda.
Response to the clashes
Congressman Ritchie Torres criticized the anti-Israel activists as a “pro-Hamas mob targeting Jews” and that it was not a surprise that the protest descended into violence.
“Violence is not a bug but a feature of the so-called ‘Free Palestine’ movement, which has no desire to free Palestinians from Hamas,” Torres said on X Tuesday night.
Getter said that they had moved the location of their expo because the old site was near several schools, and after calls for demonstrations the schools feared disruptions by anti-Israel activists.
New York State Assembly member Simcha Einstein on social media Sunday called on the NYPD and city to take action against calls for protest.
Congressman Daniel Goldman on Monday said on X that the protest was “targeted harassment aimed at a neighborhood with one of the highest populations of Orthodox Jews in the US.”
“To harass and intimidate Jews because of the actions of Israel is textbook antisemitism,” said Goldman.
Pal-Awda and MAS said Wednesday that pro-Israel activists were manufacturing outrage by painting themselves as victims rather than “aggressors,” and falsely characterizing the protest as antisemitic. The anti-Israel groups reject assertion that their demonstration was against the Jewish neighborhood, but was instead targeted at the Israeli event.
The anti-Israel groups also charged that the event was illegal because it allegedly advertised land in disputed territories, and discriminated in attendance. They said that they had contacted the attorney-general and other officials but were ignored.
Israeli real estate expos in Canada and the United States have become targets of intense demonstration since the October 7 Massacre. One of the protest leaders stated on Tuesday night that anti-Israel activists showed that any such event in the New York City area would be met with opposition.
“As the genocide on Palestinians continues, we call for a complete end to the settler-colonial project of Israel and its goal of expansion,” Pal-Awda said on Instagram Monday. “In the face of [President Donald] Trump’s outrageous plans to force Palestinians out of the Gaza strip and in the wake of the displacement of tens of thousands of Palestinians in the West Bank in the past month, it is more important than ever that we show up in the masses to oppose the sale of stolen land, especially when it is happening in our own backyards!”
The expo is set to continue in Monsey on Wednesday. A Getter spokesperson said that the protests would not stop attendance, but on the contrary more had come to support the exhibition. The protests and violence demonstrated that America wasn’t as safe for Jews as it once was, making available the option to purchase homes in Israel all the more necessary.
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