Anti-Israel and pro-Israel activists clashed during pro-Palestinian protests and counter-protests outside an Israeli 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.
At the anti-Israel protest organized by Pal-Awda and reportedly endorsed by around 30 other groups, activists proclaimed that from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea, “Palestine is Arab.”
An anti-Israel protest leader, in a Pal-Awda Instagram story, claimed that “in the last 15 months, more land has been taken in Palestine since 1967.”
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 settlements.
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 said 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 the 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.
The NYPD did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
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