Mayor Adams urged two women who were threatened and harassed during a Brooklyn demonstration against controversial Israeli official Itamar Ben-Gvir to come forward and file complaints — including one victim who said she was mistaken for a protester.
The woman said she feared for her life when a mob of Orthodox Jewish men she says mistook her for a pro-Palestinian demonstrator chased her, kicked her, spat at her and pelted her with objects outside the Chabad Lubavitch world headquarters on Eastern Parkway in Crown Heights, where Ben-Gvir, Israel’s polarizing national security minister was speaking.
“I went outside to see what was going on,” the women told the Associated Press. “There were a few neighbors including myself standing on the sidewalk just observing when people began filming near me. I pulled my scarf up over my face because I didn’t want to be on camera. As soon as I did this, a Jewish woman began screaming at me, and then a group of, like, 100 men came over to me and encircled me.
“They were shouting at me, threatening to rape me, chanting ‘death to Arabs.’ I thought the police would protect me from the mob, but they did nothing to intervene.”
Video from a bystander shows the woman being led away from the mob by a single officer as a dozens of mostly men and teens follow closely behind for blocks, jeering in Hebrew and English.
Video shows two of the men kicking her in the back, another hurling a traffic cone into her head and a fourth pushing a trash can into her.
“This is America,” one of the men can be heard saying. “We got Israel. We got an Army now.”
After several blocks, the lone officer hustled the woman into a police vehicle, prompting one man to yell, “Get her!”
The crowd erupted in cheers as she was driven away.
“I felt sheer terror,” said the woman, who did not want to be identified. “I realized at that point that I couldn’t lead this mob of men to my home. I had nowhere to go. I didn’t know what to do. I was just terrified.”
The woman, a lifelong New Yorker, said she was left with bruises and was shaken by the incident. She said police should investigate the harassment as an act of hate.
“I’m afraid to move around the neighborhood where I’ve lived for a decade,” she said. “It doesn’t seem like anyone in any position of power really cares.”
Adams said police had spoken to a different woman on the pro-Palestinian side of the protest who suffered injuries after she was harassed by counter-protesters. Photos shared online showed that woman with blood streaming down her face.
The incidents were caught on video and posted on social media as the NYPD looks for the suspects.
“Let me be clear: none of this is acceptable,” the mayor added. “In fact, it is despicable.”
Both incidents, as well as several others for which police issued five disorder conduct summonses and arrested one man for assaulting another, happened outside the Chabad Lubavitch world headquarters on Eastern Parkway in Crown Heights.
A crowd of more than 200 Hasidim had gathered for an appearance by Ben-Gvir. the far-right Israeli official
Ben-Gvir, an ultranationalist settler leader once on the fringes of Israeli politics, has sparked controversy in both New York and Connecticut on his first official U.S. state visit since joining Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s cabinet in 2022.
Prior to the Brooklyn episode, Ben-Gvir was speaking to a small crowd at a Manhattan steakhouse Thursday afternoon when a man who had been hiding in a bathroom for two hours stormed into the private event. “Get the [expletive] out of New York!” cried the protester.
The NYPD on Monday was bracing for another demonstration scheduled for 7 .m. involving a pro-Palestinian group that will march from Barclays Center to Crown Heights.
