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 the police were present and had set up barriers at the site.
A 42-year-old Brooklyn man was arrested for punching a 61-year-old male victim during the demonstration. The NYPD said the suspect, Anthony Frausto, was charged with third-degree assault.
Pal-Awda, which organized the protest, issued a statement on Wednesday together with the Muslim American Society of New York (MAS) 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 and beaten, and later 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.”
Pal-Awda said 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.
An anti-Israel protest leader, in a Pal-Awda Instagram story, said that “in the last 15 months, more land has been taken in Palestine since 1967.”
Betar members called the pro-Palestinian activists “terrorists,” one activist waved a Kahane Chai flag, and one man mocked “how much does a home go for in Jenin.”
“F*** Palestine, they kill people,” said one haredi (ultra-Orthodox) 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/Twitter on Tuesday night.
Democratic House Minority Leader and New York Rep. Hakeem Jeffries said on Wednesday that the “vile and antisemitic rhetoric directed at Jewish residents in Borough Park is unacceptable and unconscionable.
“We will not tolerate the egregious behavior on display that was clearly designed to intimidate and harass Jews in the Borough Park neighborhood,” said Jeffries.
Getter said it had moved the location of its 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 Eichenstein had called on the NYPD and the city to take action against calls for protest.Congressman Daniel Goldman said 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 on 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 rejected the assertion that their demonstration was against the Jewish neighborhood, but instead, it targeted 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 demonstrations 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 on 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 continued in Monsey on Wednesday. A Getter spokesperson said 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.