NEW YORK: A brooklyn women was chased, surrounded and beaten by a pro-israel mob, the incident occurred Thursday evening outside the Chabad Lubavitch World Headquarters in Crown Heights, where Ben-Gvir, Israel's security minister, was set to speak. Clashes broke out between pro-Palestinian activists and members of the local Orthodox Jewish community, with videos showing protesters and counterprotesters engaging in intense altercations.
The woman, a resident in her 30s, was surrounded by a crowd of Jewish men and boys. While the reason for the crowd’s actions was unclear, the situation escalated with chants of "death to Arabs" and racial slurs, as well as physical attacks. At one point, a man threw a traffic cone at her head before police managed to get her into a patrol car.
The Associated Press reported that she learned of the protest after hearing police helicopters over her apartment. She walked over to investigate around 10:30 pm, but by then the protest had mostly dispersed. Not wanting to be filmed, she covered her face with a scarf.
"As soon as I pulled up my scarf, a group of 100 men came over immediately and encircled me," said the woman, who spoke to the AP on the condition of anonymity because she feared for her safety.
"I had nowhere to go." "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," she said.
The woman described feeling feareed, unsure of where to go, and said the police officer who tried to protect her was unable to stop the mob from following them for blocks. She was eventually driven away to safety. The woman, left bruised and shaken, called for an investigation into the incident as a hate crime. She expressed fear for her safety in the neighborhood where she had lived for years.
Police arrested one person and issued summons to five others after the protests. Mayor Eric Adams condemned the violence, saying Sunday that police were investigating "a series of incidents stemming from clashing protests on Thursday that began when a group of anti-Israel protesters surrounded the Chabad Lubavitch World Headquarters, a Jewish house of worship in Brooklyn."
He added that police had spoken to a different woman on the pro-Palestinian side of the protest who suffered injuries after being harassed by counterprotesters. Photos shared online showed the woman with blood streaming down her face.
"Let me be clear: None of this is acceptable; in fact, it is despicable," Adams added. "New York City will always be a place where people can peacefully protest, but we will not tolerate violence, trespassing, menacing, or threatening."
The protest was one of several in recent days against Ben-Gvir, an ultranationalist settler leader who is embarking on his first US state visit since joining Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's cabinet three years ago. Previously convicted in Israel of racist incitement and support for a terrorist group, he has called on his supporters to confront Palestinians and assert "Jewish Power."
The incident recalls the 1991 Crown Heights riot, underscoring the ongoing tensions in the area.
A Chabad Lubavitch spokesman, Rabbi Motti Seligson, denounced both the anti-Ben-Gvir protesters and the mob that chased the woman.
"The violent provocateurs who called for the genocide of Jews in support of terrorists and terrorism, outside a synagogue, in a Jewish neighborhood, where some of the worst antisemitic violence in American history was perpetrated, and where many residents share deep bonds with the victims of October 7, did so in order to intimidate, provoke, and instill fear," Seligson said.
"We condemn the crude language and violence of the small breakaway group of young people; such actions are entirely unacceptable and wholly antithetical to the Torah's values. The fact that a possibly uninvolved bystander got pulled into the melee further underscores the point," he said.
The woman, a resident in her 30s, was surrounded by a crowd of Jewish men and boys. While the reason for the crowd’s actions was unclear, the situation escalated with chants of "death to Arabs" and racial slurs, as well as physical attacks. At one point, a man threw a traffic cone at her head before police managed to get her into a patrol car.
The Associated Press reported that she learned of the protest after hearing police helicopters over her apartment. She walked over to investigate around 10:30 pm, but by then the protest had mostly dispersed. Not wanting to be filmed, she covered her face with a scarf.
"As soon as I pulled up my scarf, a group of 100 men came over immediately and encircled me," said the woman, who spoke to the AP on the condition of anonymity because she feared for her safety.
"I had nowhere to go." "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," she said.
The woman described feeling feareed, unsure of where to go, and said the police officer who tried to protect her was unable to stop the mob from following them for blocks. She was eventually driven away to safety. The woman, left bruised and shaken, called for an investigation into the incident as a hate crime. She expressed fear for her safety in the neighborhood where she had lived for years.
Police arrested one person and issued summons to five others after the protests. Mayor Eric Adams condemned the violence, saying Sunday that police were investigating "a series of incidents stemming from clashing protests on Thursday that began when a group of anti-Israel protesters surrounded the Chabad Lubavitch World Headquarters, a Jewish house of worship in Brooklyn."
He added that police had spoken to a different woman on the pro-Palestinian side of the protest who suffered injuries after being harassed by counterprotesters. Photos shared online showed the woman with blood streaming down her face.
"Let me be clear: None of this is acceptable; in fact, it is despicable," Adams added. "New York City will always be a place where people can peacefully protest, but we will not tolerate violence, trespassing, menacing, or threatening."
The protest was one of several in recent days against Ben-Gvir, an ultranationalist settler leader who is embarking on his first US state visit since joining Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's cabinet three years ago. Previously convicted in Israel of racist incitement and support for a terrorist group, he has called on his supporters to confront Palestinians and assert "Jewish Power."
The incident recalls the 1991 Crown Heights riot, underscoring the ongoing tensions in the area.
A Chabad Lubavitch spokesman, Rabbi Motti Seligson, denounced both the anti-Ben-Gvir protesters and the mob that chased the woman.
"The violent provocateurs who called for the genocide of Jews in support of terrorists and terrorism, outside a synagogue, in a Jewish neighborhood, where some of the worst antisemitic violence in American history was perpetrated, and where many residents share deep bonds with the victims of October 7, did so in order to intimidate, provoke, and instill fear," Seligson said.
"We condemn the crude language and violence of the small breakaway group of young people; such actions are entirely unacceptable and wholly antithetical to the Torah's values. The fact that a possibly uninvolved bystander got pulled into the melee further underscores the point," he said.
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