DOJ calls for action after protest at Brooklyn shul

Four people were arrested Monday night during an anti-Israel protest outside the Young Israel of Midwood, where demonstrators gathered against an Israeli real estate event.

Police said officers responded to a scheduled demonstration outside 1694 Ocean Ave., between avenue L and M. NYPD told JNS that arrests were made after clashes between protesters and pro-Israel counterprotesters, and that those taken into custody had thrown objects during the confrontation.

The protest was organized by PAL-AWDA (Al-Awda, Palestine Right to Return Coalition), the same group behind a May 5 demonstration outside Manhattan’s Park East Synagogue that left one police officer injured and hospitalized, according to JNS.

The Brooklyn protest targeted “The Great Israeli Real Estate Event,” which featured properties in throughout Israel with some located in Jewish communities in Judea and Samaria. Protest organizers accused the event of promoting the sale of “stolen Palestinian land.”

“We’re here to say that events that are in direct violation of international law, New York civil rights law, federal anti-discrimination law will not be allowed in our neighborhoods,” a spokesperson for the group said during the protest.

Ahead of the demonstration, New York City Councilwoman Inna Vernikov and Assemblyman Kalman Yeger said in a joint statement that NYPD had assured them protesters would be required to remain across the street from the synagogue and that enough officers would be present to keep constituents safe and ensure safe passage.

“Our staff are currently on site and confirm there are barricades set up and several hundred police officers present,” they wrote, posting photos of police setting up barricades.

The event prompted criticism from Leo Terrell, chair of the US Justice Department’s task force on Jew-hatred, who called on Mayor Zohran Mamdani and the Brooklyn district attorney’s office to act.

“Let me be clear, I am sick and tired of Jews being harassed in New York City,” Terrell said. “Did you see what happened in Brooklyn? Where is the mayor? Where is the district attorney? Where are the hate crime charges?”

“Jewish Americans are allowed the religious freedoms given by this country,” he said. “Jewish Americans are not being protected in New York City.”

Terrell called the protest “outrageous” and “insulting.”

“Mayor, district attorney, do your job,” he said. “Protect Jewish Americans now.”

Brooke Goldstein, founder of EndJewHatred, said protesters marched through a heavily Jewish neighborhood toward a Jewish house of worship.

“Jew-haters marched towards a Jewish house of worship, through a heavily Jewish neighborhood, past Jewish homes, Jewish families, Jewish businesses and Jewish communal spaces, chanting for ‘intifada,’ waving a Hezbollah flag and screaming abuse at Jews in the street,” Goldstein said.

“New York’s leaders, especially Zohran Mamdani, must stop pretending this is normal protest activity,” she said. “Mr. Mayor, you are on notice. The inevitable violence this will lead to falls squarely on your shoulders. You must act to stop this now.”

Moshe Spern, president of United Jewish Teachers, also criticized the protest, saying demonstrators “burned Israeli flags, chanted ‘Jews go back to Germany’ and sparked near-fights.”

“This is antisemitism in NYC streets, not protected protest,” Spern wrote. “Jewish New Yorkers can’t walk in their community safely. Enough. Where’s the real accountability?”

PAL-AWDA has organized several anti-Israel protests in New York City, including the May 5 protest outside Park East Synagogue.

The group is scheduled to protest again on Saturday, at 72nd Street and Fifth Avenue in Bay Ridge, where it said it would demonstrate “to dismantle the genocidal Zionist entity.” Bay Ridge has a large population that identifies as Arab, Muslem and Palestinian.