New York (AP) – A woman from Brooklyn said that she feared for her life when she had been hunted, launched, spitting and trampled on objects by a host of Orthodox Jewish men who confused her as a participant during a demonstration against the Minister of Security of Israel.
The assault, Recorded by a passer -by, Reveals Thursday near the world headquarters of the Chabad-Lubavitch movement in Crown Heights, where a The appearance of Itamar Ben-Gvir has triggered clashes Between pro-Palestinian activists and members of the large Orthodox Jewish community in the neighborhood.
The woman, a district residing in the thirties, told the Associated Press that she had learned the demonstration after hearing police helicopters above her apartment. She approached investigating around 10:30 p.m., but at that time, the demonstration had mainly disabled. Not wanting to be filmed, she covered her face with a scarf.
“As soon as I went up my scarf, a group of 100 men came immediately and surrounded me,” said the woman, who spoke after the cover of anonymity because she feared for her safety.
'I had nowhere where to go'
“They shouted on me, threatening to rape me, singing” death to the Arabs “. I thought the police would protect me from the crowd, but they did nothing to intervene, “she said.
While the songs grew in intensity, a lonely police officer tried to escort him safely. They were followed for blocks by hundreds of men and boys who laugh at Hebrew and English.
The video shows two of the men who give him a kick in the back, another throwing a circulation cone in his head and a fourth pushing a trash in her.
“It's America”, can be heard one of the men. “We had Israel. We now have an army. ”
At one point, she and the policeman were almost cornered against a building, shows the video.
“I felt pure terror,” recalls the woman. “I realized at that time that I could not direct this crowd of men at home. I had nowhere to go. I didn't know what to do. I was just terrified. “
After several house pâtés, the officer shaken up the woman in a police vehicle, which prompted a man to shout: “Provide her!” The crowd broke out in applause when it was hunted.
The woman, a New Yorker for life, said that she had been left with bruises and mentally shaken by the episode, which she declared that the police should investigate as an act of hatred.
“I'm afraid of moving around the neighborhood where I live a decade,” she said at the AP. “It only seems anyone in any power positions really cares.”
Police investigating
A police spokesman said that a person had been arrested and that five other people were issued as a result of the demonstration, but had not said whether a person involved in the woman's assault had been charged.
Mayor Eric Adams said on Sunday that the police were investigating “a series of incidents resulting from demonstrations facing Thursday who began when a group of anti -Israeli demonstrators surrounded the world seat of Chabad Lubavitch – a Jewish worship – in Brooklyn.”
He said the police had spoken to another woman on the pro-Palestinian side of the demonstration that suffered injuries after being harassed by counter-demonstrators. Shared online photos have shown this woman with blood flowing on her face.
“Let me be clear: none of this is acceptable, in fact, it is despicable,” added Adams. “New York City will always be a place where people can protest peacefully, but we will not tolerate violence, intrusion, threatening or threats.”
The protest was One of the many recent days Against Ben-Girvir, a leader in ultra-nationalist settlers who embarked on his first American state visit since he joined the Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu Cabinet three years ago.
Previously condemned in Israel of racist incentive and support for a terrorist group, he has called his supporters Face the Palestinians and affirm the “Jewish power”.
The protest against the appearance of Ben-Gvir in Brooklyn generated convictions from certain Jewish groups, which accused participants to target a religious site.
Chabad-Lubavitch denounces the incident
The district around the Chabad headquarters was also the site of the 1991 Crown Heights riot, in which black residents scandalized by the death of a boy in an accident involving a procession-rabbi attacked Jews, houses and businesses for three days.
A spokesperson for Chabad-Loubavitch, the Rabbi Motti Seligson, denounced both the anti-Ben-Gvir demonstrators and the crowd that hunted the woman.
“The violent provocatives who called on the genocide of the Jews to support terrorists and terrorism – apart from a synagogue, in a Jewish district, where some of the worst anti -Semitic violence in American history have been perpetrated, and where many residents share deep ties with the victims of Oct 7
“We condemn the coarse language and violence of the small group of young people in shine; Such actions are fully unacceptable and completely antithetical to the values of the Torah. The fact that a perhaps not involved passer-by has been trained in the fray still highlights the point, “he said.
