A woman from Brooklyn said that she feared for her life when she had been driven, kicked out, spat and trampled on objects by a crowd of Orthodox Jewish men who confused her as a participant in a protest against the Minister of Security of the Far Right of Israel.
The assault, recorded by a spectator, took place Thursday near the world headquarters of the Chabad Lubavitch movement in Crown Heights, where an appearance of Itamar Ben-Gvir triggered clashes between pro-Palestinian activists and members of the large Jewish community Orthodox 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 was mainly dispersed. 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.
“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 his back, another throwing a circulation cone on her 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 it!” 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.”
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.
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 headquarters of the world 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 demonstration was one of the several days against Ben-Girvir, a leader of the ultra-nationalist settlers who embarked on his first American state visit since he joined the cabinet of the Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, three years ago.
Previously condemned in Israel of racist incentive and support for a terrorist group, he called on his supporters to face the Palestinians and to affirm the “Jewish power”.
A spokesperson for Chabad-Loubavitch, the Rabbi Motti Seligson, denounced both the anti-Ben-Gvir demonstrators and the crowd that hunted the woman.
