Dozens of pro-Palestinian demonstrators clashed on Sunday with the police and counterprotesters near a synagogue in Brooklyn, where a far-right Israeli national security minister had been expected to speak, according to the police and video footage of the protest.
It erupted in front of the Edmond J. Safra Synagogue in the neighborhood of Gravesend on Sunday morning, according to the police and video footage. That synagogue is across the street from Congregation Shaare Zion, the synagogue where the security minister, Itamar Ben-Gvir, was expected to speak, according to members of both synagogues. His talk, which was scheduled for around 9:30 a.m., was canceled, the members said.
As word of the protest spread, supporters of Israel from the neighborhood flocked to the area. At least six people were taken into custody, the police said. Whether they were pro-Palestinan or pro-Israel demonstrators was unclear.
Several days of demonstrations had preceded the visit of Mr. Ben-Gvir, whose appearances brought pro-Palestinian and pro-Israel groups face-to-face in heated exchanges and troubling episodes — some of them in Brooklyn neighborhoods with large Orthodox Jewish populations.
On Thursday, pro-Palestinian demonstrators gathered outside Chabad Lubavitch World Headquarters on Eastern Parkway in Crown Heights, Brooklyn, where Mr. Ben-Gvir was to speak. The headquarters is an important religious site in the Hasidic community, and intense clashes erupted between protesters and counterprotesters outside, videos posted on social media by members of both sides show.
At one point, hundreds of men and boys, most of them Jewish, surrounded a woman, according to videos of the episode. It was unclear what prompted them to close in around her or whether she was even involved in the protests.
But the crowd began to chant “death to Arabs” in Hebrew and followed the woman and the police officer who was escorting her to safety, the video shows. Many also shouted racist and sexist profanities as others shoved her. At least one hurled an orange construction cone at the woman’s head before the officer was able to put her in a police vehicle, the footage shows.
Edward Ahmed Mitchell, the deputy director of the national Council on American-Islamic Relations, deplored the incident in a statement.
“We strongly condemn the violent mob of pro-Israel racists who chased and attacked a woman down a New York City street,” Mr. Mitchell said.
Six people at the protest were taken into custody on Thursday night, the police said. It was unclear if they were pro-Palestinian demonstrators, Israel supporters or both, and whether any of them were connected to the crowd that followed the woman. The police are investigating a report of assault involving the woman, a Police Department spokesman said.
Of the six people arrested, five were issued court summonses and released, and one, Oscar Vidal, 28, of New Jersey, was charged with assault, harassment and criminal mischief, the police said.
The visit by Mr. Ben-Gvir marks his first official trip to the United States since March when he rejoined the government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel.
He has been considered a political extremist in Israel for decades. Because of his far-right views, he was barred as a teenager from serving in the Israeli army, a rare occurrence in a country where military service is mandatory. In his home, Mr. Ben-Gvir had kept a portrait of a man who had fatally shot 29 Palestinians in 1994 at a mosque in the West Bank.
On Wednesday, Mr. Ben-Gvir appeared in New Haven, Conn., at Shabtai, a private Jewish discussion society that is based at Yale University but not affiliated with the school. Hundreds of demonstrators gathered outside and, as Mr. Ben-Gvir left, some threw water bottles at him while others waved Israeli and Palestinian flags.
On Thursday, Representative Jerrold Nadler, Democrat of New York and the longest-serving Jewish member of the House, appeared outside a restaurant in Manhattan where Mr. Ben-Gvir was speaking. Mr. Nadler was joined by several rabbis and Brad Lander, the city comptroller and a mayoral candidate, who announced that he would introduce legislation designed to impose economic sanctions on Israeli settlers who commit violence in the West Bank.
In an interview on Sunday, Mr. Nadler said the protests were important, even if they have little effect on Mr. Ben-Gvir himself.
“It’s the message everyone else should take that we don’t support this,” Mr. Nadler said. “Whatever he may say, there are major Jewish groups who are opposed to this, who support a democratic, peaceful Israel and are opposed to the kind of racism and violence that he represents.”
On Sunday, by 1 p.m., the protest outside Edmond J. Safra Synagogue on Ocean Parkway had ended and the police barricades on the block had been removed. A woman carrying a pro-Palestinian sign walked her bicycle along the thoroughfare, away from the house of worship. A man wearing a yarmulke told her to keep moving.
Stephanie Benshimol, 45, an American Israeli woman, had heard about the demonstration and arrived on the block to confront the pro-Palestinian activists. She was wearing a blue denim jacket with the words “free the hostages” and a “Trump” pin on her lapel, and she had pepper spray tucked inside her pocket.
At one point she was caught in the fray and injured her left knee. “I’m fine,” she said, “but it’s just the point that you don’t go to any house or worship in America to protest — not a house of worship.”
Nicholas Fandos contributed reporting.
Chelsia Rose Marcius is a criminal justice reporter for The Times, covering the New York Police Department.
The post Protests Against Israeli Official Heat Up Outside Synagogue in Brooklyn appeared first on New York Times.
