2025 pro-Israel mob attack in Brooklyn

On April 24, 2025, a mob of pro-Israel Orthodox Jewish men and boys attacked pro-Palestinian protesters and chased and assaulted two women during a visit of Israel's Minister of National Security Itamar Ben-Gvir to the Chabad-Lubavitch World Headquarters in Crown Heights, Brooklyn.^[1][2][3][4] One of the victims was an anti-Zionist Jewish woman that grew up attending Chabad, who was attacked and had blood streaming down her face.^[5][4] Another was an uninvolved woman that the mob mistakenly identified with the pro-Palestine demonstrators to whom the mob made rape threats and chanted the racist epithet māwet lā-Arāvīm (Hebrew: מוות לערבים, 'Death to Arabs').^[4][6][1]

Background

On April 23, 2025, protests arose against the far-right Israeli security minister Itamar Ben Gvir as he exited an event near Yale. He has been accused of war crimes in respect to civilian deaths during Israel's invasion of Gaza. Ben Gvir has at least 8 convictions including supporting a terrorist organization and incitement to racism.^[7]

On Thursday 2025 at 22:30, near the global headquarters of the Chabad Lubavitch Movement, a Hasidic Jewish dynasty located in Brooklyn's Crown Heights neighborhood, pro-Palestine and pro-Israel protestors clashed upon the appearance of Ben Gvir.^[8]

Incident

One of the victims was an anti-Zionist Jewish woman that grew up attending Chabad, who was attacked and had blood streaming down her face.^[5][4] Another was an uninvolved woman that the mob mistakenly identified with the pro-Palestine demonstrators.^[1]

On April 24, 2025 at 10:30pm, the uninvolved woman walked to the street to investigate the activity. By then, the protests were mostly dispersed. Upon being mistook for a protestor, the pro-Israel mob chased, kicked, spit on and threw objects at the woman unprovoked. Wanting to avoid being filmed without consent, she covered her face with a scarf, which exacerbated the aggressiveness of the mob. The men were also reported to have chanted rape threats and "Death to Arabs".^[9][1]

She was eventually escorted by a lone New York Police Department officer to safety. After moving several blocks, the officer placed the woman into a police vehicle, prompting one of the rioters to shout: “Get her!” Believing that the woman was being arrested, the rioters cheered as she was driven away.^[9][1]

Statement from victim uninvolved with the protests

The victim that the mob mistakenly assumed to have been affiliated with the pro-Palestine protesters described the event as follows:

A group of at least 100 Orthodox Jewish men encircled me. They threatened me with rape and hurled vile insults like, ‘you are a waste of semen’ and ‘you are failed abortion.’ I moved closer to the long line of police officers standing nearby, but they did nothing to intervene or protect me.

Spencer Ackerman likened the victim's statement to testimonies of Palestinians living under Israeli occupation.^[10]

Lawsuit against NYPD

In July 2025, one of the victims began proceedings to file a $1.25 million lawsuit against the NYPD. Her claim alleges that the NYPD did not sufficiently protect her from the mob because they mistakenly thought she was a pro-Palestine protester. The claim accuses the NYPD of violating her freedom of speech due to "disparate treatment of protesters in New York City based on their point of view". According to the victim, the NYPD has not made any arrests.^[11][12][13]

Responses

• A Chabad-Lubavitch spokesman, Rabbi Motti Seligson, denounced the mob, but also the anti-Ben Gvir protesters. He responded by saying: "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."^[9]
• Nerdeen Kiswani of Within Our Lifetime said that "the NYPD allowed the violence to unfold, even escalating it by siding with the attackers." She added that "the assault was not just 'harassment'" but that "it was a brutal and coordinated attack against anyone opposing genocide."^[14]
• Mayor Eric Adams responded by saying that the police are investigating "a series of incidents stemming from clashing protests". He also stated: "New York City will always be a place where people can peacefully protest, but we will not tolerate violence, trespassing, menacing, or threatening."^[9]
• CAIR-NY Executive Director Afaf Nasher, Esq condemned the violence, and called for the police to investigate the incident as a hate crime.^[15]
• World Socialist Web Site condemned the rioters, describing them as "Zionist-fascist thugs". They also criticized the police for their failure to prosecute any of the participants of the violence.^[16]
• Representatives Elise Stefanik and Mike Lawler condemned the incident as antisemitic.^[17]
• Mondoweiss, a progressive Jewish news site, compared the mob attack to intimidation tactics used by the Ku Klux Klan.^[18]

See also

• Racism in Israel
• April 2025 Brooklyn clashes