Protesters bearing Hezbollah flag scuffle with NYPD while marching on synagogue

Demonstration against Israel real estate event draws hundreds, who chant ‘Death to the IDF’ and ‘End the settler Zionist state’

NEW YORK — Anti-Zionist protesters scuffled with police, chanted for Israel’s destruction and expressed support for terrorist groups at a demonstration in New York City on Tuesday.

The protesters said they were targeting an event marketing real estate in Israel held at the Park East Synagogue on the Upper East Side of Manhattan.

Synagogues rent out space to the real estate groups, which also market apartments in West Bank settlement blocs, drawing protests that tend to be especially vitriolic.

The hardline Pal-Awda activist group organized Tuesday’s protest and has led other demonstrations against synagogues in the region.

Around 100 demonstrators gathered on Lexington Avenue, and several hundred on 3rd Avenue, next to Hunter College, putting the crowds on both sides of the synagogue.

They chanted, “We don’t want no two states, we want all of it,” “End the settler Zionist state,” “Death to the IDF,” and, “There is only one solution, intifada revolution.”

They also chanted, in Arabic, “From the water to the water, Palestine is Arab,” to the beat of a drum.

One of the protesters used her fist to beat on an image of the Chabad Hasidic movement’s late spiritual leader Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson, which was affixed to a crossing signal. Several held up their hands to form an inverted triangle, a symbol associated with Hamas.

A group of several dozen counter-demonstrators gathered across the street, holding signs that said, “Antizionism is a hate movement,” and, “Antizionism gets Jews killed.” The signs reflected a growing trend in the US Jewish community that brands anti-Zionism as an expression of anti-Jewish hatred itself.

The counter-protesters chanted, “USA,” and sang Israel’s anthem, “Hatikvah,” or “The Hope.” One wore a shirt for the extremist Jewish Defense League.

The anti-Zionist protesters berated the counter-protesters as “Nazis,” “pedophiles,” and “baby killers,” and told them, “Go kill yourself.” The pro-Israel demonstrators called their opponents “terrorists.”

Pal-Awda led a protest against an Israel immigration event at Park East Synagogue late last year, when they were allowed to gather next to the entrance, and close enough to counter-demonstrators that the two sides were able to throw objects such as coffee cups at each other.

Police officials have acknowledged mistakes in handling that demonstration, and at Tuesday’s rally, NYPD officers kept the protesters inside a barricade, around half a block away from the synagogue entrance, and across the street from counter-demonstrators.

Dozens of officers were at the scene and the streets surrounding the synagogue were closed to traffic. The police response earned praise from the Jewish Community Relations Council of New York.

After two hours, the protesters began roaming around the area of the synagogue, with organizers marshaling the participants to “close gaps” and remain as a tight group.

The crowd scuffled with police as they attempted to approach the synagogue, trying to pass through metal barricades manned by officers on Third Avenue.

The protesters, flying a Hezbollah flag overhead, berated the police, calling them “pedophile protectors” and “pieces of shit.” One of the protesters on the barricade wore a yellow bucket hat that said “Hezbollah” in blue lettering.

The officers included members of the Strategic Response Group, an NYPD unit that New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani has vowed to disband.

The demonstrators moved on, attempting to get ahead of police to approach the synagogue. At one point, officers closed the exit to a playground the protesters had entered to keep them away, and kept them inside the playground.

The protest last year at Park East Synagogue, and another at a Queens Synagogue, led the New York City Council to introduce legislation requiring the police to formulate and publicize plans to handle protests at houses of worship.

That legislation passed late last month, but police are not yet required to take new measures.