Israeli lawmaker Simcha Rothman seizes megaphone from protester in New York

New York police announced on Saturday that they had dismissed a complaint filed the day before by a protester who had harassed Israeli lawmaker Simcha Rothman in the street, a lawmaker who then seized the woman’s megaphone, according to Haaretz.

The incident took place on Madison Avenue. The 33-year-old claimed that Simcha Rothman grabbed the megaphone, which was around her neck, and acted violently. However, no visible injuries were found.

Left-wing activists “accompanied” Congressman Rothman on his way to his hotel in Manhattan, where he was staying ahead of the “Celebrate Israel” parade scheduled for Sunday.

Deputy Rothman recounted the incident from his perspective on social media: “A small group of violent protesters attacked my wife and I while we were walking in New York City late at night. They attacked me. blocked the way, stepped on my wife, Chana’s foot, and swore, including death threats. My security guards called the police, explained where we were, and we continued walking ignoring the demonstrators”.

Regarding the incident with the megaphone, he added: “At some point the protesters realized that they weren’t bothering us, then they put their megaphone to our ears (which constitutes an assault) and shouted. The guards and I told them over and over again to stop and walk away, but they kept going.”

“No police will prevent us from using our freedom of expression”

After the warnings, Rothman said: “I took the megaphone the protester had put in my ear, without touching her, of course. After about half a block, we reached a place where we We could wait for the police. They accompanied me to the hotel and the incident was over”.

After the scene, Shany Granot-Lubaton, New York protests manager, said, “Manhattan is not Hadera. Here we are in a democracy, and we can tell him what we want face to face. No police will prevent us from using our freedom of expression”.