New York police were searching on Friday for the subjects who attacked a Jewish man the day before as clashes between pro-Israel and pro-Palestinians were taking place in Times Square, as anti-Semitic acts in the United States increased due to the conflict in the Middle East.
According to a police spokeswoman, the attack occurred around 6:30 p.m. (10:30 p.m. GMT). “Five or six men,” he detailed, beat and pepper-sprayed a 29-year-old man while hurling anti-Semitic insults at him. The images were published by the New York Post newspaper.
The police unit in charge of so-called hate crimes launched a call for witnesses on Twitter on Thursday night.
The victim was hospitalized in “stable” condition, police said, without specifying his identity.
A 23-year-old man, identified as Waseem Awawdeh, suspected of participating in the assault by hitting the man with a crutch, was arrested and charged with hate-motivated assault and gang assault, police said.
The others were still wanted on Friday, he added.
The aggression occurred in the context of clashes between protesters sympathetic to Israel and the Palestinians, who met shortly after the announcement of a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas after 11 days of hostilities.
– An injured woman –
A woman was burned when unidentified people threw fireworks at passersby, according to the police force, which is also investigating this case, which they consider a possible “hate crime.”
During this demonstration, 26 people were arrested, according to the spokeswoman. Several videos that circulated showed skirmishes and the exploding of fireworks rockets.
“Anti-Semitism has no place in our city” and “the perpetrators of this heinous act will be prosecuted,” Bill de Blasio, mayor of the US metropolis, which has the largest Jewish community outside of Israel, tweeted on Friday.
According to De Blasio, since the beginning of the current conflict between Israel and Hamas, the police reinforced security measures in “sensitive areas” for the Jewish and Palestinian communities in the city.
New York State Governor Andrew Cuomo said in a statement that he would not tolerate “harassment or intimidation by violent and anti-Semitic gangs.” And he asked the state’s hate crimes unit to help the NYPD.
Meanwhile, the influential young congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who on Saturday denounced Israel’s “apartheid” policy toward the Palestinians, noted on Twitter: “There is no room for anti-Semitism in the Palestinian liberation movement. Our criticisms point to Israel and its human rights violations. This is not an excuse for anti-Semitic crimes. “
The anti-Semitism and racism organization ADL has seen “a dangerous and drastic increase in anti-Semitism” in the United States in the last ten days, its director, Jonathan Greenblatt, told CNN.
Greenblatt described “acts of harassment, vandalism of Jewish homes and synagogues” across the country.
While the media reported in particular on an assault Tuesday against Jews sitting on the terrace of a restaurant in Los Angeles, it claimed that other attacks had taken place in New York, Florida, Illinois and California.
The ADL director also reported a “disturbing” increase in anti-Semitic messages on social media.
Several protests, mostly without incident, have taken place in New York and other cities around the world since the beginning of the conflict.
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