Antisemitic, pro-Palestinian mobs have been targeting synagogues in New York City over the past several days over appearances by far-right Israeli politician Itamar Ben Gvir, Israel’s national security minister.
On Thursday, April 24, Ben Gvir visited the headquarters of the Chabad Lubavitch movement of religious Jews, a site that is venerated as holy by many Jews. Protesters arrived and there were clashes. Two pro-Palestinian demonstrators were allegedly assaulted by counter-protesters who shouted anti-Arab slogans.
The New York Times reported:
On Thursday night, pro-Palestinian demonstrators gathered outside Chabad Lubavitch World Headquarters on Eastern Parkway in Crown Heights, Brooklyn, where the official, Itamar Ben-Gvir, the Israeli security minister, 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.
…
Several days of demonstrations 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.
In the days since, other pro-Palestinian protests have targeted synagogues where Ben Gvir was due to speak.
New York City Mayor Eric Adams criticized the protests and condemned the violence, calling it “despicable”:
Hate has no place in New York City. pic.twitter.com/8wlliBFjMx
— Mayor Eric Adams (@NYCMayor) April 27, 2025
Israeli government spokesman David Mencer commented on the violence and antisemitism, telling reporters on Monday: “I would simply say to you that it is a case of Holocaust inversion — putting the crimes which the Jewish people have faces, specifically in the Second World War and also by Hamas in Gaza, and inverting them, and saying that Israel is committing those crimes.
“There is never an excuse for antisemitism,” he added.
Mencer also addressed a hearing by the International Court of Justice (ICJ) on Monday on Israel’s obligation to provide aid to the Gaza Strip. Israel is currently preventing aid trucks from entering, arguing that Hamas is diverting aid for its own purposes while starving its remaining Israeli hostages.
Mencer noted that Israel was acting in accord with international law, and specifically cited Article 23 of the Fourth Geneva Convention, which states that no country is required to provide aid to the civilians of another country that is a party to the convention if that aid would be diverted for military purposes.
Hamas is not a party to the convention, and defies international law, though the obligations of the convention are widely considered “customary” international law and are generally seen as binding on all parties to armed conflict, including non-states.
Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). He is the author of The Agenda: What Trump Should Do in His First 100 Days, available for pre-order on Amazon. He is also the author of The Trumpian Virtues: The Lessons and Legacy of Donald Trump’s Presidency, now available on Audible. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.
