Fists clash as unruly anti-Israel protesters clash with New York police

From “catastrophe” to chaos, the latest clash between anti-Israel activists and police saw fists flying in the streets of Brooklyn.

Another “avalanche” of terrorist sympathizers hit the streets of Bay Ridge, Brooklyn on Saturday roughly six months after thousands shut down Fifth Avenue with claims that “resistance is justified when people are busy.”

The latest illegal gathering that saw protesters ignore orders from the New York Police Department to stay off the streets included more than two dozen arrests, according to CBS News, as well as documented use of force of several boys in blue.

video shared On social media, anti-Israel protesters marched north on Third Avenue to Ovington Ave. with banners, including one that read “Resisting the Nakba since 1948”.

As officers moved to force the protesters off the street, a kefiyeh-clad drummer appeared to run at a helmeted policeman, prompting other officers to close ranks, bringing the individual to the ground where he and another were beaten before being restrained by the police.

The videographer who captured the moment told X: “The NYPD is seen knocking this protester to the ground by punching him in the chest with his hand on his neck. They never resisted once. They also had bloody heads when they they moved to the police van. All for walking down the street. One of the many brutal arrests in today's protest in Brooklyn.”

Saturday's demonstrations were planned in part by Within Our Lifetime-United for Palestine (WOL), the same group associated with a number of anti-Israel actions in the city, including the “Flood Brooklyn for Palestine” protests a couple of weeks after the October 7 terrorist attack in Israel that saw the neighborhood, which many have dubbed Beirut, locked down.

Using language similar to that protest, Saturday's “resistance” was billed as a commemoration of 76 years since the Nakba, the Arabic term for the official establishment of the state of Israel that translates as ” catastrophe”.

Attendees were told to meet at 69th St. and Fifth Ave, just steps from the local mosque, the Islamic Society of Bay Ridge.

FLOODING BROOKLYN DUE TO GAZA
NAKBA 76 AT BAY RIDGE

Resisting the Nakba since 1948
️ Saturday 18 May
⏰ 2 in the afternoon
Bay Ridge Ave and 5th Ave in Bay Ridge
Take the R train pic.twitter.com/l6LKF2oXf1

— Inside our life (@WOLPalestine) May 16, 2024

While some on social media defended the NYPD, arguing that the videos circulating of officers using force against protesters lacked context, WOL leader Nerdeen Kiswani claimed to have witnessed the incident and wrote to X: “You don't have the context. because you weren't there. Yet you were.

“They're two different people,” he argued, trying to refute another user's juxtaposition of a separate angle of the incident. “And the person with the 'stick' is actually a drummer you moron. But go with your arrows lol. Are you the NYPD video editor? They put out fake trash content in a similar way.”

It is worth noting, Kiswani had previously been called out by police for peddling claims that her hijab had been rigged during an April arrest in Manhattan, a point easily refuted by the NYPD who shared body camera footage of the incident in question where an officer did all the possible to fix the piece with respect for the activist.

That said, an NYPD spokesperson had informed the Daily News that they were “looking into” the video in question.

Staff writer

A native of Brooklyn, NY, Kevin Haggerty is a graduate of Hunter College, where he studied Cultural Anthropology and Geography. An avid reader and seeker of truth, he currently resides in Texas with his wife and dog, and when he's not researching current events and their impacts, you'll find him spending time with friends and family or working on his next novel ·the.

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