A group of men who allegedly assaulted a young couple in Brooklyn last month in what police are investigating as an anti-Palestinian hate crime still have not been identified. Photo courtesy of NYPD
Nov. 17 (UPI) — A group of men who allegedly assaulted a young couple in Brooklyn last month in what police are investigating as an anti-Palestinian hate crime still have not been identified.
The NYPD is seeking the public’s assistance in identifying a group of at least four seemingly Jewish men who were filmed making anti-Palestinian remarks in a verbal dispute with the young couple that led to the victims being physically assaulted.
The dispute occurred on Oct. 25, minutes before midnight, on the Flatbush Avenue Extension between Tech Place and Myrtle Avenue in downtown Brooklyn. During the dispute, one of the suspects reportedly shouted “F— Palestine.”
Police said that at least one person in the group then punched the 31-year-old male victim and 32-year-old female victim in their faces before fleeing the scene.
The young woman suffered a serious eye injury, and the man suffered a cut to his face. Both victims were transported by ambulance to New York-Presbyterian Brooklyn Methodist Hospital to be treated for their injuries.
Hate crimes and incidents of Islamophobia against Arab and Muslim populations in the United States have exploded in the past year since Israel began its war against Gaza and Lebanon.
The Council on American-Islamic Relations, a nonprofit civil rights group, tracked 4,951 incidents nationwide from January to June 2024, a 69% increase over the same period in 2023.
Meanwhile, in New Jersey, activists with a group organizing under the name Palestine Solidarity said in an emailed news release that one of its pro-Palestine protesters was allegedly “clubbed with a flashlight.”
The group had gathered outside of an event marketing homes for sale by the firm My Israel Home, which promotes the sale of properties in the illegal Givat HaMatos settlement in occupied East Jerusalem when a group of men allegedly attacked the victim.
“One attacker with a black leather jacket and ski mask pepper-sprayed me,” the victim said in a statement provided by the activist group.
“As my vision was already impaired, the other attackers shone a flashlight in my eyes, attempted to tackle me down a hill, and struck me in the head with a flashlight, resulting in blunt force trauma to the right side of my head.”
The group alleged that police in the city of West Orange then intervened, and the victim was advised to seek medical attention. Paramedics who responded recommended that the victim get stitches at the local hospital.
Last month, CAIR said it welcomed an indictment against a Manhattan woman on hate crime charges for allegedly pepper spraying a Muslim Uber driver in July.