On April 24, 2025, a mob of pro-Israel Orthodox Jewish men and boys attacked pro-Palestinian protesters and chased and assaulted two women during a visit of Israel's Minister of National Security Itamar Ben-Gvir to the Chabad-Lubavitch World Headquarters in Crown Heights, Brooklyn. [1] [2] [3] [4] One of the victims was an anti-Zionist Jewish woman that grew up attending Chabad, who was attacked and had blood streaming down her face. [5] [4] Another was an uninvolved woman that the mob mistakenly identified with the pro-Palestine demonstrators to whom the mob made rape threats and chanted the racist epithet māwet lā-Arāvīm (Hebrew : מוות לערבים, 'Death to Arabs'). [4] [6] [1]
On April 23, 2025, protests arose against the far-right Israeli security minister Itamar Ben Gvir as he exited an event near Yale. He has been accused of war crimes in respect to civilian deaths during Israel's invasion of Gaza. Ben Gvir has at least 8 convictions including supporting a terrorist organization and incitement to racism. [7]
On Thursday 2025 at 22:30, near the global headquarters of the Chabad Lubavitch Movement, a Hasidic Jewish dynasty located in Brooklyn's Crown Heights neighborhood, pro-Palestine and pro-Israel protestors clashed upon the appearance of Ben Gvir. [8]
One of the victims was an anti-Zionist Jewish woman that grew up attending Chabad, who was attacked and had blood streaming down her face. [5] [4] Another was an uninvolved woman that the mob mistakenly identified with the pro-Palestine demonstrators. [1]
On April 24, 2025 at 10:30pm, the uninvolved woman walked to the street to investigate the activity. By then, the protests were mostly dispersed. Upon being mistook for a protestor, the pro-Israel mob chased, kicked, spit on and threw objects at the woman unprovoked. Wanting to avoid being filmed without consent, she covered her face with a scarf, which exacerbated the aggressiveness of the mob. The men were also reported to have chanted rape threats and "Death to Arabs". [9] [1]
She was eventually escorted by a lone New York Police Department officer to safety. After moving several blocks, the officer placed the woman into a police vehicle, prompting one of the rioters to shout: “Get her!” Believing that the woman was being arrested, the rioters cheered as she was driven away. [9] [1]
The victim that the mob mistakenly assumed to have been affiliated with the pro-Palestine protesters described the event as follows:
A group of at least 100 Orthodox Jewish men encircled me. They threatened me with rape and hurled vile insults like, ‘you are a waste of semen’ and ‘you are failed abortion.’ I moved closer to the long line of police officers standing nearby, but they did nothing to intervene or protect me.
Spencer Ackerman likened the victim's statement to testimonies of Palestinians living under Israeli occupation. [10]
In July 2025, one of the victims began proceedings to file a $1.25 million lawsuit against the NYPD. Her claim alleges that the NYPD did not sufficiently protect her from the mob because they mistakenly thought she was a pro-Palestine protester. The claim accuses the NYPD of violating her freedom of speech due to "disparate treatment of protesters in New York City based on their point of view". According to the victim, the NYPD has not made any arrests. [11] [12] [13]