{"id":632774,"date":"2026-10-01T03:42:10","date_gmt":"2026-10-01T03:42:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/632774\/"},"modified":"2026-10-01T03:42:10","modified_gmt":"2026-10-01T03:42:10","slug":"anti-zionist-hasidic-man-latest-ice-target-after-us-protest-arrest","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/632774\/","title":{"rendered":"Anti-Zionist Hasidic man latest ICE target after US protest arrest"},"content":{"rendered":"

Yehonatan Ovadia, an Orthodox Jew from the anti-Zionist<\/a> Satmar Hasidic sect, has joined a number of protests around New York and New Jersey against Israel.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Now, he\u2019s at risk of being deported there.<\/p>\n

Ovadia, 35, is originally from Israel and moved to the US on a temporary religious worker visa in 2022, according to the text of a lawsuit requesting Ovadia\u2019s release.<\/p>\n

His legal status in the US was revoked earlier this year in connection with a November 2023 protest that he attended during which an Israeli flag was taken down from the town hall of Ramapo, New York. Ovadia said he was there but did not tear down the flag, and hate crimes charges against him were dropped.<\/p>\n

But after a request to extend his stay in the United States was denied on the grounds of that protest, according to government documents shared with JTA, Ovadia was detained by the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency in August and remains in ICE custody in New York.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"AnAn Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agent raises a finger moments after detaining a man during an immigration raid, days after an ICE agent fatally shot Renee Nicole Good, in Minneapolis, Minnesota, U.S., January 18, 2026. (credit: REUTERS\/LEAH MILLIS\/FILE PHOTO)Trump’s crackdown on pro-Palestinian protests<\/p>\n

\u201cIn violation of our nation\u2019s laws, he overstayed his welcome and refused to depart,\u201d a spokesperson for the Department of Homeland Security told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency. \u201cHe will receive due process and remain in ICE<\/a> custody pending the outcome of his immigration proceedings.\u201d<\/p>\n

ICE\u2019s nationwide surge affected the area\u2019s Jewish community earlier this year when the agency detained Ari Ladino, a Jewish bridal shop owner in Teaneck, New Jersey, and his mother. Both are originally from Bogota, Colombia.<\/p>\n

Ovadia\u2019s arrest by ICE comes as US President Donald Trump\u2019s administration<\/a> has cracked down on pro-Palestinian activism, including with last year\u2019s high-profile detention of Mahmoud Khalil, a prominent pro-Palestinian protest leader at Columbia University. The administration has accused Khalil and other pro-Palestinian activists and campus protesters of antisemitism.<\/p>\n

Such an accusation would be particularly fraught against Ovadia, who is Jewish and holds anti-Israel views for religious reasons. Satmar Jews believe that a state of Israel cannot be established before the arrival of the Messiah.<\/p>\n

In a lawsuit filed in August requesting Ovadia\u2019s release, his lawyers argued that the Trump administration was penalizing him for protected speech motivated by religious beliefs. The government took \u201can official position,\u201d Ovadia\u2019s lawyers wrote, by preferring \u201cone religious position within Judaism and [penalizing] an adherent of another.\u201d<\/p>\n

Unlike many Satmar Jews, who oppose Israel but are not active in political pro-Palestinian<\/a> spaces, Ovadia has protested against Israel a number of times, including alongside members of the pro-Palestinian Hasidic group Neturei Karta.\u00a0<\/p>\n

His lawyer, Eric Lee, shared a statement from Ovadia on Wednesday after The New York Times broke the story of his detention: \u201cFrom the Jewish people to our Palestinian brothers and sisters in Gaza and the West Bank and all over occupied Palestine! We didn\u2019t forget from you! We are following you and we know that you are facing genocide! Please be strong and continue to believe!<\/p>\n

\u201cWe know that the Zionist criminal war machine [is] torturing you every day and they want to silence you!\u201d Ovadia said in his statement. \u201cBUT we will be your voice! We will SHOUT AND DEMONSTRATE for you from New York, Washington, Canada, London and from every place that we can be free in the world!\u201d<\/p>\n

Ovadia’s arrest\u00a0<\/p>\n

Chris Godshall-Bennet, another lawyer representing Ovadia, told JTA that the timeline on his client\u2019s possible deportation is unclear, but the government designated Israel as \u201cthe location to which they would try to deport him\u201d during a hearing on Wednesday morning.<\/p>\n

Ovadia was one of two Hasidic men arrested in 2023 after a larger group protested outside Ramapo\u2019s town hall, where an Israeli flag had been mounted a month earlier, shortly after Hamas\u2019 October 7 attacks. Surveillance footage showed at least four men removing the flag and then cutting it up with scissors, according to the US Citizenship and Immigration Service\u2019s notice of denial to Ovadia. He denied having any role in removing the Israeli flag or knowing ahead of time that his companions would do so.<\/p>\n

He was arrested and charged with criminal mischief, petit larceny, and conspiracy, all as hate crimes. The hate crime charges were dropped, and in February 2024 he pleaded guilty to disorderly conduct, according to his lawsuit, resulting in a $200 fine plus an additional $125 charge.<\/p>\n

\u201cI said, \u2018You know, I don\u2019t have power, I\u2019m out of money, I have no time, I am a teacher, I need to teach students every day,\u2019\u201d he told the Times. \u201c\u2018Let\u2019s end this with disorderly conduct.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

With his religious worker visa set to expire in November 2025, Ovadia applied for a new visa in September, sponsored by Congregation Bnai Yoel in New York\u2019s Orange County, according to a USCIS denial notice. USCIS did not deny the request for the work visa, and said that Ovadia was not found to be \u201cinadmissible\u201d for a \u201cconviction or commission of a crime involving moral turpitude.\u201d<\/p>\n

But the federal agency did not approve the request either, and denied Ovadia an \u201cextension of stay\u201d in the country \u201cas a matter of discretion,\u201d citing the 2023 protest; without an extension of stay, Ovadia had no legal status in the U.S. following his visa\u2019s November expiration.<\/p>\n

The DHS said that it is \u201ca privilege to be granted a visa or green card to live in the United States of America.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Trump Administration acted well within its statutory and constitutional authority, as it does with any alien who advocates for violence, glorifies and supports terrorists, harasses Jews, and steals property,\u201d DHS wrote.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Yehonatan Ovadia, an Orthodox Jew from the anti-Zionist Satmar Hasidic sect, has joined a number of protests around…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":632775,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[21171,1903,246221,42,8697,46,1886,43,19053,40,38,41,39,1032],"class_list":["post-632774","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-deportation","tag-diaspora","tag-hasidic","tag-headlines","tag-immigration","tag-israel","tag-new-york","tag-news","tag-pro-palestinian-protests","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories","tag-united-states"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/632774","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=632774"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/632774\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/632775"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=632774"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=632774"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=632774"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}