{"id":20436,"date":"2025-10-28T21:54:13","date_gmt":"2025-10-28T21:54:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/20436\/"},"modified":"2025-10-28T21:54:13","modified_gmt":"2025-10-28T21:54:13","slug":"jew-hater-learns-fate-for-bashing-protesters-at-nyc-israel-gaza-demonstrations","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/20436\/","title":{"rendered":"‘Jew hater’ learns fate for bashing protesters at NYC Israel-Gaza demonstrations"},"content":{"rendered":"

A self-professed \u201cJew hater\u201d responsible for a string of assaults<\/a> at Israel-Gaza protests in Manhattan said \u201cI\u2019m sorry, guys\u201d as he learned his fate Tuesday \u2014 but at least one of his victims wasn\u2019t moved by the brief apology.<\/p>\n

Tarek Bazrouk, 20, was sentenced to 17 months in prison after pleading guilty to federal hate crime charges for kicking and punching Jewish people at three demonstrations, the most recent in January.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m sorry, guys, and I hope that you forgive me for my actions,\u201d Bazrouk said, turning around at the defense table to face two of his victims in Manhattan federal court.<\/p>\n

Self-proclaimed \u201cJew hater\u201d Tarek Bazrouk, 20, who was sentenced to 17 months in prison Tuesday, said in court, \u201cI\u2019m sorry, guys\u201d when it came to the assaults he committed at the Israel-Gaza protests in Manhattan. Instagram \/ @jewhatedb<\/p>\n

\u201cI promise you, judge, that if you give me a chance you will not be disappointed,\u201d Bazrouk, a Manhattan native whose family is Palestinian, said during the statement that lasted around a minute.<\/p>\n

It did not impress one of his victims, Roman Efraimov, who was wearing an Israeli flag draped over his shoulders and a Star of David chain visible around his neck when Bazrouk punched him in the nose at a protest on 18th St. and First Avenue early this year, the feds said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t believe that he has remorse or knows the seriousness of the crime,\u201d Efraimov told Judge Richard Berman \u2014 adding that Bazrouk \u201csmirked\u201d at him while issuing his statement.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe turned around twice and smirked \u2026 I don\u2019t feel it in my gut,\u201d Efraimov told the court.<\/p>\n

Berman\u2019s sentence was below prosecutors\u2019 recommendation of at least three years behind bars but more than the 12 months in custody suggested by the probation department.<\/p>\n

People who assault Jews, or people of any other ethnicity or faith at protests because of their identity, are \u201cvery likely to go to jail,\u201d Berman said from the bench.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt works the opposite way as well,\u201d the judge said. \u201cThe rules that are applied in this case do not apply to Jews or Palestinians alone. They apply to everybody.\u201d<\/p>\n

On April 15, 2024, wearing a green headband typically worn by members of Hamas, Bazrouk kicked a separate kippah-wearing Jew, Elisha Baker, in the chest<\/a> as he stood with an Israeli flag and sang a Jewish song during a demonstration near the New York Stock Exchange, according to the feds.<\/p>\n

Baker addressed the court Tuesday, saying \u201cMy experiences as a Jew in America have been altered forever because of the actions of this man.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I looked in his eyes, I saw someone who sought to hurt me and cause me pain just because of who I am,\u201d Baker said.<\/p>\n

Bazrouk pleaded guilty to federal hate crime charges for kicking and punching Jewish people at three demonstrations. DCPI<\/p>\n

Bazrouk also punched a kippah-wearing Columbia student in the face at a separate protest on Dec. 9, 2024, after stealing an Israeli flag from the student\u2019s brother, prosecutors said.<\/p>\n

The feds had pushed for a harsh sentence for what they called Bazrouk\u2019s \u201crepeated, premeditated assaults on Jewish individuals based on their ethnicity and religion, and \u201cthe ongoing danger he poses to Jews.\u201d<\/p>\n

They cited his \u201cdeeply seeded anti-Jewish animus\u201d revealed by his text messages \u2014 including a May 2024 missive to a friend in which he wrote, \u201cI\u2019m a Jew hater,\u201d alongside a crying laughing emoji.<\/p>\n

Bazrouk also was a member of a chat group that received \u201cregular updates\u201d from Abu Obeida, a spokesperson for Hamas\u2019 deadly al-Qassam Brigades militant group, prosecutors alleged.<\/p>\n

Bazrouk\u2019s attorney, public defender Andrew Dalack, argued in vain Tuesday for the judge to release him from jail \u2014 where he has been locked up since he was busted in May \u2014 and allow him to serve the rest of his sentence under house arrest.<\/p>\n

Dalack said in court that Bazrouk was remorseful for his actions and \u201chas continued to grapple with how those terrible decisions not only affected him \u2026 but his family and his community.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bazrouk\u2019s cousin was \u201ckilled by Israeli settlers\u201d in May 2008 \u201ceven though he was not participating in any hostilities,\u201d Dalack said in court papers filed in advance of the sentence.<\/p>\n

Bazrouk pleaded guilty in June, just one month after his arrest, and appeared to express contrition in a letter sent to the court.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t want to see more attacks on Israel like the one committed by Hamas on October 7<\/a>. I don\u2019t want to see any more people in Gaza die of starvation or from bombings. What I know now that I wish I knew a year ago is this: I\u2019m certain that punching and kicking Jewish or Israeli people won\u2019t solve anything,\u201d the letter reads.<\/p>\n

Bazrouk faced his victims and pleaded forgiveness for his actions at Manhattan federal court \u2014 though at least one of his victims wasn\u2019t moved by the brief apology. DCPI<\/p>\n

\u201cIt won\u2019t make me feel better. It won\u2019t take away the pain and su\ufb00ering of Palestinians. And it certainly won\u2019t help bring Palestinians and Israelis closer together,\u201d he wrote.<\/p>\n

As Berman announced the 17-month sentence, Bazrouk, wearing a tan jail-issued jumpsuit, turned to face his relatives in the courthouse gallery, including his older sister, who started silently weeping.<\/p>\n

Efraimov told The Post after Tuesday\u2019s hearing that he felt the sentence was \u201cfair,\u201d while Baker said, \u201cI feel safer now that I know my attacker will not be roaming the streets for a considerable amount of time.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe message that the judge sent today was that if you target and assault Jews simply because they are Jewish, you will be held accountable,\u201d Baker said.<\/p>\n

Bazrouk\u2019s sister, Anwar Bazrouk, addressed the court before the sentence was handed down, saying, \u201cI want to emphasize that me and my family strongly condemn violence in all forms, and that \u201cWe are all committed to make sure that nothing like this happens again.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Anwar said she\u2019s still puzzled by her brother\u2019s hateful text messages unearthed during the investigation.<\/p>\n

\u201cI ask myself about the text messages, I ask myself where he learned to say those things about Jewish people,\u201d she said. \u201cWe come from a humble family that never taught him to say those things.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A self-professed \u201cJew hater\u201d responsible for a string of assaults at Israel-Gaza protests in Manhattan said \u201cI\u2019m sorry,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":20437,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[13798,61,277,57,9,56,63,65,64,4648,3209,58],"class_list":["post-20436","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york-city","tag-college-protests","tag-israel-hamas-war","tag-manhattan-federal-court","tag-metro","tag-new-york","tag-ny","tag-nyc","tag-nyc-headlines","tag-nyc-news","tag-protests","tag-sentencing","tag-us-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20436","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20436"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20436\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/20437"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20436"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20436"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20436"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}