{"id":229620,"date":"2026-05-13T05:17:18","date_gmt":"2026-05-13T05:17:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/229620\/"},"modified":"2026-05-13T05:17:18","modified_gmt":"2026-05-13T05:17:18","slug":"rowdy-anti-israel-nyc-protesters-could-be-hit-with-federal-charges-doj-threatens","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/229620\/","title":{"rendered":"Rowdy anti-Israel NYC protesters could be hit with federal charges, DOJ threatens"},"content":{"rendered":"

The US Justice Department on Tuesday threatened to slap possible federal charges against protesters at an anti-Israel rally<\/a> outside a Brooklyn center where a Jewish woman and an Orthodox boy were attacked.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are aware of this situation last night and are working with our colleagues in NYC to collect evidence and analyze potential charges,\u201d wrote Harmeet Dhillon, assistant US Attorney for civil rights, on X<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Four demonstrators were arrested Monday night during protests outside the Young Israel Senior Services of Midwood in Brooklyn. William C Lopez\/NY Post<\/p>\n

The anti-Israel mob clashed with counter-protesters, leading to four arrests. William C Lopez\/NY Post<\/p>\n

The feds\u2019 involvement comes after anti-Israeli demonstrators \u2014 including at least one waving a terrorist Hezbollah flag \u2014 viciously clashed with Jewish protesters Monday night outside the Young Israel Senior Services of Midwood, which was holding an event promoting real estate in Israel and the West Bank.<\/p>\n

Videos posted online<\/a> show a Jewish woman having her hair yanked by the pro-Palestinian crowd and a masked provocateur flashing a strobing light directly in the eyes of a young Orthodox boy outside the Avenue H subway station, where the protest eventually reportedly fizzled out.<\/p>\n

Four people were arrested in the melee: two pro-Palestinian demonstrators \u2014 one who threw a rock and the other who kicked a car \u2014 and two pro-Israeli protesters who hurled eggs at the crowd, sources said.<\/p>\n

Two of the people arrested were 17 years old and not identified by police. The other pair was identified as Dariel Ali, 30, who was charged with assault and weapons possession, and Mohamed Asbas, 36, who was charged with disorderly conduct and obstructing governmental administration.<\/p>\n

Ali has at least four prior arrests, including for robbery, with three sealed cases that include threatening another person on the subway after a rowdy 2021 demonstration, sources said.<\/p>\n

Several Jewish community leaders slammed the NYPD for not deploying its elite Strategic Response Group to quell the unrest \u2014 and even blamed lefty Mayor Zohran Mamdani for the move.<\/p>\n

The Justice Department said it will \u201canalyze evidence\u201d before deciding whether to lodge federal charges against anyone. William C Lopez\/NY Post<\/p>\n

Mamdani, a former state assemblyman, vowed in 2024 before running for mayor<\/a> to disband the SRG, a special operations team that responds to citywide mobilizations, civil disorders and major events.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s the only way \u2014 it has to be from the mayor,\u201d Brooklyn state Assemblyman Kalman Yeger told The Post of the fact that the SRG did not enter the fray. <\/p>\n

\u201c[Police Commissioner Jessica] Tisch on her own wouldn\u2019t have allowed this.\u201d<\/p>\n

Brooklyn City Councilwoman Inna Vernikov said she was told SRG was ordered to stand down during the melee.<\/p>\n

The rally grew raucous on both sides. William C Lopez\/NY Post<\/p>\n

But \u201cthat\u2019s what they\u2019re for,\u201d Vernikov said. \u201cSRG are the only ones trained to deal with these protests.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019re usually present, and we know Mamdani wants to shut down that department.\u201d<\/p>\n

An NYPD rep said 400 cops were deployed to the Monday night demonstration and successfully responded to the unrest, noting that the SRG is designed to handle mass arrest situations, while only four busts were made at the Brooklyn protest.<\/p>\n

Jewish community leaders blame Mayor Zohran Mamdani for not doing enough to quell the unrest. Admedia Photo \/ SplashNews.com<\/p>\n

The Police Department representative added that Mamdani was not involved in the NYPD\u2019s handling of the protest \u2014 and said the cops even got praise for their actions from members and leaders in the local Jewish community.<\/p>\n

The mayor\u2019s office did not respond to a Post request for comment.<\/p>\n

But earlier Tuesday, Tisch addressed the NYPD\u2019s role in handling heated demonstrations such as Monday night\u2019s.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur responsibility has remained the same: To protect the First Amendment right to free speech, including speech that many people may find offensive or deeply uncomfortable,\u201d she said at the ABNY Power Breakfast in Manhattan on Tuesday.<\/p>\n

Additional reporting by Matthew Fischetti<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The US Justice Department on Tuesday threatened to slap possible federal charges against protesters at an anti-Israel rally…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":229621,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[3862,98,383,57,6633,9,56,63,65,64,103,4648,58],"class_list":["post-229620","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york-city","tag-antisemitism","tag-brooklyn","tag-department-of-justice","tag-metro","tag-midwood","tag-new-york","tag-ny","tag-nyc","tag-nyc-headlines","tag-nyc-news","tag-nypd","tag-protests","tag-us-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/229620","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=229620"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/229620\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/229621"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=229620"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=229620"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=229620"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}