{"id":99505,"date":"2026-01-14T00:52:24","date_gmt":"2026-01-14T00:52:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/99505\/"},"modified":"2026-01-14T00:52:24","modified_gmt":"2026-01-14T00:52:24","slug":"ny-ag-slams-pro-israel-org-betar-u-s-for-biased-harassment","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/99505\/","title":{"rendered":"NY AG Slams Pro-Israel Org Betar U.S. for Biased Harassment"},"content":{"rendered":"

A Zionist extremist group notorious for doxxing pro-Palestine college students<\/a> and providing lists of activists to the Trump administration is set to cease operations in New York after an investigation by Letitia James, the state\u2019s attorney general.<\/p>\n

\u201cNew York will not tolerate organizations that use fear, violence, and intimidation to silence free expression.\u201d<\/p>\n

Betar U.S., the American chapter of an international Zionist group of the same name, will dissolve its not-for-profit status in New York and wind down operations in the state following a settlement with James\u2019s office<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cNew York will not tolerate organizations that use fear, violence, and intimidation to silence free expression or target people because of who they are,\u201d James said in a statement. \u201cMy office\u2019s investigation uncovered an alarming and illegal pattern of bias-motivated harassment and violence designed to terrorize communities and shut down lawful protest.\u201d<\/p>\n

The investigation into Betar by the Office of the Attorney General found that, in addition to violating state civil rights laws barring bias-motivated violence and harassment, the group had never registered with the state-level Charities Bureau.<\/p>\n

In an email, a Betar U.S. spokesperson said the group denies all wrongdoing, but did not answer follow-up questions.<\/p>\n

The investigation began in March of last year after her office received formal complaints of harassment by the group, James said. If Betar continues its activities, it faces an $80,000 fine and other potential consequences, according to a statement from James\u2019s office.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe OAG investigation determined that Betar engaged in a pattern of violence and harassment driven by explicit hostility toward protected groups,\u201d the statement alleged. \u201cThe OAG uncovered numerous public and private statements by Betar leadership and members expressing anti-Palestinian, anti-Arab, and anti-Muslim animus, including repeated use of slurs and demeaning language.\u201d<\/p>\n

The group, which has been accused of links to the far-right Kahanist movement<\/a> that is banned in Israel, gleefully claimed a role in the arrest last year of pro-Palestine students by immigration officials. Members frequently threatened pro-Palestine demonstrators with violence, including a campaign to send pagers to its opponents in reference to Israel\u2019s 2024 use of rigged devices <\/a>to assassinate Hezbollah militants \u2014 killing nearby civilians<\/a> \u2014 in Lebanon.<\/p>\n

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At a vigil last year in New York City for Hind Rajab, the 6-year-old girl killed by the Israeli military in Gaza, the group chanted<\/a> \u201cICE, ICE, ICE.\u201d Members made a show of documenting people\u2019s faces with the stated goal of using facial-recognition software to identify them and give names to the Department of Homeland Security.<\/p>\n

Betar\u2019s methods are so extreme that they have even drawn the ire of fellow Zionists, including the Anti-Defamation League, which included the organization in a list of hate groups, according<\/a> to the Israeli newspaper Haaretz.<\/p>\n

Correction: January 13, 2026, 5:48 p.m. ET
This story has been corrected to reflect that Betar U.S.\u2019s dissolution was not ordered by Attorney General Letitia James, but came after her office\u2019s investigation. This story has also been updated to include a statement from Betar U.S. received after publication.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A Zionist extremist group notorious for doxxing pro-Palestine college students and providing lists of activists to the Trump…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":99506,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[4913,45750,4920,9,11,10,4912,4917,4918,4919,37834,4916,45752,45751,18039],"class_list":{"0":"post-99505","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york","8":"tag-article-type-article-post","9":"tag-day-tuesday","10":"tag-language-english","11":"tag-new-york","12":"tag-new-york-headlines","13":"tag-new-york-news","14":"tag-page-type-article","15":"tag-partner-factiva","16":"tag-partner-smart-news","17":"tag-partner-social-flow","18":"tag-short","19":"tag-subject-justice","20":"tag-subject-world","21":"tag-time-21-00","22":"tag-wc-0-999"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/99505","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=99505"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/99505\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/99506"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=99505"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=99505"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=99505"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}