Protests Against Israeli Official Heat Up Outside Synagogue in Brooklyn

The Police Department is investigating reports that pro-Israel counterprotesters at a pro-Palestinian demonstration assaulted two women, injuring one of them, during protests in Brooklyn over a visit by a far-right Israeli official, Mayor Eric Adams said Sunday night.

On Thursday night, pro-Palestinian demonstrators gathered outside Chabad Lubavitch World Headquarters on Eastern Parkway in Crown Heights, Brooklyn, where the official, Itamar Ben-Gvir, the Israeli security minister, was to speak. The headquarters is an important religious site in the Hasidic community, and intense clashes erupted between protesters and counterprotesters outside, videos posted on social media by members of both sides show.

At one point, hundreds of men and boys, most of them Jewish, surrounded a 29-year-old woman, according to the police and videos of the episode. It was unclear what prompted them to close in around her or whether she was even involved in the protests.

But the crowd began to chant “death to Arabs” in Hebrew and followed the woman and the police officer who was escorting her to safety, the video shows. Many also shouted racist and sexist profanities as others shoved her. At least one hurled an orange construction cone at the woman’s head before the officer was able to put her in a police vehicle, the footage shows.

In another incident, pro-Israel counterprotesters harassed a second woman, who was separated from fellow pro-Palestinian demonstrators and injured, Mr. Adams said.