The anti-Israel protest outside of Park East Synagogue in Manhattan on May 5, 2026. Yoav Ginsburg for NY Post Don’t let them call it a “protest”: It was a riot outside Park East Synagogue on Tuesday night, as a hundred violent thugs with keffiyeh rags tied around their faces battled with the NYPD for hours.
They claimed to be protesting a meeting to promote the sale of West Bank land to Jews; in reality it was purely about moving to Israel — with few brochures that had photos of Israeli settlements in the West Bank.
Despicably, Mayor Zohran Mamdani let the goons know he’s on their side: His spokesman said the mayor was “deeply opposed” to the event promoting the “sale of land” in the West Bank, which is “illegal under international law.”
That’s two falsehoods, one about the event, and one about international law — which says nothing about private land sales anywhere.
As best we can tell, Mamdani’s confusing “international law” with the century-old ravings of Amin al-Husseini, the Hitler-allied Grand Mufti of Jerusalem (appointed such by the British colonial overlords!), whose 1935 fatwa declared the entire mandate of Palestine to be the eternal and inalienable property of Islam.
Yes, our mayor is that ignorant, or that phony.
Fine, he waved a finger at the rioters while noting the importance of “ensuring safe entry and exit” from houses of worship, but he also stressed the need to ensure “all protesters are able to exercise their First Amendment rights.”
Guess he’s ignorant of US law as well as the international kind: The First Amendment does not, in fact, grant any right to fight police in the streets, let alone to assault a meeting because somebody told you it was about something you oppose.
In any case, the antisemitic mob came prepared for war; what would it have done had it broken through the police line — disrupt the event? Beat up the attendees? Wreck the synagogue?
By the way, the “pro-Palestine” rioters make no real distinction between the West Bank and Israel proper: The real chant, in the Arabic original, is “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be Arab.”
That’s also why they chant, “We don’t want no two state, we want ’48!” Meaning, all of Palestine before the UN partition.
With the left fully embracing this delusional cause, violent antisemitic attacks are on the rise in America (as the Anti-Defamation League reports) and indeed around the world.
New York City’s mayor should warn the Hamas wing of his movement that peaceful protest by definition can’t include fighting the cops or threatening any physical aggression.
If he keeps cheering on these thugs, it won’t change a thing in the Middle East, yet may well bring blood on the streets of his city — but maybe that’s what Mamdani wants.
