Yehia Amin, whom the Manhattan district attorney indicted on Dec. 5, 2023, for “stalking and punching a 23-year-old Israeli tourist in an antisemitic attack, while the victim and his friends were walking through Times Square,” pleaded guilty to third-degree assault as a hate crime on Monday, the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office told JNS.
Sentencing is scheduled for May 27, the district attorney’s office told JNS.
In 2023, the then 28-year-old followed a group of Jews, who were wearing yarmulkes, and “used his Bluetooth speaker to play music that Amin later described as ‘Hamas music’” and “made antisemitic and anti-Israeli remarks, including, in substance, ‘Hamas should kill more of you,’ ‘May Allah kill you,’ ‘May Allah kill all the Jews’ and ‘All Jews should die,’” the district attorney’s office said in December 2023.
“When the group reached West 47th Street, they tried to report Amin to a security guard, but Amin continued harassing them. The victim and his friends tried walking towards a nearby train station to leave Times Square, but Amin continued following and made additional statements including ‘All Jews are crybabies,’ ‘I want to die for Gaza,’ ‘I want to kill you’ and ‘I want to kill you for Gaza,’” it said. “After harassing the victim and his friends for over 10 minutes, Amin sprinted up behind the victim and punched him in the back of the head, causing redness, swelling and substantial pain.”
After a New York City Police Department officer arrested Amin, he “continued to yell, in substance, ‘I will die for Gaza,’ ‘F*** Israel,’ ‘God kill all the Israelis’ and ‘God kill all the Jewish people,’” the district attorney’s office said at the time.
