More than 7,000 pro-Hamas protesters blocked traffic on New York City’s Brooklyn Bridge on Saturday as they chanted slogans in support of Hamas terrorism.
Protesters chanted “Long Live Hamas” and “Freedom by any means, land back by any means,” among other shouts calling for the elimination of the Jewish state, the New York Post reported.
A 26-year-old man was arrested after he was caught vandalizing a car, police sources told the Post. The suspect was charged with auto stripping, criminal mischief and possession of a graffiti instrument.
The march started in front of the Brooklyn Museum in Crown Heights, near the headquarters of the Chabad-Lubavitch movement at 770 Eastern Parkway, where an annual gathering of more than 1,000 Jewish college students from around the world was taking place.
One Crown Heights resident said protesters shouted at Jews and expressed “their love for [Adolf] Hitler.”
“It’s not an accident that pro-Hamas activists would pick this place to protest Jews,” said former City Councilman David Greenfield, a Brooklyn Democrat who now leads the Metropolitan Council on Jewish Poverty.
Roughly 1,800 NYPD officers were deployed to control the hostile crowd, according to the Post, with protesters vandalizing at least two patrol vehicles.
Following the day-long rally, approximately 800 rioters descended on Union Square in Manhattan chanting, “Free Palestine” as they plastered a statute of George Washington with stickers that read “Zionists are terrorists.”
Also over the weekend, a group of New York City construction workers went viral on social media after confronting an unidentified person who was tearing down posters of Israeli hostages held captive by Hamas in the Gaza Strip.
“I’m not Jewish, he’s not Jewish … doesn’t f**king matter. This is f**king the USA! This is New York City! You don’t have a right to touch that s**t!” the man in the video, identified as “Paulie,” tells the vandal.
“This is a free country. You can wave your Palestine flag and say, ‘Death to the Jews or America’—whatever you want! But we can put up f****** signs … don’t rip that down,” added the hardhat.
