Brooke Goldstein, founder and executive director The Lawfare Project, issued the following statement after Mohammed Said Othman was sentenced by the New York State Supreme Court on Jan. 31:
“On Wednesday, Said Othman was sentenced to three years in prison, following his conviction for the brutal hate crime attack on Joey Borgen in 2021. Joey is finally getting the justice he deserves, and we are proud to have rallied to support him, keeping pressure on the DA’s office and the court system to ensure consequences for this antisemitic hate crime.
However, New York City is no safer for Jews today than it was in 2021. Justice for Joey has not translated into justice for the Jewish community. The same aggressive, hate-filled, pro-Hamas group—WOL Palestine—whose supporters attacked Joey, is still running riot on our streets. We are seeing a wholesale failure on the part of law enforcement and the criminal justice system to protect the civil rights of the Jewish people, who feel unsafe, unsupported, and violated by the naked aggression of Jew-hatred experienced day after day, without respite. And we see no end in sight.
Our legal protections mean nothing if they are not enforced, and enforcement requires the will of our elected officials to do the right thing. It took almost three years and an immense public pressure campaign to get the DA’s office to prosecute Joey Borgen’s attackers. We cannot wait another three years for law enforcement to address what we’re seeing now on our city streets.
WOL Palestine, whose activists include Said Othman, needs to be investigated for its role in the actions its members and supporters are committing, and we expect the DA’s office to vigorously pursue hate crime charges where appropriate. Should the DA’s office not act, we call on the Justice Department to step in, as it did when it prosecuted Saadah Masoud, another WOL Palestine activist, for the hate crime attack against our client, Matt Greenman.
Justice for the Jewish community requires bringing people together in activism to end Jew-hatred, together with legal action, to enforce our civil rights. This is what The Lawfare Project is committed to doing and will continue to do until we achieve a society in which antisemitism and the violence that accompanies it are as unacceptable as every other form of bigotry and racism. Only then will we truly have justice.
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The Lawfare Project (LP) is the world’s leading organization dedicated to protecting the civil and human rights of Jewish people worldwide through legal action.