The U.S. Department of Justice said it plans to investigate a protest outside a Manhattan synagogue after complaints were made about the rhetoric used by demonstrators, along with the flying of a terror group’s flag.
The demonstration outside the Park East Synagogue Tuesday night drew crowds of pro-Palestinian protesters, the second time since November that a loud gathering had sprung up outside the Upper East Side house of worship.
The protesters found themselves at times outnumbered by police, who kept them at a distance from the pro-Israel group was alarmed by what they claimed to hear and see. Those on the latter side said they heard chants calling for intifada, and said there was a Hezbollah flag flying at one point.
“They were threatening lives, they were making signs that they were gonna slit out throats,” said one counterprotester.
Responding to similar complaints made by a rabbi on Wednesday, the Justice Department’s Deputy Attorney General for Civil Rights Harmeet Dillhon called the allegations “disturbing,” and said the department would investigate.
The pro-Palestinian protesters said they showed up to oppose a real estate expo inside the synagogue in which land in the West Bank was being sold. Protesters said it was land that had been stolen, with those who lived there driven out.
The protesters had another complaint as well: How the NYPD handled the situation. PAL-Awda New York, which organized the protest, posted a video of a clash between police and protesters, calling the officers “police calling them “RABID COPS IN ZOHRAN’S NY.” The group questioned how police were protecting their Constitutional right to protest, claiming the officers “make us unsafe.”
The New York Civil Liberties Union criticized police’s use of pepper spray and what they called an “outrageous no speech zone.”
New York City Council Speaker Julie Menin praised the NYPD’s efforts, saying the department was “very focused on ensuring that this protest was a peaceful protest and that congregants could enter or exit their house of worship.”
Menin was behind the initial proposed bill that would set a 25-foot buffer zone for protests outside houses of worship. The bill that later passed only requires the NYPD to post its plan to create security perimeters on a case-by-case basis. Mayor Zohran Mamdani won’t sign the bill, but will allow it to become law in 45 days.
For his part, Mamdani defended the NYPD’s response.
“We in this city believe in the sacrosanct nature of the right to protest, and also are committed to ensuring any New Yorker can safely enter or exit from a house of worship, and that access never be in question while we also protect the first amendment,” Mamdani said Wednesday. “And I do believe the police ensured that yesterday evening.”
The protest came in the wake of swastikas and other antisemitic graffiti being found in Forest Hills, Queens. It’s also after a new report from the Anti-Defamation League that found there were 860 antisemitic acts in New York City in 2025, more than half of which were at Jewish institutions or schools. While the report found anti-Jewish harassment and vandalism dropped 20% in 2025, there were also 90 assaults for the year — a 10% increase.
In a statement on Tuesday, a spokesperson said Mamdani was deeply opposed to the real estate expo that included the promotion of the sale of land in settlements in the Occupied West Bank. The mayor called them illegal under international law.
When asked whether sharing his personal opinions of Israel could perhaps be fueling antisemitism in the city, Mamdani said there’s a difference between criticism and hate.
“I think critique of the policies of the Israeli government are very much separate from bigotry towards the people of a specific religious faith. And there is no tolerance for antisemitism, there is no tolerance for hatred of Jewish New Yorkers,” the mayor said.
