Protests Against Israeli Official Heat Up Outside Synagogue in Brooklyn

The Police Department is investigating reports that pro-Israel counterprotesters at a pro-Palestinian demonstration assaulted two women, injuring one of them, during protests in Brooklyn over a visit by a far-right Israeli official, Mayor Eric Adams said Sunday night.

On Thursday night, pro-Palestinian demonstrators gathered outside Chabad Lubavitch World Headquarters on Eastern Parkway in Crown Heights, Brooklyn, where the official, Itamar Ben-Gvir, the Israeli security minister, was to speak. The headquarters is an important religious site in the Hasidic community, and intense clashes erupted between protesters and counterprotesters outside, videos posted on social media by members of both sides show.

At one point, hundreds of men and boys, most of them Jewish, surrounded a 29-year-old woman, according to the police and videos of the episode. It was unclear what prompted them to close in around her or whether she was even involved in the protests.

But the crowd began to chant “death to Arabs” in Hebrew and followed the woman and the police officer who was escorting her to safety, the video shows. Many also shouted racist and sexist profanities as others shoved her. At least one hurled an orange construction cone at the woman’s head before the officer was able to put her in a police vehicle, the footage shows.

In another incident, pro-Israel counterprotesters harassed a second woman, who was separated from fellow pro-Palestinian demonstrators and injured, Mr. Adams said.

Six people at the protest were taken into custody on Thursday night, the police said. Of those, five were issued court summonses and released, and one, Oscar Vidal, 28, of New Jersey, was charged with assault, harassment and criminal mischief, the police said. It was unclear if they were pro-Palestinian demonstrators, Israel supporters, or both.

“None of this is acceptable, in fact, it is despicable,” Mr. Adams said in a statement posted on X hours after another protest broke out on Sunday near a Brooklyn synagogue where Mr. Ben-Gvir had been expected to speak.

Mr. Adams urged the two women to come forward to aid the police investigation. The 29-year-old woman reported on Sunday evening that she had been assaulted, the police said.

Several days of demonstrations preceded the visit of Mr. Ben-Gvir, whose appearances brought pro-Palestinian and pro-Israel groups face-to-face in heated exchanges and troubling episodes — some of them in Brooklyn neighborhoods with large Orthodox Jewish populations.

Mr. Ben-Gvir’s visit is his first official trip to the United States since March when he rejoined the government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel.

He has been considered a political extremist in Israel for decades. Because of his far-right views, he was barred as a teenager from serving in the Israeli army, a rare occurrence in a country where military service is mandatory. In his home, Mr. Ben-Gvir had kept a portrait of a man who had fatally shot 29 Palestinians in 1994 at a mosque in the West Bank.

On Wednesday, Mr. Ben-Gvir appeared in New Haven, Conn., at Shabtai, a private Jewish discussion society that is based at Yale University but not affiliated with the school. Hundreds of demonstrators gathered outside and, as Mr. Ben-Gvir left, some threw water bottles at him while others waved Israeli and Palestinian flags.

On Thursday, Representative Jerrold Nadler, Democrat of New York and the longest-serving Jewish member of the House, appeared outside a restaurant in Manhattan where Mr. Ben-Gvir was speaking. Joined by several rabbis and Brad Lander, the city comptroller and a mayoral candidate, Mr. Nadler announced that he would introduce legislation designed to impose economic sanctions on Israeli settlers who commit violence in the West Bank.

In an interview on Sunday, he said the protests were important, even if they have little effect on Mr. Ben-Gvir himself.

“It’s the message everyone else should take that we don’t support this,” Mr. Nadler said. “Whatever he may say, there are major Jewish groups who are opposed to this, who support a democratic, peaceful Israel and are opposed to the kind of racism and violence that he represents.”

On Sunday morning, another protest erupted in front of the Edmond J. Safra Synagogue in Gravesend, according to the police and video footage. That synagogue is across the street from Congregation Shaare Zion, the synagogue where Mr. Ben-Gvir was expected to speak, according to members of both synagogues. His talk, which was scheduled for around 9:30 a.m., was canceled, the members said.

As word of the protest spread, supporters of Israel from the neighborhood flocked to the area. At least six people were taken into custody, the police said. Whether they were pro-Palestinian or pro-Israel demonstrators was unclear.

Stephanie Benshimol, 45, an American Israeli woman, had heard about the demonstration and arrived on the block to confront the pro-Palestinian activists. She was wearing a blue denim jacket with the words “free the hostages” and a “Trump” pin on her lapel, and she had pepper spray tucked inside her pocket.

At one point she was caught in the fray and injured her left knee. “I’m fine,” she said, “but it’s just the point that you don’t go to any house of worship in America to protest — not a house of worship.”

By 1 p.m., the protest had ended and the police barricades on the block had been removed. A woman carrying a pro-Palestinian sign walked her bicycle along the thoroughfare, away from the house of worship. A man wearing a yarmulke told her to keep moving.

Nicholas Fandos contributed reporting.