While trying to celebrate the fifth-grade graduation festivities at PS 682 in Brooklyn, a Jewish mom and her husband were attacked and beaten while their tormenters shouted, “Free Palestine!” “Gaza is Ours!” and “Death to Israel!”
The New York Post reports that an Arabic-speaking family shouted the slurs at the couple and then threw the husband to the ground and pummeled him.
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One man put him in a chokehold, he said. Others grabbed his legs as they kicked and punched him. One woman repeatedly whacked him with the sharp heel of a black stiletto, the mom told police.
“They targeted my family because we are Jewish,” said the mother, whose 10-year-old twins witnessed the assaults.
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The Jewish mom, Lana, and her husband Johan, a Dominican who is Catholic, recounted their horrific experience to The Post in frustration because the NYPD did not classify the incident as a hate crime.
But after the couple urged the NYPD to reconsider, a spokesperson said Saturday, “The Hate Crimes Task Force is investigating the incident.”
The tension erupted after the family of a student waving a Palestinian flag tried to push Lana and her family out of the way during pictures outside of the school following the ceremony.
“We told them there was space for both families,” Lana said. “An older man turned to us and said ‘Free Palestine!’ for no reason. My husband told him this was not the time or place for that but the man cursed at him in Arabic, and shouted, “Free Palestine, Gaza is Ours, Death to Israel.”
The two men began arguing, and another man approached the pair and punched Johan in the head. During the ensuing scuffle, Lana and her 16-year-old son, who tried to step in to help his father, were also both injured.
According to police, Ez-Al Dean Bazar, 26, who punched and dragged Johan, was arrested according to a criminal complaint filed by the Brooklyn District Attorney’s office.
The family expressed frustration that the NYPD did not call the assault a hate crime, telling the wife that “nothing on my body says I am Jewish,” she shared.
But, according to the family, it is well known at the school that the children proudly share their Jewish and Dominican heritage.
I am a good friend with grandparents. They are recent immigrants and family of Holocaust survivor. The incident is heartbreaking. Kids are scared and traumatized. It’s 5th grade graduation of so called elite school for gifted and talented.
— Yulia Goldshteyn (@GoldshteynYulia) June 23, 2024
