An event of Reservists on Duty at the Lincoln Square Synagogue in Manhattan Thursday night was crashed by anti-Israel protesters. The event presented a delegation of Arab and other non-Jewish IDF reservists which is on a tour of the US to tell their personal stories and to refute the lies that are being spread about Israel. The event was sponsored by the Israeli American Council-NY and Alums for Campus Fairness.
The pro-Palestinian activists who concealed their identity to infiltrate the event. At the questions and answers segment, the infiltrators started posing provocative questions (“What makes you kill a little kid?” was one such question) but when they didn’t like the answers given by the pro-IDF Israeli Arabs, they began to riot, scream and curse in the synagogue.
One rioters approached one of the speakers on the podium menacingly, and members of the delegation managed to push him off. Eventually the NYPD showed up, rounded up the rioters and released them—uncharged—outside.
Amit Deri, general director of ‘Reservists on Duty, complained that the rioters managed to demolish the event without having to pay any price. “These guys are roaming free after destroying our event,” he told Israel’s Channel 2 TV.
According to Jonathan Elkhoury, this was the second such attack on the group’s tour. Earlier in the week, an event that was organized for the group by Students Supporting Israel – SSI in Minnesota was also attacked by pro-Palestinian rioters.
Reservists on Duty is an Israeli NGO established in December 2015 by IDF reserve soldiers and officers to act against the BDS boycott campaign. In Israel, the group mainly targets Breaking the Silence and B’Tselem activities.