https://www.israelnationalnews.com/news/391973Antisemitic assault at Brooklyn elementary school graduation
Jewish woman, her husband, and teenage son assaulted by Arabic-speaking family at 5th-grade graduation ceremony. NYPD refuses to investigate assault as a hate crime.
Gary Willig
Jun 23, 2024, 2:53 PM (GMT+3)
A Jewish woman and her husband were assaulted at a fifth-grade graduation ceremony in Brooklyn, New York, the New York Post reported.
The incident occurred at the PS 682 school in the Gravesend neighborhood.
The woman, who was identified only as Lana, told the paper that she, her husband Johan, her older son, and her parents were attending the fifth-grade graduation for the couple's 10-year-old twins.
During the graduation, one of their children's classmates walked down the aisle wearing a cap with the words 'Free Palestine' emblazoned on it and waving a Palestinian flag. After the ceremony, when the family was attempting to take a photograph together, the family of the child with the Palestinian flag tried to push them out of the way. When they protested, a mand told them 'Free Palestine.'
Johan, who is not Jewish, said that this was not the time or place for such statements, at which point the other man shouted in Arabic, “Free Palestine, Gaza is Ours, Death to Israel.”
While the two men were arguing, another person came up behind Johan and struck him. He was knocked to the ground, put in a chokehold, and repeatedly struck by multiple members of the other family.
The couple's 16-year-old son attempted to help his father and was also punched in the face. Lana pulled out her phone and began filming the assault before she, too, was assaulted by another woman who pulled her hair, threw her to the floor, and screamed, "I will kill you!"
A pair of teachers intervened and pulled the Arabic-speaking family away from Lana's family.
Johan was hospitalized with injuries to his head and body. The son suffered a bloody nose, and Lana suffered a gash on her leg.
Only one of the attackers was arrested before being released on his own recognizance. The NYPD has refused to investigate the attack as a hate crime, saying that the family was not visibly Jewish. However, Lana said that she and her children's Jewish identities are well-known in the school.
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