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Expo Sparks Gaza-Era Tensions
A touring Israeli real estate expo billed as “The Great Israeli Real Estate Event” and offering properties in the occupied Palestinian territories became the focus of dueling pro-Palestinian and pro-Israel demonstrations in New York City, with organizers holding an event Monday at Young Israel of Midwood Synagogue on Ocean Avenue.
“billed as “The Great Israeli Real Estate Event””
The protests were organized by the Palestinian Assembly for Liberation Al-Awda for New York and New Jersey (PAL-Awda NY/NJ), which called for an end to the ongoing sale of Palestinian land, including in the occupied West Bank, and cited alleged violations of New York civil rights law and international law.
Brooklyn Paper reported that scuffles broke out despite NYPD measures including a buffer zone with barricades stretching one block in each direction from the synagogue along Ocean Avenue and Avenues M and L, and that four protesters were arrested.
In the same Midwood area, groups of pro-Palestinian activists carrying banners reading “Israel is killing children” and chanting “Gaza” marched through side streets while pro-Israel counterprotesters followed, and The Intercept reported that one protester said he had been pepper-sprayed.
The Jerusalem Post described the Monday protest across from the Young Israel of Midwood as being organized by PAL-Awda NY/NJ, with demonstrators waving Palestinian flags and at least one Hezbollah flag while trying to disrupt the expo at the Flatbush house of worship.
Quotes, Arrests, and Buffer Zones
New York City Council Speaker Julie Menin proposed a “buffer zone” law requiring the NYPD to erect temporary fencing around synagogues and other houses of worship to protect congregants during protests, and The New York Post reported that the law was enacted on April 25 with a 45-day deadline for the NYPD to propose its plan to Menin and Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s offices.
Mayor Mamdani said New Yorkers have a constitutional right to protest and counterprotest, but “no one should face violence, intimidation or hatred because of who they are or what they believe,” while the same report said the violence “was despicable and has no place in our city.”
The New York Post said at least three people were detained after agitators swarmed the area near the Young Israel Senior Services of Midwood, and it quoted an anti-Israel protest chant of “Palestine is ours alone.”
Jewish Telegraphic Agency reported that Leah Preiserowicz, an Orthodox Jewish Midwood resident, said “We want to support what they were doing, support the sales,” as roughly 200 pro-Palestinian protesters lined either end of the block kept at bay by police.
JTA also reported that police made at least one arrest, and it described pro-Palestinian chants including “Settler, settlers go back home,” “Globalize the intifada,” and “Death to the IDF,” alongside pro-Israel counterprotesters chanting in Hebrew and singing “May Your Village Burn.”
Land-Sale Backlash and Next Stops
The controversy over the expo’s land-sales message fed into broader disputes about legality and international law, with Brooklyn Paper noting that in 2024 the International Court of Justice issued an advisory opinion stating that Israel’s occupation of Palestinian territories violates international law and declaring settlement activity in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem illegal.
“issued an advisory opinion stating that Israel’s occupation of Palestinian territories violates international law”
In the same reporting, Brooklyn Paper said European Union foreign ministers agreed on May 11, 2026 on new sanctions against individual Israeli settlers and organizations in response to a surge in violence against Palestinians in the occupied West Bank since the start of the war in Gaza.
The Indypendent said the exhibition touts “sought-after locations” for English-speakers including Gush Etzion, and it reported that police made four arrests while a police spokesperson would not tell The Indypendent on what charges.
Pivot.quebec described a separate North American tour of real estate promotions in Toronto at the synagogue Beth Avraham Yoseph on Thursday 20 March, saying the expo would include an Israeli real estate agency, Noam Homes, which sells properties in multiple colonies in the occupied West Bank.
Pivot.quebec also said that after Toronto the exposure would be de passage to the New Jersey and in the State of New York, while The Indypendent said the exhibition’s last stop in North America would take place in Queens on Tuesday May 12 before continuing in London in June.
