Pro-Palestinian Protesters Clash With NYPD Outside Park East Synagogue Over Israel Real Estate Event

Pro-Palestinian and pro-Israel demonstrators rallied outside Park East Synagogue on Manhattan’s Upper East Side on Tuesday, after the synagogue was advertised as the location of “the Great Israel Real Estate Event.”

The evening drew “a few hundred pro-Palestinian demonstrators” and “Dozens of pro-Israel counter-demonstrators,” while a heavy police presence kept the groups apart and prevented arrests, the police said.

Al Jazeera

The New York Police Department said demonstrators clashed with police after trying to bypass security barriers and move closer to the synagogue, and counterprotesters were also present outside the venue.

New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani condemned the real estate event, and a spokesperson for Mamdani told The Intercept that some properties being marketed were “illegal under international law and deeply tied to the ongoing displacement of Palestinians.”

Mamdani commented Wednesday for the first time on the violent protest held the previous day outside Park East Synagogue, directing his criticism at the synagogue’s event rather than the protesters.

At a news conference, he said, “I’ve been clear to New Yorkers, my honest opinions about the fact that when we have a real estate expo that is promoting the sale of land,” including land in occupied West Bank settlements, which he said he “firmly disagree[s]” with.

Al Jazeera

The Anti-Defamation League’s New York/New Jersey branch said Mamdani’s remarks “The mayor had a responsibility to de-escalate.

He did the opposite.”

The protest lasted about 3½ hours, and New York police said an officer was taken to a hospital with a leg injury after protesters tried to forcibly remove barriers set up around the synagogue.

The clashes included chants and slogans, with pro-Palestinian demonstrators chanting “Long live the intifada” and “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free,” while some counterprotesters chanted, “There is no Palestine.”

The Tuesday protest took place under new rules after the City Council passed legislation restricting demonstrations near religious institutions, with police required to publish plans establishing buffer zones during protests outside places of worship.

“{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}} Anti-Israel agitators clashed with law enforcement outside a Manhattan synagogue on Tuesday night as pro-Israel demonstrators waved Israeli and American flags nearby”

Fox News

Al Jazeera reported that the event, formally known as the Great Israeli Real Estate Event, is held in the United States and Canada to help foreign buyers purchase property in Israel and relocate there, and that activists have said the events run afoul of US domestic law.

The American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee said in 2024 that “Not only is the refusal to sell property to anyone based on their race or national origin unlawful,” but also that “the properties involved in these sales are built on stolen Palestinian land,” as it lodged a complaint with the US Department of Housing and Urban Development and the Department of Justice.

The New York Times described the setting as a familiar, acrimonious spillover of the conflict into city streets, with intermittent scuffles breaking out mainly between police and pro-Palestinian demonstrators.

With the next steps tied to the new protest framework and the ongoing dispute over the real estate event’s legality, the sources show the confrontation is now embedded in a broader fight over how protests near houses of worship are policed and permitted.