Disturbing footage shows New York Police Department officers pushing a pro-Gaza protester to the ground, appearing to hit him repeatedly.
Two independent videos posted on X show numerous officers tackling the protester, holding him by the neck, and then striking him.
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Next to him, another officer is seen smashing a second demonstrator to the ground and holding him there with his entire weight. The cop then appears to shove the protester’s head to the ground.
Officers are frequently heard asking the gathering audience, including the videographers filming the confrontations, to “back up.”
One of the videographers, Peter Hambrecht, reported that one of the demonstrators was bleeding from the head as policemen carried them to a police van.
Moments before the violent fight with the officers, the footage shows demonstrators carrying a banner across the street. They didn’t seem to be communicating with law enforcement.
The incidents occurred as demonstrators walked to the streets of Bay Ridge, Brooklyn, on Saturday to commemorate the 76th anniversary of the Nabka, when about 700,000 Palestinians were pushed from or abandoned their homes during the Arab-Israeli war shortly after Israel’s establishment.
The Associated Press claimed that the wholesale deportation resulted in a community of six million refugees living in camps in Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, and the Israeli-occupied West Bank. The Nabka refugees and their descendants make up around 75% of Gaza’s population.
Officials reported 40 arrests at the Bay Ridge rally organized by the pro-Palestine campaign group Within Our Lifetime.
The New York American Civil Liberties Union decried the police response to the protest.
“The aggressive escalation by the NYPD’s Strategic Response Group yesterday in Bay Ridge was a violation of New Yorkers’ right to speak out and risks chilling political expression,” the civil rights organization stated in a statement.
Nerdeen Kiswani, creator of Within Our Lifetime, told The New York Times that police were “indiscriminately” removing individuals off the street and sidewalk.
The Times said that police used similar physical force against three other protesters on Saturday.
To commemorate the Nabka, protests were held around the United States this weekend, including in the nation’s capitol.
This comes as Palestinian officials claim Israel’s offensive in Gaza has killed at least 35,000 people, many of them women and children.
The United Nations and other international bodies have accused Israel of causing a man-made famine in Gaza.
However, Israel dismisses these allegations, with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu claiming that the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) are just responding to the October 7 attacks, in which Hamas killed 1,200 Israelis and kidnapped 250 captives.
