NYPD arrests 19 people at pro-Palestine protest held in heart of city's largest Arab community

Police arrested 19 people at a pro-Palestine protest in Brooklyn’s Bay Ridge neighborhood on Saturday night, according to the NYPD.

The protest — held in an area home to New York City’s largest Arab community — came two weeks to the day after the Oct. 7 attack by Hamas on Israel and the escalation of violence in and around Gaza. The event’s organizers said they gathered hundreds of people in the neighborhood to call for a ceasefire.

An NYPD spokesperson said in an emailed statement the protesters were mostly peaceful, but “some demonstrators within the crowd chose to act in a combative and aggressive manner,” and threw eggs and bottles at officers.

The spokesperson said three of the people arrested Saturday night were minors. Those taken into custody were either issued desk appearance tickets or charged with disorderly conduct, according to the NYPD.

Leaders of Within Our Lifetime, a group of Palestinian New Yorkers who organized the protest, said police aggressively dispersed the crowds on the street.

“We wanted to come together to make it unequivocally clear that we stand with the people of Gaza and Palestine,” said Nerdeen Kiswani, the founder of Within Our Lifetime. “It’s our right to protest, it’s constitutionally protected. You cannot demand that a protest ends.”

Videos posted to social media by Within Our Lifetime appear to show police officers at the protest punching and shoving protesters after the NYPD called for crowds to disperse.

The NYPD’s statement said that a permit was not obtained for the protest, and that officers shown on the videos posted by the protest’s organizers were trying to regain order by making arrests.

“The officer seen in the video is reacting to active resistance by criminals within the crowd. The NYPD encourages peaceful protests but will not condone our officers being subjected to any form of violence,” the statement said.

Saturday’s arrests were the latest arrests at protests in the city in response to the Israel-Hamas war. Last week, more than 60 people were arrested at a Jewish Voice for Peace rally in Park Slope. Brooklyn Councilmember Inna Vernikov was also arrested earlier this month for bringing a gun to a pro-Palestine rally at Brooklyn College.

Kiswani described Bay Ridge as the “heart of the Palestinian community in New York City,” along with Arab Muslims. She said that many in the community came together to protest, including local mosques, Muslim organizations, and Arab organizations.

City data shows 10% of the neighborhood’s 111,000 residents are of Arab descent, many of whom are Palestinian and Yemeni.

The Associated Press reports more than 1,400 people have been killed in Israel since the start of the war, which was prompted by an attack from Hamas. The Health Ministry run by Hamas reports more than 4,300 Palestinians in Gaza have been killed since the start of the conflict, according to the Associated Press.

The United Nations reports more than 1 million people have been displaced in Gaza since the start of the conflict.