A pro-Israel City University of New York (CUNY) Hunter College student was a victim of petit larceny — taking or withholding property from its owner — and harassment while counter-protesting a pro-Hamas demonstration near the campus, according to details of the incident released by the New York City Police Department (NYPD).
On Thursday, Hunter College student Gideon Askowitz was standing in a section reserved for pro-Israel counter-protestors near Lexington Avenue when Adrian Mysliwiec walked over from a pro-Hamas section and snatched his Israeli flag.
“The suspect then proceeded to walk away with the flag,” an NYPD spokesperson said in a statement shared with The Algemeiner. “There were no injuries reported to the police. The suspect was taken into custody without incident.”
Askowitz told The Algemeiner on Friday that he is grateful that NYPD officers standing by immediately intervened and apprehended Mysliwiec. Jewish students, he added, spent all of Thursday dismayed by the outpouring of support CUNY students expressed for the atrocities Hamas terrorists committed during an invasion of Israel’s southern border on Saturday.
“People were clearly very scared and very emotional,” Askowitz said. “Two or three were crying.”
His Israeli flag continued to draw attention after he went back to school to walk a friend to class, he added, saying, “Someone was like, ‘Yo, what flag is that?'”
The CUNY consortium of colleges has been a hotbed of support for Hamas and other extreme pro-Palestinian ideologies.
On Saturday, amid the circulation of footage showing gruesome acts of violence committed by Hamas terrorists against Israeli civilians, CUNY) Law School’s Jewish Law Students Association (JLSA) shared a tweet containing instructions for making Molotov cocktails while appearing to defend Hamas’ terror campaign.
“Soak a cloak in flammable liquid … resoak [sic] the exposed wick and light it,” the text read. “Target a hard surface, such as an engine grill. Repeat until the invading occupiers retreat.”
JLSA also declared solidarity with Hamas on Saturday, tweeting, “We stand in unwavering solidarity with the Palestinian people in their righteous and determined struggle against murderous settler colonialism and apartheid! Palestine will be free!”
Wednesday’s incident at CUNY isn’t the only act of intimidation that Jewish students have experienced on college campuses in the aftermath of Hamas’s surprise terror attack.
At Drexel University, an unknown individual set on fire the door of the residence of a Jewish student whose pro-Israel beliefs are widely known. An arson and hate crimes investigation is ongoing.
“Unfortunately, we were made aware of a distressing situation that included destruction inside of one our residence halls,” the university said in a statement on Tuesday. “We are investigating to determine if bias, discrimination, or hate, which we do not tolerate at Drexel, was the motivation behind this incident.”